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Severe WX Severe Threat 25 March 2021

speedbump305

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I'd honestly be surprised if it was rated above EF3, just because none of the damage pictures that have come out have looked like they meet the criteria for a higher category. It was almost certainly a violent tornado, but fortunately it spent most of its life over sparsely populated areas. I'm fine with a tornado being "underrated" because it didn't hit anything.
i think it will be high end EF3
 

Equus

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The specific notation of pending further review suggests to me that they're probably either calling in someone to check on a nontraditional or high end DI, or they still have a lot to look at on the 80 mile track. Have a feeling the rating may be adjusted, perhaps significantly, given that tag. I will say I personally haven't seen much above EF2 structurally in the drone shots, but it must be remembered that the drone shots probably came from far more accessible areas, and there could be much more tree-blocked areas hiding higher end damage. Clearly given the mowing down of huge swaths of forest and the insane high end radar presentation it had EF4+ potential in small pockets.
 

warneagle

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The specific notation of pending further review suggests to me that they're probably either calling in someone to check on a nontraditional or high end DI, or they still have a lot to look at on the 80 mile track. Have a feeling the rating may be adjusted, perhaps significantly, given that tag. I will say I personally haven't seen much above EF2 structurally in the drone shots, but it must be remembered that the drone shots probably came from far more accessible areas, and there could be much more tree-blocked areas hiding higher end damage. Clearly given the mowing down of huge swaths of forest and the insane high end radar presentation it had EF4+ potential in small pockets.
Oh yeah, I have no doubt it was capable of EF4+ damage. I just don't think they're going to find anything to support an EF4 rating because its peak intensity was probably between Greensboro and Brent/Centreville where it didn't encounter many man-made structures.
 

Equus

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I'm honestly going to be impressed if it gets more than a bare low end EF3 given the apparent paucity of DIs and almost entirely rural track lol. Could have been infinitely worse with a slight north shift
 

warneagle

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I'm honestly going to be impressed if it gets more than a bare low end EF3 given the apparent paucity of DIs and almost entirely rural track lol. Could have been infinitely worse with a slight north shift
Yeah, that little jog to the right just before it reached Brent probably saved a lot of lives.
 

buckeye05

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I think Greensboro/Brent was violent, but not quite as violent as say, Bassfield from last year. Both moved through rural areas, and this does limit these tornadoes from fully producing the degree of damage they were capable of, but I’d say even in rural areas, Bassfield produced tree and vehicle damage that was muuuuch more high-end, along with the debris patterns it left behind. I’m having trouble finding truly violent tree or vehicle damage anywhere along the Greensboro/Brent path. With that said, there is no way it was an EF2 and I think BMX knows this, but I think they are having trouble finding damage that proves it. I think someone posted a screen grab of a partially debarked tree that I believe would meet the EF3 criteria, but I don't know if surveyors have thoroughly examined all the tree damage yet. An upgrade could hinge on just that.
 
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pohnpei

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I think Greensboro/Brent was violent, but not quite as violent as say, Bassfield from last year. Both moved through rural areas, and this does limit these tornadoes from fully producing the degree of damage they were capable of, but I’d say even in rural areas, Bassfield produced tree and vehicle damage that was muuuuch more high-end, along with the debris patterns it left behind. I’m having trouble finding truly violent tree or vehicle damage anywhere along the Greensboro/Brent path.
I agree that Greensboro's tree/vehicle damage was far less than Bassfield level. Bassfield can debark the entire hardwood forest with intense scouring and wind rowing nearby and likely tossed a vehicle half mile away along Wille Fortenburry Road. The pic shows a completely mangled vehicle at least half mile away from the closest man-made place along tornado's path.
SSLH7H3e_1586803747919(2).jpg
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EqnEUq_XEAAMWQw.jpeg
But I think Bassfield may set a too high standard for other rural area tornados. Most of tornados, even Tuscaloosa and some other violent tornado in 4/27 was a little hard for me to find very high end tree/vehicle damage in rural areas. It is very hard for tornados in rural areas to do that high level damage.
So I still somewhat believe the ceiling of Greensboro can be relatively high despite lacking of DIs. However, definitely, I can't be completely sure of its strength.
 
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WhirlingWx

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EqnEUq_XEAAMWQw.jpeg

But I think Bassfield may set a too high standard for other rural area tornados. Most of tornados, even Tuscaloosa and some other violent tornado in 4/27 was a little hard for me to find very high end tree/vehicle damage in very rural areas. It is very hard for tornados in rural areas to do that high level damage.
That image is still hard for me to wrap my head around.
 

Equus

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Interesting updates in the survey DAT for the tornado across NE Hale that preceded the long track B'ham metro EF3. It's now also listed as an EF3 after further assessment with widespread high end tree damage and significant debarking.
This timber damage was quite impressive and very wide at many points with both hardwood and softwood trees snapped and uprooted. The magnitude of timber damage suggested winds of 140 mph.
ef3points.JPG
 

WhirlingWx

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Going off of Wikipedia, that also makes 9 EF2+ tornadoes across MS/AL/TN/GA, compared to only 6 EF0-EF1 tornadoes across the same states, over the 12z-12z period that the SPC's high risk day technically covered. Don't see that very often either (I can imagine that more weak ones will be confirmed later, but it just shows that this outbreak really wasn't a case of weak tors padding the stats).

Will probably end up with a lower TOR count than the high risk day the week prior, but it absolutely had more intense and long-track tornadoes.
 
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Nightking2021

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On March 25th there were 4 EF2's, 4 EF3's, and one EF4. Technically the EF4 did go into the next day. A few very wide tornadoes. The Ohatchee EF3 was 1700 yds(~1 mile) wide, the Newnan EF4 was 1850 yds(~1.1 mile) wide, and the Brent EF3 was 2300 yds(1.3 mile) wide.
 
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Equus

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Have to say, although I'm sure there's a ton of damage from the big long track wedge that I haven't seen because the area is inaccessible, thus far everything I've seen makes 150-ish sound right on the money; you'd expect nearly full debarking of those wide swaths of forests snapped seen on drone photos for a truly violent tornado and I just haven't seen that. Eager to see what comes up on the survey DAT to see where the worst tree damage was. I'd have assumed it easily had violent potential but so far haven't seen anything to really lock that in.
 

Equus

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I wouldn't be shocked if it ended up there unless there's way worse damage somewhere that was inaccessible by drone, but yeah that thing had an absurdly long track. Shades of the last Brent-Centreville intense tornado in 1973 honestly. Staying down that long is an incredible feat.
 
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