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Severe weather threat 4/23/26 (Central/Southern Plains)

Hopefully NWS Norman and the QRT involved utilize the contextuals to push it higher, assuming these homes aren’t well built enough to push higher than 170. Unless some new damage pictures come out telling a different story, I think 190 EF4 is appropriate here.
I'm gonna cut the middle and put my guess at 180 EF4. There's not enough information yet to say higher end, but the damage is fairly substantial and I think a rating past 170 is more than likely.
I also did a little look on the modernist house that was slabbed. It was built in 1975 and looked to be in not-so-great condition. Though I don't know how much the current condition of a property has an effect on the rating.
 
I will say, unless there's something extremely violent outside of Gray Ridge that we haven't seen, EF5 is pretty much out of the question. EF4? No-brainer, maybe even high-end EF4, but beyond that...

Already bracing for the "this is a conspiracy to cover the SPC not issuing a high risk" comments, and uninformed "high-end EF3" takes from wannabe Moriarty discord kids...
 
and uninformed "high-end EF3" takes from wannabe Moriarty discord kids...
Nope; we're all (at least the servers I frequent) in agreement that it was at the bare minimum an EF4 in intensity. Way too early to have a structural determination but contextuals are definitely extreme.
 
Honestly, if they are trying to appeal to the general population audience they should just do a 1-5 scale like the local news does. I dont understand the new system at all and I am obsessed enough with the weather to be on this forum. Haha.
The SPC isn't trying to appeal to the general population audience though. They're a federal agency. The SPC is designed to do in-depth, analytical forecasts with scientific terms and complex data. The local meteorologists can then translate those forecasts into something digestible by their viewing audience.
 
The amount of homes with walls still standing can very easily be used as "evidence" that external factors (ie. thrown debris) caused the other homes to be slabbed, leading to the the high-end evidence being tossed, regardless of build quality.
IIRC there's a video of a whole home being picked up, so if they decide to try that excuse, there's a counter to it.
 
I will say, unless there's something extremely violent outside of Gray Ridge that we haven't seen, EF5 is pretty much out of the question. EF4? No-brainer, maybe even high-end EF4, but beyond that...

Already bracing for the "this is a conspiracy to cover the SPC not issuing a high risk" comments, and uninformed "high-end EF3" takes from wannabe Moriarty discord kids...
Interestingly enough, in the KPAC livestream I was watching of the aerial video of damage, much of the comments I saw were "nothing here says EF4" and whatnot (there were a lot of EF5 people too) which was pretty jarring to me, to say the least. Contextuals such as this simply do not come from an EF3 caliber tornado, that's pretty absurd.
 
Nope; we're all (at least the servers I frequent) in agreement that it was at the bare minimum an EF4 in intensity. Way too early to have a structural determination but contextuals are definitely extreme.
Please continue to be the voice of reason/sanity in those discord chats. You're doing a service. I don't think I'd last long in that position before throwing a fist through my monitor lmao

(and yes, I've done that... twice)
 
This home here in particular on the top right photo is really the only damage I’ve seen from this tornado that was eye popping to me.

That home looks to have been on a combination of old CMU and masonry foundation... in other words, about as far from "well constructed" as you can get.

Wouldn't be surprised if that home doesn't even get a low-end EF4 rating.
 
I don’t think the SPC should be designed in a way that explicitly caters to the general public. The SPC should be used by locals WFOs and tv stations/mets who are better at communicating to the general public. I think the new system is good, and honestly I think I understand it pretty well… it just seems like it failed yesterday pretty significantly.
Bolded is fair but sure seems like everyone wants to hold them responsible when they dont feel the general public was appropriately warned.... and in yesterdays case, I think to say the SPC "failed significantly" would have to mean the local mets responsible for interpreting that info and then passing the information along to the public were completely off bc of the SPC forecast and that most definitely was not the case. Between the disco, the graphics, and the tornado watches the SPC outlook was pretty clear there was a conditional strong tornado risk yesterday which is exactly what verified.
 
That home looks to have been on a combination of old CMU and masonry foundation... in other words, about as far from "well constructed" as you can get.

Wouldn't be surprised if that home doesn't even get a low-end EF4 rating.
Perhaps, but theres been plenty of CMU foundations that have been rated ef4 before.
Obviously it’s old construction, but of course we won’t know how much of that will come into play until the engineers surveys it.
All of the other slabbed homes in the subdivision further southwest have around an equal chance of a low ef4 rating.
 
Bolded is fair but sure seems like everyone wants to hold them responsible when they dont feel the general public was appropriately warned.... and in yesterdays case, I think to say the SPC "failed significantly" would have to mean the local mets responsible for interpreting that info and then passing the information along to the public were completely off bc of the SPC forecast and that most definitely was not the case. Between the disco, the graphics, and the tornado watches the SPC outlook was pretty clear there was a conditional strong tornado risk yesterday which is exactly what verified.
I think yesterday was pretty obviously more than a conditional strong tornado threat though. They have been putting cig 1 tors on crashing cold fronts…. Yesterday was in a completely different universe but they both still got cig 1. Doesn’t add up.
 
Sure.. but only 6% of tornadoes in a cig 1 are supposed to be EF3 plus. In the SC KS and NC OK area, It was very obvious, based on the environment, that any tornadoes that happened were going to have legitimate chances of being strong to violent. If we’re going cig 1 for 2% chances of a garden variety short planting a tornado and cig 1 for yesterday in NC OK and SC KS then the CIG system is completely and totally pointless and no better than the old system. I think calling anyone who questions the decision unintelligent is spitting in the face of scientific discussion.
 
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