Is DDC going to post may 4/5 damage surveys?

[John Peters]

They have removed the greensburg page from the "Top News of the Day" headline. I was curious as to whether they were going to post any further information in regards to the events?

 

[Chris Hayes]

I wish they would post it, but if they havent yet, I dont see them doing it. I'm interested in knowing the tornado totals from both outbreak days, but it's hard to find information on them from any of the WFOs.

 

[Matthew Crowther]

I wish they would post it, but if they havent yet, I dont see them doing it. I'm interested in knowing the tornado totals from both outbreak days, but it's hard to find information on them from any of the WFOs.

I have it from a reliable source that they are going to publish a VERY detailed survey, but it may take just a little while longer. So just be patient.

 

[Mike Umscheid]

They are coming. Keep in mind we had three days of tornadoes in a row over the same general areas... especially May 4-5. Jeff Hutton our WCM recognizes the obvious high interest. The main challenge is obviously trying to determine not only how many tornadoes... but start/stop times, path length/width, rating of each, etc etc.. it's not just the "count"... and even that is subject to debate... such as the whole "what is considered a separate tornado?" when you have a giant circulation that periodically puts down brief tornadic spin-ups (multi-vortex one tornado or multiple separate events?)... then there's how many satellite tornadoes to count on top of that...

I think for May 4th with the Greensburg supercell event (family of tornadoes) we are counting 12 tornadoes in our CWA only... but again, we will indeed have this info available soon, just be patient.

Oh, and we didn't "remove" the news story from the DDC website, it just "fell off", if you will... the story expired... we'll get it back on there.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

I hope that if any ST chasers see what they consider inconsistencies in the DDC survey info, they will contact the WFO and offer their constructive input. Remember, DDC is building the survey with only the information that is available to them, and if you don't make it avialable, it can't be used in the survey.

Our lesson from the May 3, 1999 surveys - we never considered the surveys nearing completeness for many months, as new information and analysis kept trickling in. Bear in mind too that there are going to be portions along the path that are going to be hard to verify just from ground damage alone. Lack of roads and damage indicators can really hamper verification. Corroborating video and careful chase logs can help fill the gaps. This is where you, the chaser, can help.

 

[John Peters]

They are coming. Keep in mind we had three days of tornadoes in a row over the same general areas... especially May 4-5. Jeff Hutton our WCM recognizes the obvious high interest. The main challenge is obviously trying to determine not only how many tornadoes... but start/stop times, path length/width, rating of each, etc etc.. it's not just the "count"... and even that is subject to debate... such as the whole "what is considered a separate tornado?" when you have a giant circulation that periodically puts down brief tornadic spin-ups (multi-vortex one tornado or multiple separate events?)... then there's how many satellite tornadoes to count on top of that...

I think for May 4th with the Greensburg supercell event (family of tornadoes) we are counting 12 tornadoes in our CWA only... but again, we will indeed have this info available soon, just be patient.

Oh, and we didn't "remove" the news story from the DDC website, it just "fell off", if you will... the story expired... we'll get it back on there.

Thanks for the info Mike. I'm looking forward to reading the detailed damage surveys of these tornadoes, and i appreciate the fact that your office is taking the time to provide the most accurate and complete data.

- John

 

[Jim Tang]

It's up: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=ddc&storyid=7828&source=0

The one near Trousdale - the 2 mile wide one - is a monster track. Move it just a bit east and we could've easily seen two violent tornadoes that night rather than one. I don't think Trousdale would even be on the map anymore if the tornado path was moved just 2 miles east.

One other thing - it looks like, on the map, that 4 of the tornadoes were almost certainly greater than 1/2 mile wide.

Greensburg tornado lasted from 9:00 to 10:05 PM (1 hr 5 min)
Trousdale tornado lasted from 10:03 to 11:08 PM (1 hr 5 min again ironically)
Hopewell tornado lasted from 10:39 to 11:37 PM (58 min)
E of Macksville tornado lasted from 11:34 to 11:58 PM (24 min)

That's nearly 3 hr of continuous wedge production. Freaking nuts.

 

[John Peters]

It's up: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=ddc&storyid=7828&source=0

The one near Trousdale - the 2 mile wide one - is a monster track. Move it just a bit east and we could've easily seen two violent tornadoes that night rather than one. I don't think Trousdale would even be on the map anymore if the tornado path was moved just 2 miles east.

One other thing - it looks like, on the map, that 4 of the tornadoes were almost certainly greater than 1/2 mile wide.

Greensburg tornado lasted from 9:00 to 10:05 PM (1 hr 5 min)
Trousdale tornado lasted from 10:03 to 11:08 PM (1 hr 5 min again ironically)
Hopewell tornado lasted from 10:39 to 11:37 PM (58 min)
E of Macksville tornado lasted from 11:34 to 11:58 PM (24 min)

That's nearly 3 hr of continuous wedge production. Freaking nuts.

Thank god the second three tornadoes tracked through largely rural areas. I agree with your statement - had the tornado path for the trousdale storm been a few miles in either direction, we could have seen a drastically higher fatality count. It is unfortunate that the greensburg storm did not follow suit.

It is very interesting that this storm was such a prolific large wedge producer. On top of 3 continuous hours of wedge production, nearly 45 minutes of the total timespan featured two very large tornadoes on the ground simultaneously - in fact at one point when the trousdale funnel was maxing out at over 2 miles, it appears that the Hopwell tornado was approaching a mile in diameter just a few miles to the west!

Truly an unprecedented event, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those negatively effected.

 

[Jason Bolt]

Big thanks again to Jeff Hutton, Mike Umscheid, Larry Ruthi et al from DDC. They were most helpful 5/4 and 5/5. Jeff, Larry, and Dan McCarthy were meticulously thorough in the damage assessments.