Significant Severe Weather Outbreak Possible 04/26-30/2014

[TropicalAnalystwx13]

Now added to the Anchor bolts page on NWS Little Rock's page:

"To be fair, not every clean slab that was checked along the track of the tornado had cut nails. Several of these slabs had anchor bolts. However, there were signs that some of the bolts were improperly installed. At one home, for instance, there were no washers or nuts found on the bolts, and the bolts were not sheared off. In general, if survey crews found anchor bolts, and they were used as intended, the slabs were not clean."

It's not unreasonable to say this was a borderline EF5.

[TropicalAnalystwx13]

Those pics show only snapped trees and not debarked in the area? Also was there ground scouring nearby? Without ground scouring I wouldn't go EF-5. Based on the evidence, that would be about 185 mph winds doing that damage (lower end of FR12 DI10)

You're right about the first image, NWS LZK lists that the structure was poorly constructed and estimates 150 mph winds there. However, the second image of the brick home completely obliterated is what got the tornado its maximum winds.

[vbhoutex]

Here is an explanation from NWS Little Rock: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/?n=anchor0514.htm

[CrazyC83]

Under the EF-scale standards, the median wind for a flattened to the slab house is 200 mph (borderline 4/5), with a 165 to 220 range (meaning, with an house with no wind protection, an EF-3 is possible from a completely clean slab).

If "average" construction is used in that house, you would probably get a high-end EF-4 to near EF-5.

[CrazyC83]

Looking at the site pics, how I would rate the scenes:

Aerial pics - http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/?n=svr0414caerial.htm (from top left):

130 mph, 115 mph, 140 mph, 150 mph, 160 mph, 125 mph, 180 mph, 150 mph, 185 mph, 130 mph, 190 mph (peak), 160 mph