Sunday's Midwest Tornado Outbreak Included At Least Two F-4 Storms

[hatrack]

Chicago — With seven people dead and still many unaccounted for, federal and state emergency officials are beginning to assess the toll of a series of tornadoes that hit the Midwest Sunday afternoon.

The majority of the damage took place in central Illinois, where six people were killed, and nearly 400 homes were destroyed late Sunday when an estimated 30 tornadoes ripped through the area with top winds near 200 miles per hour. At least two were EF4s, the second-most damaging category on the Fujita scale.

“A November tornado outbreak like this is fairly rare” in the Midwest, says Jim Keeney, the central regional weather program manager for the National Weather Service (NWS). “This is a significantly strong storm in any month of the year, but especially for the month of November.”

The numbers are historic: 194 tornado warnings have been issued in Illinois in the month of November since 1986; 101 of those warnings were issued Sunday.

EDIT

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1118/Midwest-tornado-outbreak-unusually-strong-for-November-video

[phantom power]

1. That's 10% of the November EF4 tornadoes in the last 65 years.

[hatrack]

2. Best analogy I've heard yet . . . .

Don't do a thing to the basket or backboard, but raise the floor 18 inches.

Then watch what happens to the number of dunks in a season.