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MEG did confirm the Nesbit segment as EF-1 today (I think JAN actually did this survey though). The path based on radar will probably stretch back SW at least in that or another tornado into Tunica County. I think frankly it was nothing more than mesoscale factors and the cycling which was VERY prevalent with all the supercells during this evening in this area. I don't know if there was anything atmospheric broadly different than with the northern supercell. The cell did ramp back up once it passed DeSoto County, and I believe this is the one that produced the McNairy tornado so it ultimately reached high-end potential.MEG also did confirm that the damage in Shelby County was straight line wind that resulted in the 3 fatalities in SE Memphis. That was some very strong FFD/RFD winds with the trailing southern supercell, was not in the classic position for a tornado (and no apparent rotation on radar) so definitely makes sense. No wind speed yet attached to it but wouldn't be surprised if it was in the 90mph range.Was able to yesterday review some of the local Memphis TV coverage from Saturday from WREG, WMC, and WATN from archived YouTube streams. Nothing from WHBQ so really don't have a good sense of how they covered it in real-time. Have to say the clear winner was WATN. Their radar analysis was top notch, the presentation was great and the information provided was direct and serious. It was a *little* lacking in terms of news reports, other than social media information didn't see much info from the news side reporting back damage as areas were hit, but it's a minor nitpick. Of course our own Trevor Birchett was leading that coverage and he has definitely developed into a shining star with great skills. I thought Danielle Moss who is still relatively new to the Memphis area did a pretty good job and meshed well with Trevor.WMC was not far behind I have to say - Ron and Spencer Denton were very good in their own right overall. They do tend to misinterpret CC data sometimes calling noisy areas debris when it really isn't (or at least hard to know either way), and I don't like the fact they will call a Tornado Emergency on their own whenever any kind of tornado is confirmed - regardless of what the NWS is calling it. But, in general their radar analysis was very good and again the presentation and tone great in conveying the threat. They also did have a bit of an advantage in having a couple of chaser feeds (including our own William Frogge) in addition to various traffic cameras which I did not see on WATN and WREG, only the latter. This is one area the Memphis market lacks compared to others, you do not see good live visuals of things as they are happening which are the biggest thing you need to get the public to actually react as research has shown. WMC did have a strong balance between the radar analysis and news coverage too of damage after the fact and this was a plus.WREG to me was a distant, distant third. As much as Tim Simpson is a mainstay in Memphis, Tim and Jim Jaggers just do not do strong radar analysis in real time. Constantly using composite reflectivity which obscured the classic radar signatures, relied on noisy aliased velocity data, NEVER showed a CC product on-air, and didn't relay much via NWSChat either as both WMC and WATN did. Whatever system they use is far inferior to WMC and WATN (both use Baron) and even WHBQ. In addition, when damage reports were coming in the balance shifted too much to that side of it rather than keeping it closer in balance with the still ongoing warnings. And honestly, an issue that has been with me as long as Jim has been at WREG - the 2 of them together just never not seem like they're competing to be the lead rather than co-working together, and I don't think they are intentionally doing it - it's just a natural way it comes across. Completely opposite of how Ron and Spencer and Trevor and Danielle flow on their coverage.
A list of confirmed MEG tornadoes so far… more to come obviously. This doesn’t include the Wynne tornado of course. Note the Desoto County tornado has been upgraded to EF-2 and extended back to Tunica County.I will say the damage toolkit also has added EF-3 damage points in far SW Tipton County… this would be a separate tornado that tracked from Crittenden County not connected to the Covington one. IF this was not connected to Wynne…. This would be a fourth EF-3 in the MEG CWA. However take that as unconfirmed right now…
I knew that cell put down something in Desoto, but it must of been mostly rural because I have not heard about any damage here. It is interesting a Tornado Emergency never was issued considering the EF2 rating, granted that area would about be the most rural area of Desoto county at this point.With your comments on TV mets, its sad WREG has gone so low, they use to be top of market IMO but I think DB retiring allowed Ron to really take WMC in its own direction. That said I don't watch the TV any more at all during these events, I am just on here (the forum), the SPC MD page, and Radarscope if I am mobile or GRL-3 on my PC. I will check twitter for news further away. I listen to the WeatherBrains podcast and I am with James Spann - TV mets are dying breed in most markets. This has positives and negatives.
Won't quote the whole thing but here is the full PNS from MEG with all of the tornado survey results (Don't know if this is final I suspect a few smaller tornadoes could still be found in days ahead)https://kamala.cod.edu/offs/KMEG/2304052235.nous44.htmlBottom Line... 14 tornadoes in total. 3 EF-3 and 5 EF-2. The Wynne tornado DID track continuous into SW Tipton County no separate track there. Total path length 73 miles and just under a mile wide at peak. Covington tornado was nearly 40 miles long and over a mile at peak. McNairy-Lewis tornado at 85 miles.Looks like one Lee County MS tornado got upgraded to EF-2, along with Pontotoc and Tunica/Desoto County, and a new EF-2 added in Hardeman County. There was also the second McNairy-Hardin tornado that was EF-2.Of note the survey does indicate that as the first tornado was weakening and then dissipated in Tipton County, the new one had already developed NW of Munford, so there was for at least a few minutes 2 tornadoes simultaneously in the county.
It’s quite a mess out in the Arkabutla area. Talked to a lady yesterday who showed me some pictures and lost all of their trees and their roof. Said the whole neighborhood is a mess and insurance is fighting all of them. She was emotional. I really feel for people who have dealt with it all.
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Topic: March 31st Outbreak (Read 17965 times)
