Comment by jim-jim-jim

Damn, I was expecting the "drought" to carry on indefinitely due to how strict ratings have become. As the article alludes to, a storm has to get lucky and hit something sturdy to prove its strength and get top marks. There have likely been tornadoes of similar intensities between 2013 and now: El Reno, Vilonia, Mayfield, Rolling Fork, etc, but American houses just aren't built well enough to reliably signal EF5 strength winds when they are annihilated by storms like these. Even an utter nightmare like Joplin only got the rating it did because of the town's hospital was hit.