Meteorologist Says Greensburg Tornado has Few Peers

GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas meteorologist says the deadly

tornadoes that killed hundreds of people last year in Joplin and in

the South don’t measure up to the monster storm that destroyed

almost all of Greensburg five years ago.

Mike Umscheid says he had never seen a 200-knot velocity reading

on radar before the May 4th, 2007, tornado that killed 11 people in

the southern Kansas community.

The Wichita Eagle reports emergency officials think the death

toll could have been much higher if Umscheid hadn’t issued a rare

"tornado emergency" 26 minutes before Greensburg was hit.

University of Oklahoma researcher Les Lemon teamed up with

Umscheid to write a research paper on the outbreak the night of the

Greensburg storm. Both believe it was one of the most powerful

tornadoes on record.