Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Hurricane Katrina tornado outbreak/archive1

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was promoted by PresN via FACBot (talk) 10:28, 10 December 2015 (UTC) [1].[reply]

Hurricane Katrina tornado outbreak[edit]

Hurricane Katrina tornado outbreak (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 16:43, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An oft forgotten aspect of Hurricane Katrina's devastating landfall in the United States, this tornado outbreak was actually the largest such event on record in Georgia for the month of August. A record-shattering 18 tornadoes touched down on August 29 (previous highest was a mere 2 twisters) across Georgia. The outbreak also marked the first known tornadic fatality in August in Georgia and furthermore is the costliest such event during the month for the state. Over the course of nearly five days, 57 tornadoes touched down across 8 states as a result of Katrina.

In terms of formatting, the tornado table was created in mirror of the one constructed during the List of tornadoes in the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak FLC two years back and should meet all MOS standards. Although the article title doesn't inherently imply a list, I opted to focus the content on the tornadoes themselves rather than the meteorological conditions that would be present in most other tornado outbreak articles. If these details were to be expanded upon, it would simply be monotonous repetition of the same exact situation on five separate days. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy reading this little article and I look forward to comments/criticisms to make it the best it can be! ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 16:43, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Dudley
  • "Accompanying Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic coastal impacts was a moderate tornado outbreak spawned by the cyclone's outer bands." This reads a bit awkwardly as the opening sentence, but I am not sure of the best way to improve it. Perhaps "Hurricane Katrina produced catastrophic coastal impacts, and its outer bands also caused a moderate tornado outbreak."
    • Hmm...I feel like that suggestion lessens focus on the tornado outbreak, which is what this list is specifically for. I kind of see the awkward wording issue you brought up, but I'm not sure how to fix it either. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Due to extreme devastation in coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, multiple tornadoes may have been overlooked—overshadowed by the effects of storm surge and wind" I am not clear what you are saying here - that it is difficult to distinguish between storm surges and wind directly caused by the hurricane from tornadoes which are an indirect effect? Also why multiple hurricanes instead of some or many?
    • Tornadoes produced by hurricanes are generally weak and are almost always determined through post-storm surveys. In this case, damage caused potential/likely tornadoes that touched down ahead of the storm were completely lost within the damage caused by the hurricane itself. For example, say one of these preceding tornadoes downed a couple trees along the coast but when the hurricane moved through, its winds downed every tree surrounding the tornado's path. There would be no way to accurately determine if a tornado truly touched down in the first place unless there was an eye-witness. As for "multiple", it's just a different word choice that emphasizes that a number were likely missed, as emphasized through the supercell analysis paper which showed multiple storms capable of producing tornadoes ahead of Katrina's landfall. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don't like the word "multiple". I was not sure whether you were saying that tornadoes may have been missed when there was an outbreak of them in quick succession (or in the same area), or just that a number of tornadoes may have been missed. Dudley Miles (talk) 00:03, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Georgia suffered the greatest impact from tornadoes on this day," I think you can leave out "from tornadoes" in this sentence.
  • In the infobox you say 57 tornadoes but the highest winds were non-tornadic 70 mph, and below gusts of 113 mph or higher.
    • Removed the mention of highest non-tornadic winds in the infobox to avoid confusion. The infobox is meant for thunderstorm related events, which excludes gusts produced in Katrina's eyewall. Since that was the only mention of it, there's no real issue excluding the 70 mph gust in Roopville; focus is on tornadoes anyway. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • The section on the hurricane in the background threw me - I was thinking is this the hurricane that destroyed New Orleans? Maybe worth saying that it was the deadliest US hurricane since 1928 and the costliest natural disaster in US history.
    • Added the costliest/deadliest tidbit to background section. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Aug 29 Philadelphia and Leake. The first says damage limited to downed trees and the second downed multiple trees. The wording seems to say the second was far more serious even though they were almost the same in cost.
    • Wording of the first one is meant to show that it didn't cause damage at the airport but their effects were basically the same. The damage amounts are more than likely arbitrary estimates, but those are the totals given. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Several other structures had their shingles blown off." I would link to roof shingle as I think this is a mainly US term.
  • "A small home was destroyed along its path and a nearby under-construction brick home sustained major damage. Two people in the former home were injured. Several other homes experienced minor damage." A bit clumsy. How about: A small home was destroyed and two people in it were injured. A house which was under construction suffered major damage, and several others experienced minor damage."
  • Is there a reason no estimate of losses is given for the last six tornadoes?
  • "Tropical cyclone records in the Atlantic basin extend to 1851" This sounds odd in BrEng. How about "go back to 1851"?
  • A first rate article. Dudley Miles (talk) 22:42, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    • All comments have been addressed or replied to. Many thanks for the review, Dudley! ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support - but see one reply above. Dudley Miles (talk) 00:03, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Support

  • "20 yard wide" - correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it should be "yard-wide"
  • How come the first tornado has "yd" but most of the remainder have "yards" written out?
    • Accidentally left "abbr=on" in the template. Removed it ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 08:03, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Do the states need to be linked every time? (genuinely don't know rules of having a table)
    • I think they're supposed to be given that the order will change if you use the sorting options. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 08:03, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • How do you pick where the locations are? For example, why would you say "W of Mitchell" when there is no article for the town?
    • Whatever is listed as the touchdown location for the tornado in the NCDC report is what's used, regardless of if there's an article or not. Abuses WP:REDLINK a bit, but it's more for consistency and avoiding WP:OR. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 08:03, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • "1 death – The only fatal tornado" - should "the" be capitalized or not? I'm wondering if it's even needed, as you say later on in the paragraph that one person was killed, and elsewhere in the article you say there was only one tornado related fatality
    • Having "# death(s) – [text]" is a habit in tornado tables. I guess it's not really needed so I've removed it. Having "[t]he only fatal tornado" there serves as a replacement for that, I think. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 08:03, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Somewhere you should indicate that damage totals are in 2005 USD

All in all a good read! Hurricanehink (talk) 22:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • That should be everything, thanks for the review Hink! ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 08:03, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks for the quick replies! Happy to support now. ♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 16:17, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comments
  • "Twister" strikes me as rather colloquial, and I can't immediately find any precedence for its usage in existing tornado outbreak recognized content...
  • with Georgia sustaining record impact for the month of August - this is a little clunky and vague.
    • Specified monetary damage but not sure if you're still looking for an overall reword. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 03:54, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • overshadowed by the effects of storm surge and wind - maybe add "large-scale" before "wind"?
  • The small, 20 yard wide tornado traveled toward the northeast - since there's already a width column, you could probably just say "the small tornado..."
  • 3–4 ft (0.91–1.22 m) in diameter - metric conversions too specific. In need of {{convert}} wizardry.
  • Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off along the path of the tornado. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted along the path...
  • Downed power lines left 1,800 people without electricity. - 1,800 households ;)

Looks pretty good otherwise. – Juliancolton | Talk 18:00, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Everything should be handled now, hopefully. Thanks for the review, Julian! ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 03:54, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    • Support - looks great, all concerns addressed. – Juliancolton | Talk 04:19, 7 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

All good to go now; passed. Delegate note: using this nomination as a test of the new bot-assisted closing procedure. --PresN 20:42, 8 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Closing note: This candidate has been promoted, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FLC/ar, and leave the {{featured list candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through.
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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