Talk:2007 Greensburg tornado

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2007 Greensburg tornado is part of the "Tornado outbreak of May 4–6, 2007" series, a current good topic candidate. A good topic should exemplify Wikipedia's very best work, and is therefore expected to meet several criteria. Please feel free to leave comments.

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Frequently asked questions

To view an answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

Q1: Why is only one tornado included in the article, I thought more tornadoes happened?

A1: Although eleven tornadoes did touch down as part of the tornado family, ten of those are considered satellite tornadoes, and are not considered their "own" tornadoes. Because of this, they do not have their own tornado summaries.

Q2: The source that I found says that ten people died, why does this page say eleven?

A2: The fatalities caused as a result of the tornado are disputed, with some sources saying ten and others saying eleven. However, National Weather Service publications conclude that eleven died, and so that is the generally accepted number of deaths.

2007 Greensburg tornado is currently an Earth sciences good article nominee. Nominated by E_F⁵ at 16:07, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

An editor has indicated a willingness to review the article in accordance with the good article criteria and will decide whether or not to list it as a good article. Comments are welcome from any editor who has not nominated or contributed significantly to this article. This review will be closed by the first reviewer. To add comments to this review, click discuss review and edit the page.

Short description: 2007 EF5 tornado in Kansas

Weather: Thunderstorms / Tornadoes Top‑importance

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Kansas Mid‑importance

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Section sizes

Section size for 2007 Greensburg tornado (25 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	6,765	6,765
Meteorological synopsis	3,798	4,937
Greensburg supercell development	1,139	1,139
Tornado summary	23	19,935
Formation and track towards Greensburg	4,753	4,753
Impact in Greensburg	7,184	7,184
Satellite tornadoes	5,031	5,031
Later tornadoes	343	2,944
Greensburg-Trousdale-Lewis, Kansas	2,601	2,601
Aftermath	2,887	18,047
Damage to homes	1,593	1,593
Greensburg High School	994	994
Delmer Day Elementary School	905	905
Kiowa County Memorial Hospital	795	795
Rebuilding efforts	5,953	5,953
Fatalities	3,884	3,884
Depiction in media	1,036	1,036
See also	446	446
Notes and footnotes	114	6,423
Notes	38	38
Footnotes	31	31
Sources	4,318	4,318
Further reading	25	1,922
Event studies	1,880	1,880
Aftermath	17	17
Total	56,553	56,553

A fact from 2007 Greensburg tornado appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 18 December 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado had ten smaller tornadoes orbiting it?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2024/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/2007 Greensburg tornado.

Wikipedia

Casualties

Is the casualties box supposed to say 74 total? This doesn't align with what's in the article. 2600:1008:B18D:6FD8:88FD:50FF:FE38:210C (talk) 02:55, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yea, it is. 11 (deaths) plus the injury count equals the total casualties. I'll add it shortly regardless. E_F⁵ 13:01, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 17:35, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado was the first EF5-rated tornado to hit the United States? Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267555392_Damage_survey_of_the_Greensburg_KS_tornado
- ALT1: ... that Greensburg, Kansas, after being hit by the 2007 Greensburg tornado, was rebuilt with the goal of making it a "green town"? Source: https://www.nrel.gov/buildings/assets/pdfs/53539.pdf
- ALT2: ... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado devastated Greensburg, Kansas, leaving 95% of the town damaged to some degree? Source: https://www.nrel.gov/buildings/assets/pdfs/53539.pdf
- ALT3: ... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado was one of only nine EF5-rated tornadoes to touch down in the United States? Source: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html
- ALT4: ... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado was 1.7 miles (2.7 km) wide? Source: https://www.greensburgks.org/community/pages/2007-ef5-tornado
- ALT5: ... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado had up to ten smaller tornadoes rotating around it? Source: https://data.cincinnati.com/tornado-archive/kansas/37297/
- ALT6: ... that after hitting Greensburg, Kansas, the 2007 Greensburg tornado looped around, almost hitting the town again? Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267555392_Damage_survey_of_the_Greensburg_KS_tornado
- ALT7: ... that Greensburg, a documentary series about recovery efforts following the 2007 Greensburg tornado, was created by Leonardo DiCaprio? Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20111005072555/http://www.greensburgks.org/news/greensburg-season-3-to-air-on-planet-green/
- ALT8: ... that although the 2007 Greensburg tornado was the first to be rated F5/EF5 in the United States in nine years, the next F5/EF5 tornado would occur in Canada a month later? Source: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html and https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/this-day-in-weather-history-june-22-2007-elie-manitoba-tornado
- ALT9: ... that the 2007 Greensburg tornado was the first "incredible tornado" to hit the United States? Source: https://www.iccsafe.org/building-safety-journal/bsj-dives/how-damage-determines-a-tornados-rating-from-fujita-to-enhanced-fujita/#:~:text=EF%2D4%3A%20Devastating%20damage%20(,damage%20(Over%20200%20mph).
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/The Manhasset
- Comment: Damage Survey authors considered experts in their field (see Timothy P. Marshall).

Created by EF5 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 10 past nominations.

E_F⁵ 13:41, 13 November 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Some issues present - article is a GA and well cited. Alt1 and Alt5 are the most interesting - I'd say use Alt1 as it's well cited and interesting, but Alt5 would also be good. The extended quote from Blagojevich shows up as a copyright violation, and I think it should be cut down as he was the governor of Illinois, not Kansas - the quote, including the in-text attribution, appears to be lifted directly from the cited source as well. I definitely don't think Blagojevich's prose text should be longer than George Bush's - governor of a non-neighboring state, vs president of the country. Apart from that copyvio concerns, everything else looks good from a spot check. Departure– (talk) 15:53, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done. I prefer ALT5 as well, if not ALT0. E_F⁵ 15:57, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Aside from that, it still shows up as a possible violation, but this appears to be due to the tornado emergency text which is public domain, and also a few technical and extremely generic descriptions. Nothing too serious, nor anything requiring action. Good to go! Departure– (talk) 16:04, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:2007 Greensburg tornado/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: EF5 (talk · contribs) 16:07, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: Tomobe03 (talk · contribs) 17:13, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! I'll review this article shortly.--Tomobe03 (talk) 17:13, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check.
a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:
It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall:
Pass/Fail:

@Tomobe03: Are you still reviewing this? It's been six days. :) E_F⁵ 15:36, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for slow progress. I expect to complete the review and post here on Thursday (i.e. the day after tomorrow). Tomobe03 (talk) 16:32, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Prose (criterion 1a):

In On May 4, a low stalled over the High Plains..., I assume "low" refers to Low-pressure area. I'm unsure if casual (and especially non-native) readers would be better off if it is spelled out and wikilinked.--Tomobe03 (talk) 21:13, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done.

Is it customary to write tornado wind speeds in m/s? I assumed, from non-UK European news coverage it would be km/h and 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado also uses km/h. I'm fine with either, but the common format should be used.--Tomobe03 (talk) 21:36, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Not usually. I'll get to your concerns tomorrow. :) E_F⁵ 21:41, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. E_F⁵ 15:01, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In ...over 0.5 miles (0.80 km) in diameter..., 0.80 km reads odd to me, I'd expect 800 m instead, but this is just my take and no dealbreaker here. No action required on this one.--Tomobe03 (talk) 21:56, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
...(which is the world's largest hand-dug well)... should not be here. Even if it were true, the claim is off-topic and the name is wikilinked to the article where such information would be available. Besides, the Big Well article says it is not the largest.--Tomobe03 (talk) 22:03, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done, removed. E_F⁵ 14:04, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Subsection Greensburg-Trousdale-Lewis, Kansas reads odd as almost everything is written as conditional. For example, instead of The tornado would then move past Fellsburg before almost impacting Trousdale., I'd expect "The tornado then moved past Fellsburg before almost impacting Trousdale." As it stands now, the sentence reads (to me) as if "The tornado normally moves past Fellsburg before almost impacting Trousdale." The same applies to few other sentences in the conditional as well.--Tomobe03 (talk) 22:22, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done, reworded. E_F⁵ 14:04, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

MOS issues (criterion 1b):

There are several instances of duplicate links, specifically wind shear; supercell; Kansas; National Weather Service; Dodge City, Kansas; mesocyclone. MOS:LINKONCE allows repetition except in a single section, so this is technically within the bounds of the criterion and needs no action here. I'm just pointing it out as a potential area for improvement.--Tomobe03 (talk) 21:03, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Link the first instance of CDT in the prose.--Tomobe03 (talk) 21:41, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done, in the "Greensburg supercell development" section. E_F⁵ 14:04, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Per MOS:CITELEAD non-contentious summaries presented in the lede need not have inline references. I see no reason to keep the four inline cites supporting the initial paragraph.--Tomobe03 (talk) 22:58, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done, removed. E_F⁵ 14:04, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

According to WP:GALLERY, images should be distributed through sections if possible and they should not be repetitive. In that respect, one of the photos of the Greensburg High School should be kept and the other left out. I believe the same should apply to having two images of damaged homes (the second image adds very little to understanding of the article). And one more image could be moved from the gallery to the Aftermath section.--Tomobe03 (talk) 23:30, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just removed gallery, would be too complicating to distribute. Article has enough as-is. E_F⁵ 14:04, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The information on 250M economic loss seems to be missing from the prose (and is only found in the infobox). It would be better to include it in the prose as well (and reference there).--Tomobe03 (talk) 00:23, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's now found in the lede and "Damage" section. E_F⁵ 14:04, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Tomobe03: How's it look now? E_F⁵ 15:01, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]