The National Weather Service has upgraded the classification of the tornado that killed one motorist and destroyed dozens of homes in Perryville on Tuesday night to an EF-4. The reclassification is an upgrade from preliminary estimates that the tornado was an EF-3, according to an update Saturday from the weather service. The Joplin, Mo., tornado in May
2011 that killed 161 people and injured more than 1,000 was an EF-5, with winds estimated at more than 200 mph. In Tuesday’s tornado, wind bursts reached 180 mph. The tornado was six-tenths of a mile wide and traveled 50.4 miles, the longest track of a tornado in the weather service’s Paducah, Ky., coverage area in 25 years. The coverage area includes parts of southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, western Kentucky and southwestern Indiana. FULL REPORT
