I loathe to defend NBC, but, while 'alleged" is a poor choice of words in this situation, over the last decade or so, it has become common practice to not call a weather event a "tornado" until there has been confirmation, usually from the National Weather Service that an actual, defined tornado touched down. Typically the word is "unconfirmed" tornado.
Straight line winds can be just as devastating as small tornadoes, and I'm sure insurance companies are checking carefully whether tornado damage is covered vs other wind and storm damage.
I get it, just found the verbiage unusual.
Lost power for apparently about 5 hours yesterday afternoon, yet went to run my trivia gig in a nearby suburb and the power never went out.
Here's the details from the National Weather Service:
The National Weather Service in Des Moines says that the tornado that swept across Greenfield, Iowa on Tuesday afternoon was at least an EF tornado
Additional damage assessments will continue over the next several days and results are subject to change, the NWS said in a social media post. It has not yet provided an exact path for the tornado.
EF3 tornados have wind gusts of at least 136 mph, according to NWS' website. The EF scale is a set of wind estimates, not measurements, based on damage.
EF ratings begin a 0, with wind gusts of 65 to 85 mph. The highest rating a tornado can have is EF-5, with wind gusts of 200 mph or more.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/weather/2024/05/22/iowa-may-21-tornado-ratings-ef-scale-greenfield-nevada/73804505007/