Looking at the Moore, OK tornado a bit closer, this twister cut a 17-mile path and was 1.3 miles wide at its max. Additionally, due to the damage following the National Weather Service (NWS) survey, the tornado was rated an EF-5 with winds estimated between 200-210mph.
If you are not familiar with the EF-Scale, it is the scale used based on post-storm damage to rate the strength of a tornado. EF-Scale is also known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which was implemented on February 1, 2007. This new scale more closely represents the estimated wind speed from the tornado based on the damage it creates from the advancements in the science of physics and engineering. There are six categories that range from EF-0 to EF-5.
Note the estimated wind speed increased with and increased rating. However, if the Moore, OK tornado occurred before this new scale was revealed, it would not be rated an F-5 or even an F-4.....interesting to fathom.
Dr. Tetsuya Fujita in collaboration with Allen Pearson, introduced the original Fujita Scale back in 1971 to rate the intensity of tornadoes. The following illustrated the wind speeds from the original Fujita Scale.
F-0: 40-72mph
F-1: 73-112mph
F-2: 113-157mph
F-3: 158-206mph
F-4: 207-260mph
F-5: 261-318mph
If the Moore, OK tornado from this past week was scaled on the original F-Scale it would be in range with a high end F-3 and maybe low end F-4. On the other hand, the May 3, 1999 tornado that crossed paths with Moore, OK was a true F-5 with winds estimated over 300mph.
Its interesting to note how we perceive the weather based on scales, and numbers, especially when the same scale was drastically changed.
No matter how strong or "weak" a tornado is, always take a Tornado Watch or Warning seriously and make sure to have a safety plan in place. Tornadoes are monsters and can cause catastrophic damage.
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Not really true, Jared. Had the recent Moore event occurred in Ted's time he most certainly would have given it an F-5 rating. The reason is not the measure of wind speed but the inferrence of intensity based on damage. We would have noted denuding and stumping of trees and power poles, severe ground scarring, transport and crushing of very large objects over large distances, and complete pulverizing and removal of structures from their foundatikns. From those evidences we inferred causitjvd winds. The scale was enhanced to incorporate the best science in structural and wind engineering . Just because no one measured 215 mph does not mean it did not occurred on microscale to render to damage demonstrated.
ReplyDeleteWilliam,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. I agree with you that at the time before the scale was changed, the Tornado in Moore, from a week ago would have been rated on the higher end of the scale. For the purpose of this blog, I wanted to take the pure raw numbers and show how the scale has changed in the past few years. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.
Jared Plushnick