Talk:Tornado intensity

Update

Much of the article needs to be updated to include info on the EF scale. -RunningOnBrains 05:49, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Update Needed ... and a Question

In the section on Typical intensity, this article says, "The first, and last, known United States recording of an EF5 tornado occurred in Greensburg, Kansas on May 4, 2007." This is no longer accurate. On May 25, 2008, there was a confirmed EF5 tornado in Parkersburg, IA, as detailed on the Parkersburg page. Note that that page cites the official NOAA report.

The reason I don't edit this myself on this page is I'm not entirely sure why the statement about Greensburg was worded that way in the first place. It says Greensburg had the first (and last/latest) known EF5 tornado in the U.S. (in 2007). I'm guessing it says "first" because they (NOAA?) apparently started using the EF scale instead of the F scale earlier in 2007. However, it also sounds to me like they (NOAA or whoever) are back-rating older tornadoes based on the EF scale.

At any rate, I'm not completely familiar with the fine details of when the F vs. EF scales are used -- in fact, that's the reason I came to this page in the first place. I just learned here that it was changed in early 2007, but I'm unclear about the back-rating issue -- and what qualifies as the "first EF5" or the "last F5".

So somebody with a more definite understanding of these issues should update that last part of Typical intensity to include the latest information about Parkersburg, and I would request that the wording be cleared up for people like me who are unfamiliar with the official standards.

129.186.146.194 (talk) 14:23, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

According to [1], there are no plans to reassess old tornadoes on the EF scale. I have updated the wording.-RunningOnBrains 01:44, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Great! Thanks for the quick response!

129.186.146.194 (talk) 15:36, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Extreme Tornadoes

I have read that tornadoes do in fact go to T12 and F6, obviously shown in the article but have these ever been used or are they going to be used, if they do happen?AtheWeatherman (talk) 07:36, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

At least in the United States, the F6 rating was not used operationally, and there is no EF6 on the new scale. There is nothing on TORRO's website that leads me to believe that T12 would not be used if necessary. It is a true wind speed scale, and therefore there is no upper limit. Unfortunately, outside of these two countries, official guides on how tornadoes are ranked don't seem to exist (or maybe they do, just not in english!). Thanks for the barnstar btw, it was much appreciated.-RunningOnBrains 16:21, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

In regards to the F6, I think that the 1999 Oklahoma Tornado was close to being an F6. As with the new scale the EF5 rating has no upper limit as winds are over 200mph. I don;t think that the TORRO scale has ever gone over T8 (EF4) where it has been used. Shame bout the missing ratings for other countries. You definately deserved the barnstar by the way. AtheWeatherman (talk) 14:32, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, they say it's a pure wind speed scale but that's not how it's really used. Anyway, I'd expect that, if needed, TORRO/UK would go up in the ratings using their formula which is an extension of the (also open ended) Beaufort scale and retains (fwiw) the 3/2 power law. The Fujita Scale actually theoretically went up to F12 (Mach 1), but F5 was the highest rating intended for actual use.

There's no compelling reason to indicate that the Moore tornado was all that special. If anything, I'm more impressed with the Mulhall tornado which occurred later during the same outbreak. Also, some persuasive research is coming that indicates that the average supercell tornado actually has a baseline in the F2 range, rather than F0/F1 as statistics and current thinking situates. Evolauxia (talk) 06:17, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for that, I look forward to that new research coming out, sounds good. In relation to your comments on the wind scale, i still believe the new scale is much better than the old one.AtheWeatherman (talk) 10:23, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Captions

They are extremely long, and will never pass a GAN attempt, should one occur in the near future. They need to be wittled down to a more manageable size. Thegreatdr (talk) 17:56, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

File:FEMA - 44359 - Oklahoma tornado destroyed home.jpg to appear as POTD

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:FEMA - 44359 - Oklahoma tornado destroyed home.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on March 19, 2015. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2015-03-19. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. Thanks! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 02:18, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

Picture of the day

Tornado damage to a house in Oklahoma County from the Moore–Choctaw tornado, one of 91 confirmed tornadoes in the May 10–13, 2010 outbreak. The intensity of tornadoes can be measured using the Fujita, Enhanced Fujita, or TORRO scales, based on the amount of damage and estimated wind speeds.

The Moore–Choctaw tornado, which killed two people, was initially rated an EF3, indicating significant damage to well-built structures. It was upgraded to an EF4 – capable of leveling even the most robustly built homes – after leveled homes were found in subdivisions that were difficult to access due to damage.Photograph: Win Henderson, FEMA

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Dames and Moore and Twisdale scales

This page discusses the Fujita and Enhanced Fujita, and TORRO scales, but I have found mention of two other scales through Grazulis: the Dames and Moore scale and Twisdale scale. These scales were also developed in the 1970s, but apparently never really caught on. With a quick search, I found a couple pages that mention them, but there doesn't seem to be much information on them. Do these scale warrant mention in this article? These scales currently redirect to Fujita scale, and have since 2006, which is not entirely appropriate since it is a different scale. This page would probably be a more appropriate target. TornadoLGS (talk) 04:45, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Help possible on access to a source and a question on formatting

I've done a little digging on the Dages and Moore and Twisdale scales. I have most of what I need to put in a small section about them, but one source on the Twisdale scale requires purchase [2]. It would be good to access this source to confirm what I have inferred from sources citing it and ensure I am not violating WP:SYNTH. At one point, I probably would have had institutional access, but that is not the case any more. Does anyone know of any other options on this matter?

On the subject of these scales, pertaining to colors (yes, we're all tired of hearing about storm color by now), is that the Dames and Moore scale runs from 1 to 6 instead of 0 to 5 like the Fujita and Twisdale scales. I was thinking of putting together a little table covering these scales and I was wondering if that would mean having to pick a single-use color for a 6 on the Dames and Moore scale. Though it's also an option to leave storm color off the table entirely since these ratings are not going to be used anywhere else on Wikipedia. TornadoLGS (talk) 03:28, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

EF5

Debarked trees 162.72.4.51 (talk) 18:25, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Tree debarking is already mentioned in the article. Is there something more about it that you think should be said? TornadoLGS (talk) 18:39, 31 May 2022 (UTC)