Latest news with #FujitaScale
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Radar astounds scientists, chasers as 'monster' tornado approaches city
It has been a stormy start to June across the central United States, and one of the strongest storms of the week spawned a large tornado on Thursday afternoon that stunned storm chasers on the ground and people watching events unfold online. AccuWeather Meteorologist and Storm Chaser Tony Laubach filmed a large wedge tornado grinding through farm fields near Morton, 50 miles northwest of Lubbock, Texas. Meanwhile, research scientists from University of Oklahoma had set up its high-resolution RAXPOL radar nearby. What the radar operators and storm chasers saw astounded them. A hurricane-like swirl with an eye appeared on the radar as the large tornado touched down. This is what a classic hook echo looks like in high resolution. "You are looking at the best image of tornado that radar can show you in 2025," said Texas Meteorologist Collin Myers on Facebook. "You can see the individual structure and circulation of the main tornado vortex and centrifugal bands emanating out from the common center. It looks like a mini-hurricane," he added. Indeed, tornadoes and hurricanes are low pressure centers at different scales, both with a calm eye and dangerous eyewall where winds ramp up suddenly to unimaginable speeds. "I knew this was a monster looking at it... there was no question," Laubach recalled. "I was just so glad this was out in the middle of nowhere, but at the same time, terrified for the city of Lubbock cause it was coming for them." RAXPOL stands for rapid X-band polarimetric radar. The unit is similar to the nation's network of NEXRAD radars that you're used to seeing on TV and the Internet, but this one is mobile, higher resolution, and can be quickly deployed near a severe storm for research purposes. The radar images are provided in real-time on the RAXPOL website. As it moved east, the storm rolled a semi truck near Whitharral, and one person was injured when a building was damaged by another tornado near Reese Center, Texas. Fortunately for Lubbock, the last tornado appeared to lift just before it arrived, though wind damage and flooding were reported over the western half of the city. The local National Weather Service office may survey the damage to determine the tornado's rating on the Fujita Scale.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
On This Date: 'Night Of The Twisters' Strikes Grand Island, Nebraska
A terrifying evening of tornadoes struck Grand Island, Nebraska, 45 years ago in what's sometimes called the "night of the twisters". The city was hit by a slow-moving supercell thunderstorm complex that contributed to the spin-up of an unbelievable seven tornadoes near or in Grand Island in just 2 hour and 45 minutes. It's described as "arguably an unparalleled event in meteorological history" by the National Weather Service in Hastings, Nebraska. Some of the tornadoes were intense to violent, with one rated F4 and three others rated F3 on the original Fujita Scale. The twisters killed 5 people, injured 200 and destroyed more than 500 hundred homes and businesses. Another interesting fact is that three of the tornadoes were rare anticyclonic ones, meaning winds rotated clockwise as opposed to counterclockwise. It's estimated just 1% of all tornadoes rotate in this clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere where we live. The swarm of tornadoes also inspired a book, television movie and tornado and engineering research, the National Weather Service says. Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with for nearly 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
40 years ago: Pennsylvania's deadliest tornado outbreak, only F5 twister
Friday, May 31, 1985, was a spring day like any other. Trees and flowers were in full bloom, Memorial Day weekend was in the rearview mirror, and most residents of Pennsylvania, Ohio and southern Ontario were looking forward to the weekend. By the end of the day, however, 44 tornadoes had ripped through the region, killing 89 people. One massive twister moved from Ohio into Pennsylvania, destroying everything in its path, and still stands as the only F5 tornado on the Fujita Scale to strike Pennsylvania. Eight F4 tornadoes were also documented. The outbreak caused unprecedented damage and also remains Pennsylvania's deadliest severe weather outbreak to this day. An AccuWeather meteorologist remembers the day Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski was working at AccuWeather on that fateful day. "I remember the days before the outbreak. We kept ramping up our concern for tornadoes in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. We forecast 'a swarm of tornadoes' the day before, which was very unusual for that area," Sosnowski said. "We didn't have cell phones or internet then, so we couldn't watch it happen in real time," Sosnowski explained. "When I got to work around midnight, the mood was somber. The word had come through that lots of people were injured or killed." 5 Boy Scouts miraculously survived an F4 tornado One F4 tornado tracked 69 miles from Penfield to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and destroyed an estimated 88,000 trees in the Moshannon State Forest. Five Boy Scouts at Parker Dam State Park were lucky to survive in a cabin surrounded by destruction. Carey Huber, an Environmental Education Specialist at Parker Dam, told WTAJ in 2018 that the destruction around the cabin "looked like matchsticks or toothpicks laying in different directions all over the place." Watching the deadly storm on radar Radar was available in 1985 but only at some television stations and universities. Lee Grenci, a lecturer at Penn State University, was in the Penn State "radar room," watching the Doppler with other Penn State faculty members. It was a black and white screen, but forecasters could hold up a piece of paper to the screen to see the locations of towns and roads. They were awed by what they saw, a supercell thunderstorm with a curled hook echo north of State College, Pennsylvania, home to Penn State University (PSU). "[We] were mesmerized by the radar, and, out of the dead silence, [PSU Professor] Greg Forbes said, people are dying right now. I never, ever forgot that moment," Grenci said. Storm left scars on the land Stephen Corfidi of the Severe Local Storms Unit of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, as the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) was known in those days, was amazed by the strength of the F4 twister north of State College. "Eight years after the event, the path of the nearly mile-wide monster storm remained nearly devoid of trees - in stark contrast to the richly green forest surrounding it," Corfidi said. The storm's scar was visible on satellite maps until the early 2000s. An infamous and rare video of the F5 tornado The strongest storm of the outbreak, an F5 tornado, began in Portage County in Ohio and tracked across Trumbull County into Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Home video cameras were rare in those days, but one resident filmed the infamous storm. For the 40th anniversary of the outbreak, WFMJ talked to Ron Alfredo, who took the rare video of the tornado in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. After seeing unusually large hail, he said, the tornado came into view. He kept the video rolling. "I thought it was papers flying," Alfredo said of swirling debris that he later realized was buildings being torn apart. A dozen killed in Ontario In southern Ontario, 14 tornadoes left massive damage north of Toronto, killing 12 people. Three tornadoes were rated F3 on the Fujita Scale. "The tornado hit so hard that in some places, there was simply nothing left," CBC's Vicki Russell said at the time.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
How strong was that tornado? How the EF scale works
DENVER (KDVR) — People often think of mountains when they think of Colorado, but the Centennial State isn't all ski slopes — much of the state looks more like Kansas, and the severe weather reflects that. The severe weather season is beginning. In the summer, warmer temperatures allow for stronger storms to develop, often in the afternoons, earning Colorado a spot in hail alley. Photos: Tornado damage in Adams, Arapahoe counties seen from the sky Colorado is not quite in tornado alley, but the state does get a good number of tornadoes each year. Nearly 40% of the state is made up of high plains, which are part of the Great Plains, according to Colorado State University. Colorado's severe weather was displayed on Sunday when storms produced hail the size of eggs, and multiple tornadoes swept through the state, damaging more than 30 structures. The National Weather Service said Tuesday that the tornadoes were significant with 'considerable' damage, with an Enhanced Fujita scale ranking of an EF-2. The Fujita Scale was improved by nationally renowned meteorologists and engineers to create the EF scale, which has been used to rate tornadoes since 2007, according to the NWS. EF-scale Class Wind (mph) Wind (km/h) Description EF-0 Weak 65-85 105-137 Gale EF-1 Weak 86-110 138-177 Moderate EF-2 Strong 111-135 178-217 Significant EF-3 Strong 136-165 217-266 Severe EF-4 Violent 166-200 267-322 Devastating EF-5 Violent >200 >322 Incredible How to receive emergency alerts during Colorado's tornado season The ratings help meteorologists categorize weather events, and are a way for people to know how strong and damaging a tornado was. Depending on the strength, tornadoes can cause damage ranging from broken tree branches and gutters, to roofs being blown off, vehicles being blown around and houses even swept away. The chart below shows the expected damage for each of the ratings, according to the NWS: The most destructive tornadoes in Colorado have ranged from EF-0 to EF-3 over the last decade. Tornadoes are rare in Denver, but they are not an unusual occurrence in the plains. According to the NWS, Colorado gets an average of 53 tornadoes each year, and 95% of those occur east of Interstate 25. Tornadoes hit Colorado, and this likely won't be the last Tornadoes are most common from May through August, and the Pinpoint Weather team expects more throughout the season. Coloradans can prepare by making sure they are signed up to receive emergency alerts, knowing where the nearest tornado shelter is and staying up to date on the forecast. Stay prepared for storms and forecast changes, a Pinpoint Weather Alert Day and other important weather information: Interactive Denver weather radar Colorado weather alerts Business, church and school closings Weather newsletters FOX31 News app The Pinpoint Weather team will continue to update the forecast multiple times each day. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
The 1970 Lubbock tornado led to the Fujita scale. Then, Texas Tech created the EF-scale
On the morning of May 11, 1970, skies darkened over Lubbock and winds began to rise, setting the stage for the kind of storm many in Tornado Alley pray never comes their way. By late that Monday evening, dozens of tornadoes had touched down across the Great Plains and Midwest. In Lubbock, two tornadoes struck that evening: the first, relatively small, around 8:45 p.m., roughly an hour before, as described by the National Weather Service, 'the most massive tornado touched down over the heart of the city of Lubbock." As it tore through downtown — then a bustling hub of commerce and daily life — the Lubbock tornado killed 26 people, injured more than 1,500, and caused over $100 million in damage. The destruction was so severe that it led meteorologists to rethink how tornadoes were measured, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Fujita Scale one year later, which rates tornadoes by intensity and damage. Its destruction was so extreme that Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, the University of Chicago professor who developed the tornado intensity scale, gave it one of only two experimental F6 ratings ever considered. His analysis of the Lubbock storm became, as researcher Thomas P. Grazulis described, 'the most detailed mapping ever done, up to that time, of the path of a single tornado.' But it was later downgraded to F5, as the scale was never intended to exceed that limit, and remains only one of six to ever touch down in the Lone Star State in recorded history. Over the years, as tornado science advanced and the understanding of tornadoes and their damage improved, limitations in the original Fujita Scale became apparent to meteorologists and forecasters. Decades after the Lubbock storm, researchers at Texas Tech University played a key role in developing the more accurate Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale. "NWS personnel, who are responsible for rating tornadoes, have expressed frustrations in applying the Fujita Scale in a consistent and accurate manner," faculty from the Wind Science and Engineering Center wrote in their proposal. "Weak links in a structural system or a slow-moving storm sometimes lead to an over rating of a tornado event." Tornadoes are measured on the EF Scale, which replaced the Fujita Scale in 2007. The scale measures wind speeds of tornadoes by looking at the damage caused on the ground after it has dissipated. They are ranked from EF0 to EF5. EF0 - light damage with wind speeds of 65-85 mph. EF1 - moderate damage with winds of 86-110 mph. EF2 - considerable damage with winds of 111-135 mph. EF3 - severe damage with winds of 136-165 mph. EF4 - devastating damage with 166-200 mph. EF5 - With winds of over 200+ mph, they are the most devastating tornadoes on the scale. A recent addition to the scale is an EFU tornado — an unidentifiable tornado. The National Weather Service classification is given when it knows there's a tornado, but there's not always a lot of damage to classify it. Damage Indicators Fujita Scale: This scale rates tornadoes based on the damage they cause to structures like buildings, trees, and other objects. However, it used general damage indicators, focusing on the level of destruction without taking into account the specifics of building construction or more detailed factors. Enhanced Fujita Scale: The EF Scale refines those damage indicators by considering the quality of the structures affected. It differentiates between types of buildings, such as weak versus well-built houses, and uses a broader set of damage indicators, which allows meteorologists to assess wind speeds more accurately. Wind Speed Limits Fujita (F) Scale: The F Scale was based on observed damage, with wind speeds estimated indirectly, using the severity of destruction as a guide. This method was criticized for being too generalized, especially when differentiating between tornadoes with similar intensity but different damage types. The scale also lacked the precision needed to account for environmental factors like terrain or building quality. Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale: The EF Scale was developed to improve tornado intensity ratings by providing a more accurate estimate of wind speeds. It assigns a range of wind speeds for each category (EF0 to EF5) and uses detailed damage indicators, like distinguishing between damage to well-built houses versus mobile homes, allowing for more precise wind speed estimates based on specific damage observations. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: What is the EF-scale for tornadoes? Why Texas Tech created a new one
