Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Xenia, Ohio, F5 tornado of April 3, 1974.This was one of two tornadoes to receive a preliminary rating of F6, which was downgraded later to a rating of F5. [1]This is a list of tornadoes which have been officially or unofficially labeled as F5, EF5, IF5, T10-T11, the highest possible ratings on the various tornado intensity scales.
The 1977 Birmingham–Smithfield F5 tornado's damage was surveyed by Ted Fujita and he "toyed with the idea of rating the Smithfield tornado an F6". [13] In 2001, tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis stated in his book F5–F6 Tornadoes; "In my opinion, if there ever was an F6 tornado caught on video, it was the Pampa, Texas tornado of 1995". [14]
The old scale lists an F5 tornado as wind speeds of 261–318 mph (420–512 km/h), while the new scale lists an EF5 as a tornado with winds above 200 mph (322 km/h), found to be sufficient to cause the damage previously ascribed to the F5 range of wind speeds.
In late 2023, American meteorologist and tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis created the Outbreak Intensity Score (OIS) as a way to rank tornado outbreaks. [1] [2] For the score, only significant tornadoes are counted: F2/EF2 tornadoes receive 2 points each, F3/EF3 tornadoes receive 5 points each, F4/EF4 tornadoes receive 10 points each, and F5/EF5 tornadoes receive 15 points each. [1]
On April 5, 1936, an F5 tornado struck Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 216 people. The tornado was part of a tornado outbreak that spawned more than a dozen tornadoes on April 5 and 6 of that year.
It was later rated F5 after the Fujita scale was implemented in 1971. Incredibly, only one person was killed in this tornado, a man who remained in (the) open, according to the storm report .
Significant tornado – A substantial tornado, one that is rated F2-F5 or EF2-EF5. Grazulis also includes (E)F0-(E)F1 tornadoes that cause a fatality in his definition for The Tornado Project database. Significant tornado parameter (STP) – Model parameter calculated using Shear values, Instability values, and vorticity values.
Through this, tornado severity is ranked from F1 to F5 (the "F" stands for Fujita), with F5 being the worst on the scale. An F5 is the most powerful level for a tornado.