Posted on 05/21/2013 11:55:47 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Everything had to come together just perfectly to create the killer tornado in Moore, Okla.: wind speed, moisture in the air, temperature and timing. And when they did, the awesome energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service gave it the top-of-the-scale rating of EF5 for wind speed and breadth, and severity of damage. Wind speeds were estimated at between 200 and 210 mph. The death count is 24 so far, including at least nine children. The United States averages about one EF5 a year, but this was the first in nearly two years. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Satellites See Storm System that Created Moore, Okla., Tornado
For reference only...
May 3, 1999
Doppler Radar Measures 318 mph Wind in Tornado
The 318-mph speed would put the tornado only 1 mph below an F-6 on the 0-to-6 Fujita scale. No tornado has ever been classified an F-6. (Related: The Fujita tornado scale).
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/tornado/wtwur318.htm
I should have noted, that was the previous 1999 Moore City, Oklahoma tornado...
Frankly that headline is ridiculous. If asked whether you want a tornado or a 10Kt nuclear bomb dropped on your city, what you guess would be the response?
Well both are bad.
90,000 to 160,000 direct/indirect casualties at Hiroshima...
The media are at it again. I've read various numbers, from 10 to 91. they should not be in such a rush to sensationalism, at least until the final numbers are in.
I agree. It’s ridiculous.
135,000 people died at Hiroshima. Only a small fraction of a tornado’s power has a ground effect.
I agree. It’s ridiculous.
135,000 people died at Hiroshima. Only a small fraction of a tornado’s power has a ground effect.
It was bad, probably the worst ever, but stronger than Hiroshima? Stunning journalistic statement, but one more over exaggeration. People in its path were not vaporized where they stood, some died, but most survived the F5 ground zero. No one survived the Hiroshima ground zero. I take offense that a journalist would make a statement like this expecting me to believe it.
Doesn’t an ordinary thunderstorm have more power than the Hiroshima bomb?
F6 can’t happen. That was Fujita’s thesis that F5’s 318 mph was the maximum wind speed possible for a tornado. And he was right. I watched the May ‘99 tornado myself. I was living in OK at the time. It repeatedly did what Fujita predicted a maximum wind speed tornado would do. It would spin out and re-assemble. It started doing this north of Chickisaw. It would quickly widen and dissipate a bit, then draw back in and then repeat.
I wasn’t aware of that dynamic. Interesting. Thanks for the mention.
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