Fall and the Fujita scale

Fall is here, and with it comes an official Stormheads explanation of the system of classification called the Fujita scale that has been used to classify the intensity of tornadoes for the last few decades. The Fujita scale is based on the damage caused by tornadoes. Once the damage has been assessed, it is applied to the F-scale, which estimates wind speeds that usually accompany certain damage. Thus, meteorologists can make a reasonable estimation of a tornadoes wind speeds by looking at the damage.

However, recently the classification scale was modified and it is now called the Enhanced Fujita Scale. This change officially came into existence in February of 2007. The scale was modified because it had previously been too vague, and the estimated wind speeds tended to be too high. Thus, the EF-scale is also is also a damage based scale, but is much more precise than the F-scale was. For more information about both scales, go to http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/. If you hav any questions, add them as a comment to this post, and I will get back with you.

Chief Meteorologist