How big does a tornado have to be to pick up a car?
Jun 29, 2010
in
Tornado
I live in FL & we supposedly never get ‘dangerous’ tornadoes, but earlier today everyone was saying that there was one. How big does a tornado have to be to pick up a car? And what about to destroy a typical house (you know — the houses that only have a thin layer of cement around the outside)? Thanks!
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6 comments
נσни ∂єєяє fαямєя on June 29, 2010 at 11:12 pm
The Enhanced Fujita Scale is what is currently used to measure tornado intensity.
EF-0 65 – 85 mph wind speeds. Minor damage.
Some damage to chimneys; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over; sign boards damaged.
EF-1 86 – 110 mph wind speeds. Moderate damage.
The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.
EF-2 111 – 135 mph wind speeds. Considerable damage.
Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars overturned; large trees snapped or uprooted; highrise windows broken and blown in; light-object missiles generated.
EF-3 136 – 165 mph wind speeds. Critical damage.
Roofs and some walls torn off well-constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forest uprooted; skyscrapers twisted and deformed with massive destruction of exteriors; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown.
EF-4 166 – 200 mph wind speeds. Severe damage.
Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated. Skyscrapers and highrises toppled and destroyed.
EF-5 200 – + mph wind speeds. Devastating damage.
Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 m (109 yd); trees debarked; steel reinforced concrete structures badly damaged; incredible phenomena will occur.
Matt on June 29, 2010 at 11:12 pm
F3
158-206mph / 71-92 m/s; roofs torn off well-constructed houses; some rural buildings completely demolished; steel-framed, warehouse-type structures badly damaged; cars lifted off the ground; most trees uprooted or leveled.
F4
207-260mph / 93-116 m/s; well constructed houses leveled, leaving piles of debris; structures with weak foundations lifted and blown away; cars blown large distances; large projectiles generated.
Kimberly C on June 29, 2010 at 11:12 pm
uh
Carly on June 29, 2010 at 11:12 pm
A Tornado would have to be an F3 (158 to 206mph winds) in order to pick up a car and thrown. That is a very strong tornado as they go from F1 (73 to 112 mph <the weakest) to F5 (261 to 318mph<the strongest) but the last place you would want to be during a Tornado is inside a car because you would not want to be inside of a car that was just thrown at 112mph and striking something and coming to a dead stop.
Atarah on June 29, 2010 at 11:12 pm
A tornado only has to be an EF2 to lift a car off the ground. To throw it a great distance requires a little more strength. The EF2 in Billings, MT on Father’s Day picked up a pick-up in the parking lot outside the MetraPark and dropped it inside the arena. The truck wasn’t that big, but nonetheless, the tornado was strong enough to get it inside a building. The twister also scattered and tossed some motorcycles in the showroom of a nearby business.
Nancy on July 30, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I am really scared of tornados.
SAVE ME BUDDA AND GOD PLSS