Posted on 05/06/2007 11:16:34 AM PDT by aft_lizard
Updated: 12:26pm
The National Weather Service says the tornado that hit Greensburg was an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. A spokesman for the NWS office out of Dodge City estimates winds were near 205 miles-per-hour. The tornado was about a mile and a half wide.
This is the first EF-5 and the first F-5 under the previous scale since the tornado that hit Moore, OK in 1999. That storm system spawned the Haysville Tornado.
Yes, thank you. That is the point I feebly attempted to make as the difference between the “finger of God” and the “Backhand of God”.
Thanks for the laugh.
Are you suggesting the original writer of this narrative put a 2007 spin on a 211 year old story?
111.Jeez.
The ones I’ve been through may not have been “real” earthquakes, but they’ve been close enough for experimental purposes. I’ll still take things jumping around the room every so often to those same things flying around the room at 200 knots.
Well, according to the caption I originally saw with this photo, this was the Xenia tornado in its early stages.
I’m sure it was God’s mercy that saved the majority of people in that town, as it looked like Hiroshima afterward and so few were taken.
Last I checked God’s job description includes the creation of and direction of tornadoes. If you have a problem with where he sees fit to direct them, I suggest you take it up with his customer service department. ;)
Then I guess He’s angrier with Kansas for teaching Creation Science than He is with San Francisco for tolerating gays. ;)
I live in Alaska where we get a lot of earthquakes but in all of 15 years here I have yet to feel a major one myself, I almost think though I would rather prepare for a tornado more so than an earthquake, the odds of actually getting hit by a tornado is just too high, hurricanes affect millions and a widespread area and so can earthquakes, earthquakes are mostly not forecastable, a hurricane you can usually get 12 hours notice of change of direction. The path of a twister is too short and random so I would take on an advancing twister to the other forces. And thats if the earthquakes were all over 6.0 which is dangerous.
see post 28. I didn’t understand your meaning. I work with some that are practicers of a “faith doctrine” which basically says that if something bad happens to you, its because you don’t have enough faith. I guess I tend to jump to conclusions sometimes. I apologize.
You’re right. It spared Florida’s biggest city. It missed Jacksonville for hundreds of miles.
You’re correct they are two differant kinds of storms. Complicating that is Andrew was the first time, when it was really realized that tornadoes do exist within a hurricane. With that in mind comparisons are really difficult
Lasted over 3 hours. Traveled 219 miles.
695 dead. 15,000 homes destroyed. Adjusted for wealth and inflation, $1.4 billon in damage.
The elementary school I went to in Murphysboro was two stories. Before the 1925 tornado it was three.
...before it happens again. (1906)
Well, the alternate theory is that since dense urban areas have a higher surface temperature due to heat absorbed by the pavement, smog from cars, etc, it’s believed to be unlikely that a tornado vortex will actually be able to touch down and stay down for any length of time through this “bubble” of warmer air a city creates. That’s thought to be one of the reasons why tornadoes usually tear up empty fields, and strikes on more populated areas are unusual. On the other hand, an EF-5 wedge tornado like the one in Greesburg is probably going to do some significant damage, regardless of local surface temperature differences in its path.
Rating of intensity (#3 is Andrew)
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/deadly/Table4.htm
Satellite Image of hurricane Andrew at landfall (take a look at the bands, and engulfed Florida and parts of Ga)
http://www.noaa.gov/images/hurr-andrew1992goes.gif
Information about hurricane Donna found at
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-1960-hurricane,0,113082.story
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