nauka: Tornado records

Evidence: 33 • authority: 72

The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated EF-Scale) is a scale that rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage a tornado causes. It is used in the United States, Brazil and France, among other countries. The EF scale is also unofficially used in other countries, including China. The rating of a tornado is determined by conducting a tornado damage survey. The scale has the same basic design as the original Fujita scale—six intensity categories from zero to five, representing increasing degrees of damage. It was revised to reflect better examinations of tornado damage surveys, in order to align wind speeds more closely with associated storm damage. Better standardizing and eluci…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

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. These scales – the Fujita scale, the Enhanced Fujita scale, the International Fujita scale, and the TORRO tornado intensity scale – attempt to estimate the intensity of a tornado by classifying the damage caused to natural features and man-made structures in the tornado's path. The most recent EF5 tornado was the 2025 Enderlin tornado, ending the record 12-year EF5 drought that began after the 2013 Moore tornado.

Evidence: 26 • authority: 72

The International Fujita scale (abbreviated as IF-Scale) is a scale that rates the intensity of tornadoes and other wind events based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used by the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) and various other organizations including Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) and State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). The scale is intended to be analogous to the Fujita and Enhanced Fujita scales, while being more applicable internationally by accounting for factors such as differences in building codes. In 2018, the first draft version of the IF-scale, version 0.10 was published. This version was based on a 12-step rating scale. Over the next few years, dozens of…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 80

Fine-Tuning Fujita: After 35 years, a new scale for rating tornadoes takes effect

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

Since the late 18th century, meteorologists and engineers have worked to assess the intensity of tornadoes, typically through the work of a tornado damage survey or a scientific case study. This work has led to the creation of the Fujita scale (F-scale) in 1971 and the TORRO scale in 1975. However, the original Fujita scale lacked the incorporation of diverse empirical damage to estimate wind speeds, such as construction quality; to address this, the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF-scale) was created in 2007, followed by the International Fujita scale (IF-scale) in 2023. Despite these efforts to help assess the strength of tornadoes, engineers, scientists and academics have disagreed with each ot…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), was a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determined by meteorologists and engineers after a ground or aerial damage survey, or both; and depending on the circumstances, ground-swirl patterns (cycloidal marks), weather radar data, witness testimonies, media reports and damage imagery, as well as photogrammetry or videogrammetry if motion picture recording is available. The Fujita scale, named for the meteorologist Ted Fujita, was replaced with the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF-Scale) in the United State…

Evidence: — • authority: 90

1925 Tri-State Tornado Damage Path and Associated Storm System. The “Tri-State tornado” event of 18 March 1925, with an official death toll of 695 people, generally is accepted as the deadliest single tornado in United States recorded history. The officially accepted damage path is 352 km (219 mi) long. The entire damage path was not surveyed by the Weather Bureau in 1925 to determine if it truly was continuous, and the nature of the tornado event and the storm that produced it are not well known. Therefore, as much new data as possible have been gathered about this event in all three states along and near the purported damage path. Detailed information about the locations where damage was…

Evidence: — • authority: 90

Tornadoes in France. Abstract In the period 1680–1988, 107 significant tornadoes in the Fujita scale categories F2–F5 have occurred in France. These include 49 such events in the historical period 1680–1959, and 58 events in the modem period 1960–1988. Estimates of the temporal and spatial climatological distributions of significant tornadoes in France have been developed that suggest June and August are the months with the greatest number of such tornadoes; 1600–1700 UTC is the interval in which occurrence is most likely, with a secondary maximum in likelihood between 1800 and 1900 UTC; the northwestern quarter of the country is the region where a significant tornado is most likely to occu…

Evidence: — • authority: 90

On the Consistency between the Fujita and Enhanced Fujita Scales and Implications for the U.S. Tornado Climatology. Abstract The Fujita (F) and enhanced Fujita (EF) scales have formed the baseline for tornado intensity estimation in the U.S. tornado climatology. Ahead of the EF scale’s debut in 2007, one stated goal was to maintain consistency in the ratings between the two scales (i.e., a rating from the EF scale would have the same climatological “meaning” as a rating from the F scale). However, the highly publicized “drought” of EF5 tornadoes since 2013 brings the broader consistency of present-day tornado rating practices relative to the F-scale era into question. Among a population of…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A deadly late-season tornado outbreak, the deadliest on record in December, produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across portions of the Southern United States and Ohio Valley from the evening of December 10 to the early morning of the 11th, 2021. The event developed as a trough progressed eastward across the United States, interacting with an unseasonably moist and unstable environment across the Mississippi Valley. Tornado activity began in northeastern Arkansas, before progressing into Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The most extreme impacts resulted from two long-track supercell thunderstorms that produced families of strong tornadoes. The first of these supe…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

On the night of June 20, 2025, a large, violent, and deadly EF5 tornado moved through portions of Ransom and Cass Counties in southeastern North Dakota, United States, impacting rural areas east of Enderlin. The storm was part of an extensive tornado outbreak and derecho that took place across the northern Great Plains region of the U.S. and southern Canada from June 19–22. Internally referred to as Enderlin Tornado #1 by the National Weather Service (NWS), it was the first tornado to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale in the U.S. in 12 years, and the most recent tornado in North Dakota to be rated that high since the 1957 F5 tornado that struck Fargo exactly 68 years earlier. During…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A tornado, also known as a twister, is a rapidly rotating column of air that extends vertically from the surface of the Earth to the base of a cumulonimbus or cumulus cloud. Tornadoes are often (but not always) visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the cloud base, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust close to the ground. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 180 kilometers per hour (110 miles per hour), are about 80 meters (250 feet) across, and travel several kilometers (a few miles) before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 480 kilometers per hour (300 mph), can be more than 3 kilometers (2 mi) in diameter, and can s…