The Fujita scale of tornado violence. An F-5 tornado
makes the strongest winds on Earth; Doppler radar clocked one tornado
at 318 mph. (In the Fujita scale, wind speed is not measured directly
but rather estimated from the amount of damage. Tornado width is estimated
by the path of destruction -- which can be up to one mile wide).
Note: Mac OS 9 users: works best with Internet Explorer.
Can you control the intensity of this twister by changing the diameter and/or the core pressure difference?
This applet and illustrations are Copyright(C) 2003 by Tom Whittaker, S.V. Medaris, and Steve Ackerman. The Motion-W® and Bucky Badger® logos are Trademarks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A
tornado that's 500 meters in diameter looks a lot more ominous than the
average twister, which is "only" 150 meters across. But tornado size is
not related to wind speed, or to damage intensity. Instead, wind speed
increases along with the difference between atmospheric pressure inside
the funnel, and the pressure outside it (the core pressure difference).
The larger the difference in atmospheric pressure between the core and
the surrounding air, the faster the winds.
But at a given wind speed, a larger tornado will do more total damage.
Where does all this energy come from, anyway?
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