The Fujita scale rates tornado intensity based on damage caused. The Enhanced Fujita Scale replaced it in the US in 2007, taking build quality into consideration. Both are damage scales that estimate wind speed. Past tornadoes will not be re-rated using the new scale.
The Fujita scale (F-Scale), also known as the Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale used to assign an intensity rating to tornadoes. The rating assigned to a given tornado is based on the amount of damage the tornado causes to vegetation, landscape, and man-made structures. In 1971, Tetsuya Theodore “Ted” Fujita of the University of Chicago, in association with Allen Pearson, first introduced the balance. At the time, Pearson was the head of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, the forerunner of the Storm Prediction Center, in Kansas City, Missouri.
After a tornado, engineers and meteorologists assign an official Fujita rating to the cyclone following visual surveys of the area. These surveys are carried out on the ground and/or on the ground, depending on the circumstances and accessibility. Earth vortex patterns called “cycloidal marks” can also be used to determine tornado intensity. Eyewitness accounts, media reports and recordings, and radio monitoring can also be used to accurately assess the tornado.
Ratings using the Fujita-Pearson scale have been applied retroactively to tornadoes reported since 1950. These rating assignments have been entered into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Tornado Database. The ratings were also applied to several strong and infamous tornadoes that occurred prior to 1950.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale officially replaced the original Fujita scale in the US in 2007, using ratings of EF0 to EF5 rather than F0 to F5. In short, F0/EF0 indicates light damage; F1/EF1 indicates moderate damage; F2/EF2 indicates considerable damage; F3/EF3 indicates severe damage; F4/EF4 indicates devastating damage and F5/EF5 indicates incredible damage. Neither the Fujita Scale nor the Advanced Fujita Scale are wind speed or wind rating scales, but damage scales, even though the levels within each correlate to a range of wind speeds. The improved Fujita scale arose as a result of research suggesting that wind speeds for the strongest tornadoes on the original Fujita scale were vastly overestimated.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale takes build quality into consideration. It also standardizes different types of structures. Other than that, the two systems are essentially the same. According to the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States, there are no plans to re-rate past tornadoes using the Enhanced Fujita Scale and it is unlikely that a higher percentage of future cyclones will receive a Level “5” rating due to the switch.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale, like its predecessor which is still used in parts of the world other than the United States, is still a damage scale that employs estimates for wind speed. The new scale was first used in the United States a year after the February 2006 announcement and was applied to a tornado wave that struck central Florida. The highest score on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, EF5, was first awarded to the devastating tornado that leveled the town of Greensburg, Kansas in May 2007.
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