Giant tornado devastates Oklahoma

Saliph

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Several large areas left in complete ruins. Rumored to be 3,2 km wide, even bigger than the 1999 F5 tornado (which had the strongest winds ever recorded).

Probably going to be many casualties here.

PyK4Z36lUh2zBlKkHSZsrgp2ZnFQSk3zyjWQOXYGlItQ.png
 
A nuke could go off and Sky would still manage to make too much of it.
 
Saliph said:
Several large areas left in complete ruins. Rumored to be 3,2 km wide, even bigger than the 1999 F5 tornado (which had the strongest winds ever recorded).

Probably going to be many casualties here.

PyK4Z36lUh2zBlKkHSZsrgp2ZnFQSk3zyjWQOXYGlItQ.png
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Not to come across as insensitive, but why are so many houses in the US (especially in the tornado and hurricane prone states) built from wood? In Britain we build houses out of brick and the most treacherous weather we get is maybe a few heavy gusts of wind and a 15 minute lashing of hail.
 
rednev said:
Not to come across as insensitive, but why are so many houses in the US (especially in the tornado and hurricane prone states) built from wood? In Britain we build houses out of brick and the most treacherous weather we get is maybe a few heavy gusts of wind and a 15 minute lashing of hail.
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Cheaper, versatile and a good insulator. They have more wood than us too.
 
A friend of mine lives there, she's updating her status regularly, hopefully she's in a safe place :(
 
rednev said:
Not to come across as insensitive, but why are so many houses in the US (especially in the tornado and hurricane prone states) built from wood? In Britain we build houses out of brick and the most treacherous weather we get is maybe a few heavy gusts of wind and a 15 minute lashing of hail.
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After looking at street view from the area, lots of the houses were brick. There's only so much you can do with 200+ mph wind. The schools that were heavily damaged were brick buildings. I'm sure there are lots of wood frame houses in the subdivisions though.

A fairly weak tornado came through my town a few years ago and destroyed several brick buildings. I live on the east coast and deal with hurricanes but I would take them over tornadoes any day. I hope I never have to live in the middle of the country. Tornadoes are terrifying.
 
The Enhanced Fujita Scale used to measure tornadoes is based on damage. They have given this a preliminary EF4 rating but could raise it to EF5. They're evaluated by how strong the structures they destroy are. 4 or 5 could level brick buildings.
 
Terrible disaster, the damage looks quite devastating. RIP to those who lost their lives.
 
Sir Matt said:
After looking at street view from the area, lots of the houses were brick. There's only so much you can do with 200+ mph wind. The schools that were heavily damaged were brick buildings. I'm sure there are lots of wood frame houses in the subdivisions though.

A fairly weak tornado came through my town a few years ago and destroyed several brick buildings. I live on the east coast and deal with hurricanes but I would take them over tornadoes any day. I hope I never have to live in the middle of the country. Tornadoes are terrifying.
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Normally when the hurricane hits the coast tornadoes are created.
 
When adversity descends, heroes stand.

Daily Telegraph -
One witness at Plaza Towers told KOCO television: "We pulled a teacher out and she was on top of three kids. The kids were fine but the teacher was in a bad way and we wheeled her into an ambulance. As far as I know most of the kids got out.
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Hopefully that teacher makes it.
 
rednev said:
Not to come across as insensitive, but why are so many houses in the US (especially in the tornado and hurricane prone states) built from wood? In Britain we build houses out of brick and the most treacherous weather we get is maybe a few heavy gusts of wind and a 15 minute lashing of hail.
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I don't know, in Italy, for exampke, there aren't houses built with wood.
 
Saliph said:
Several large areas left in complete ruins. Rumored to be 3,2 km wide, even bigger than the 1999 F5 tornado (which had the strongest winds ever recorded).

Probably going to be many casualties here.

PyK4Z36lUh2zBlKkHSZsrgp2ZnFQSk3zyjWQOXYGlItQ.png
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That picture, and the ones on the news are shocking.

I remember the scene in Twister:

Twister said:
Joey: [Discussing at Megs on the tornadoes they have seen so far]
No, that was a good size twister. What was it, an F3?
Bill: Solid F2.
Melissa: See, now you have lost me again.
Bill: Its the Fujita scale. It measures a tornados intensity by how
much it eats.
Melissa: Eats?
Bill: Destroys.
Laurence: That one we encountered back there was a strong F2,
possibly an F3.
Beltzer: Maybe well see some 4s.
Haynes: That would be sweet!
Bill: 4 is good. 4 will relocate your house very efficently.
Melissa: Is there an F5?
[Everyone goes dead silent]
Melissa: What would that be like?
Jason Preacher Rowe: The Finger of God.
Melissa: None of you has ever seen an F5?
Bill: ...Just one of us.
[Looks upstairs, indicating Jo]
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Have thankfully never experienced a tornado, but have some friends & family in Iowa who have. They said the sound is unlike anything you have heard in your life. They said imagine standing right next to a freight train at high speed...and then multiply it by 100...

RIP to those that have dies and thoughts are with everyone affected.
 
::sonny:: said:
I don't know, in Italy, for exampke, there aren't houses built with wood.
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The other thing to factor in is the cost of bricks. A lot of houses in Iowa, for example, are made of wood because brick is prohibitively expensive - they do not have the right soil/clay etc to manufacture bricks in a way that would make them economical to use for houses.
 
Sorry if this is the wrong place, but what is the difference between a hurricane and a tornado?

And RIP to the victims :(
 
Sparky_Hughes said:
Sorry if this is the wrong place, but what is the difference between a hurricane and a tornado?

And RIP to the victims :(
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Think Google would have been the right place -

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Hurricane_vs_Tornado

I never knew this fact though:

The United States records about 1200 tornadoes per year, whereas the Netherlands records the highest number of tornadoes per area compared to other countries.
 
Sparky_Hughes said:
Cheers chap, surprised about the Netherlands
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Me too - have lived here for a number of years and not heard anything about that!

The news reports said the tornado was on the ground for 45 minutes - which seems like an extraordinarily long time, given that the majority apparently last minutes at the most.
 
Sparky_Hughes said:
Sorry if this is the wrong place, but what is the difference between a hurricane and a tornado?

And RIP to the victims :(
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probably best looking on wiki but a hurricane brews for a long time over an ocean (e.g. atlantic) then intensifies over warm water ( gulf of mexico), by which time it is a massive spiralling storm. It hits land (e.g florida) bringing surging water, and sustained extreme winds and rain and then slowly dies out over several days as it moves inland. These things can be >1000 miles wide:

HurricaneSandyAerialView640.jpg


tornados are typically deep inland (although there are water spouts too) much smaller (was this the largest recorded at 1-2 mikes wide?) last a short period of time (minutes) but the intensity of the wind can be far worse. I remember a video of a large 18 wheeler lorry being picked up by a tornado and thrown around like a toy. I'll have to read up on how they form. My guess is low and high weather fronts colliding. They typically come in packs too.

hoping they find lots of survivors today and that they can start rebuilding their lives. Awful.
 
swooshboy said:
Think Google would have been the right place -

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Hurricane_vs_Tornado

I never knew this fact though:

The United States records about 1200 tornadoes per year, whereas the Netherlands records the highest number of tornadoes per area compared to other countries.
Click to expand...

who knew about holland? Probably weak ones.

I thought the us had more than that since one storm can bring dozens.
 
Some of the pictures on the BBC look like they've been taken from a film. Horrific scenes and RIP to all the victims.
 
that's amazing! such a dumb interviewer though... 'how do you feel about all this?' as her entire town lies in rubble before her.
 
rednev said:
Not to come across as insensitive, but why are so many houses in the US (especially in the tornado and hurricane prone states) built from wood? In Britain we build houses out of brick and the most treacherous weather we get is maybe a few heavy gusts of wind and a 15 minute lashing of hail.
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One thing to remember the pictures of destruction you are seeing are the path that took a DIRECT hit from an EF4, possibly EF5, tornado. Places like the school that got hit would have had a steel frame with walls made of brick. Schools quite often serve as emergency shelters during storms and in their aftermath because they are usually expected to withstand a storm. That gives you some idea of the stength of this storm.

Also, having watched some shows on tornado's that included how to build to withstand them, the weak points of most houses are in the joints or where the wood frame connects to the foundation. The joints in newer homes built to newer codes are usually reinforced by metal braces. This will stand up to most winds, direct hits from powerful tornado's are another thing though.

A storm this strong is actually capable of pulling the pavement up off of roads.

Not sure how old the houses/buildings in this area are. There are things they know now about building in these areas that they did not know 20 ,30 or more years ago.

But again a direct hit from this size of a tornado, not much is going to withstand it.
 
senorgregster said:
who knew about holland? Probably weak ones.

I thought the us had more than that since one storm can bring dozens.
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the US does have more tornado's then the Netherlands, the Netherlands leads in some kind of average # of tornados per area.

The US gets 1200 or so per year, the Netherlands gets somewhere between 30 to 60. Not sure if they are only counting tornadoes that actually touch ground or funnel clouds also or if they include water spouts.
 
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