• Please note this new thread in the Announcements forum regarding updated management of the site. Jeff Duda has agreed to assume ownership and lead management responsibilities during what is anticipated to be a 3-12-month interim period while we perform some updates to the site, including changing the hosting. The staff will do their best to provide timely and transparent updates throughout this transition period.

  • A website update occured last week that rendered some of the page display styles obsolete. If you have logged onto the site and are experiencing a strange or messy appearance, it is likely due to this factor. An inadvertent mistake in the meantime likely made this issue worse. It has hopefully now been fixed. See this thread for details on the fix. --Jeff

2011-05-24 El Reno OK EF-5

Ethan Lang

Ethan Lang

EF2
One thing I have taken great interest in is the variation in wind speed between the main circulation and any subvortices. For instance will the 2.6 mile wide El Reno tornado five days after this we saw doppler scans over 300 in some of the subvortices. Whereas the tornado only got rated an ef3 based on the damage.
 
Warren Faidley

Warren Faidley

Supporter
Ethan Lang said:
One thing I have taken great interest in is the variation in wind speed between the main circulation and any subvortices. For instance will the 2.6 mile wide El Reno tornado five days after this we saw doppler scans over 300 in some of the subvortices. Whereas the tornado only got rated an ef3 based on the damage.
Click to expand...

The ratings are based on engineering damage reports correlating to specific wind velocities. An EF5 might only produce EF3 or lower ratings depending on what it strikes for the survey. Radar is not official. I disagree with this, if a calibrated radar can provide an accurate wind speed. I witnessed the Red Rock, OK tornado on April 26, 1991 and it was only rated an F4. However, Dr. Howard Bluestein's Doppler crew measured a 270 mph (+) wind speed. For my own satisfaction, I rate the tornado as an F5.
 
Ethan Lang

Ethan Lang

EF2
I am certainly not confusing these two, I have studied the El Reno 2.6 mile wide extensively because it interested me so greatly. That one in particular bothers me with the rating. There is no reason that tornado shouldn't be an EF5
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top