Rate the Damage (part ??)

[Sam Sagnella]

Go for it! I'll PM you if you're right!

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Looks like T7/T8

http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/severeweather/tscale.php

T7 Strongly-Devastating Tornado 84 - 95 m s-1 (187 - 212 mi h-1) Wooden-frame houses wholly demolished; some walls of stone or brick houses beaten down or collapse; steel-framed warehouse-type constructions may buckle slightly. Locomotives thrown over. Noticeable de-barking of trees by flying debris.

T8 Severely-Devastating Tornado 96 - 107 m s-1 (213 - 240 mi h-1) Motor cars hurled great distances. Wooden-framed houses and their contents dispersed over long distances; stone or brick houses irreparably damaged; steel-framed buildings buckled.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Looks like a strong F2 to me.

 

[Joe Nield]

Strong F3

 

[Shane Adams]

I guess I'll go F3. It's hard for me to rate damage now, because the Mulvane rating pretty much erased everything I've ever learned about rating strong/violent tornadoes. I mean, the structural damage looks F3, but the vehicle damage is only F2, because it's obvious through the lack of signifcant cosmetic damage (other then points of impact) the vehicle was rolled over rather gently.

I still have problems with the Mulvane rating, to the point that I don't even try to rate damage anymore. A car thrown 275 yards, a two-story house completely leveled, and two walls removed from the basement room, yet it gets F3 because the tree in the front yard wasn't debarked. I just don't get it.

 

[Verne Carlson]

I'll say borderline F3:

F3 - Severe tornado, 158-206 mph, Roof and some walls torn off well constructed houses; most trees in fores uprooted

 

[Glen Romine]

Kind of a loaded question given the limited info here - but I'd lean towards F2. Trees are mostly snapped high up. Only the one noted vehicle was overturned, or even obviously moved, but it was fairly high profile. Most of the other cars looked to still be in the driveways/garages. While the structural damage to the homes would cosmetically be consistent with F3, it's not obvious these are well constructed homes. As such, I have to stick with F2 without more information.

Glen

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

Upper end F3.

BTW, was that from the nov. outbreak a few years ago.? I seem to remember seeing that one before and that outbreak pops into my mind.

 

[Andrew Geil]

F3, with some brief moments of F4ness.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

It looks like low-end F3 to me. Yes, the part of the truck's roof is collapsed, but any winds that could pick the truck up 5 feet and turn it over could cause the partial collapse of the roof, and F4 winds certainly aren't required to do that. The homes/structures are damaged mostly in terms of missing roofs and some outer walls, but there seems to be little damage to inner walls and even some outer walls. It looks like widespread F2 damage with embedded F3 (such as the "house" in the first picture with only inner walls standing for the most part). I agree with Glen, however, that we don't know much about the structural integrity of the homes, and, as such, can't determine too much...

 

[Justin Teague]

I'd say F3. Trees without leaves are alot harder to rip apart and up-root. There doesn't seem to be enough scattered debris for this to be any stronger. Homes still have standing walls and don't appear to be constructed extremely well. This is a tough one!

 

[Glen Romine]

But, do you think that truck could have the top cave in as such with just a roll over. Plus, some of the trees are stripped violently, not consistent with an F2. Yes, it's hard to judge the structural damage of the houses based on their possible poor construction, but I see the evidence pointing toward at least F3.

Chris

You are probably right - but I'm not convinced with what I see here. Trees damaged like this is easy with winds in the 100-120 mph range. Once a few start to fail, there is a rapid cascade effect when they are that close together. Granted, the trees are without leaves, so that points to slightly stronger winds, but you only see two trees that were uprooted, and if the soil is sandy there, that doesn't really take that much wind. I'd be more impressed seeing trees snapped near the base. As for the truck, it appears to me that the window is intact in the back, so the idea that the truck was slammed onto the ground seems unlikely. I could try to speculate what happened there - but with just one pic I'm remaining pessimistic.

Glen

 

[Dan Cook]

High F3, Low F4.

 

[Bryce Stone]

Looks like high F2 to me.

 

[mikegeukes]

I say strong F3, roofs and some walls are gone. In the 3rd photograph down,what is that blue object in the trees? In the 1st and 5th pictures that we are viewing, what is left of where a house used to be, with only with a small interior corner of the house left. Interesting in the 5th photo, cars are still there, in what was the garage.

Final guess: I say most damage was F3, with marginal low end F4 damage.

Mike