STurner
EF2
**** I have been wondering for sometime what causes some tornadoes to shrink and become violent but on the other hand a tornado may get larger but become weaker. I have heard one term called the "ice skater effect" but am not sure why this happens with tornadoes. There have been a couple events I have puzzled over for quite some time and I will discuss them. The Oakfield, Wisconsin on July 18, 1996 was around 300-400 yards wide when doing F3 and F4 damage but narrowed to 100 yards and started doing very intense F5 damage. The other one was the Parkersburg, Iowa tornado this year on May 25, 2008 which did EF5 damage at a little over a half-mile-wide but at one point grew to 1.2 miles wide but only did EF2-EF3 damage. I am sure there are other events not listed here but was wondering others thoughts on this subject.