A hurricane or gale force wind can lift the roof off a house, even when the roof has no exposed eaves.?

Question

A hurricane or gale force wind can lift the roof off a house, even when the roof has no exposed eaves. how can wind blowing across a roof produce and upward force on it?

Answer 1

There are a couple of things to take into account. Those are the condition of the home on which the roof rests.

1) If the windows are broken then air is moving through the house. When air is moving through the house then the roof becomes a wing( like on a plane). The roof will lift off of a home. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%27s_principle

2) If windows are not broken, then normal friction can remove a roof from a home. The steeper the pitch of the roof, the more likely the hurricane will remove it.

Answer 2

The Bernoulli effect is often enough to lift a roof. The increased velocity of the air across the roof lowers the air pressure. You then have a pressure differential, with higher air pressure inside the house than outside. It is the same principle by which air moving across the top of an airplane wing provides lift.

Answer 3

Speed difference between the air right on the roof, and the air just above it. This is not unlike the mechanism for lift with an aircraft wing. The difference generates a low pressure area, and sucks the roof off of the building.

Answer 4

moving wind creates low pressure. if the wind is blowing fast enough, the pressure becomes so low that the roof gets blown off from the inside. its the same idea behind airplanes. moving air over the top of the wing creates low pressure, which results in upward pressure on the bottom of the wing causing lift.

Answer 5

It works like an airplane wing. The slope of the roof deflects the airstream, creating both a downward lifting force and a longitudinal drag force. The drag force pulls the roof off.

Answer 6

Unless the roof is properly fastened down...