the waco tornado was rated f5.what does that mean????

Answer 1

Tornadoes are rated on a scale from F0 for the weakest up to F5. The scale is based on how fast the tornado is spinning. F0 will have very little damage. An F1 may lift a roof off a house. In an F5 there is usually total devastation. I've seen picture where the asphalt has been torn away from the road where an F5 has passed. Less then 1% of tornadoes are F5.

Answer 2

That is the most powerful tornado that exists on the "F" scale (named for Dr. Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, who invented the scale). F0 is the smallest tornado that can do light damage. F5 is the highest rated tornado that causes major damage. There are higher F-numbers but there are certain physical properties of the atmosphere that would not allow them to exist, except for a rare short-lived F6 surge.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_intensity_and_damage

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Answer 3

Good question Ashley. My good friend, the late Dr. Ted Fujita, of the University of Chicago studied tornadoes for many years before he died. He had a lear jet with which he often tried to fly near enough to where a tornado may form so that he could observe one. Yet he never did until just shortly before he died. However, he did observe the destruction patterns of these storms and based on the aerial view and ground observations he developed a scale for rating a tornado once it had formed. This scale goes from F0 to F5, weak to violent, winds less than 72 mph to winds stronger than 261 mph, light damage such as broken tree branches to incredible damage such as cars moved over 100 m and highly damaged steel-reinforced structures. I will always remember him telling me in his native Japanese accent that he wanted to "fry his rear jet into the crowds" so that he might see a tornado. Hope you enjoyed this little anecdotal story about a very famous meteorologist.

Answer 4

As the movie "Twister" so eloquently put it, "the hand of God". Very nasty tornado lots of severe devastation. I liked the earlier post about Dr. Fujita. He was probably a very interesting guy.

Answer 5

It means the wind pressure it was suppling.