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What Can Do More Damage Tornados Or Hurricanes?


Ja23

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Not sure where to put this but move it to the correct place mods.

Was looking around on google and found it interesting. Tornados can pop out of no where and do damage with very high wind speeds but only last for a short time. But with a hurricane you have more of a warning but they can last much longer but wind speeds don't sometimes get as high as a tornado also hurricanes are huge compared to tornados. So what do you think?

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Posted
  • Location: The Deben Valley, Suffolk
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, Thunderstorms, very cold (inc. anticyclonic) weather
  • Location: The Deben Valley, Suffolk

Firsly I would suggest looking at the Fujita scale; used to asscess the strength of a tornado by the damage caused.

F0 Gale tornado 40-72 mph Some damage to chimneys; breaks branches off trees; pushes over shallow-rooted trees; damages sign boards.

F1 Moderate tornado 73-112 mph The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.

F2 Significant tornado 113-157 mph Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light object missiles generated.

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

F4 Devastating tornado 207-260 mph Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown off some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated.

F5 Incredible tornado 261-318 mph Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel re-inforced concrete structures badly damaged.

F6 Inconceivable tornado 319-379 mph These winds are very unlikely. The small area of damage they might produce would probably not be recognizable along with the mess produced by F4 and F5 wind that would surround the F6 winds. Missiles, such as cars and refrigerators would do serious secondary damage that could not be directly identified as F6 damage. If this level is ever achieved, evidence for it might only be found in some manner of ground swirl pattern, for it may never be identifiable through engineering studies

Just try googleing pictures of the track where an F4 or F5 tornado. You will see that the track left is essentially just earth with little or no vegetation left. However a tornado may only last from a few seconds and in rare cases up to an hour (although the maximum strength is unlikely to be sustained for long.

On the other hand a hurricane will cover a much larger area although the damage is lighter in comparison (although homes may still be flattened especially cheaper timber framed housing often seen in The US). I suppose the best way to assess the damage would be the cost of the clearup, and a hurricane will win handsdown on this.

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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Yep almost impossible to compare the two tbh

The Greensburg EF5 Had Incredible Damage with winds up to 280mph whereas the Moore F5 In 1999 peaked at just under 320mph (Measured by a Dow Radar Truck) Both damage areas were like an Atomic Bomb explosion, Hurricanes can be upto 300 miles wide and the damage would be over a greater area affected by the Spiral Bands. So both are equally devastating but can NOT Be compared easily.

Paul S

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Posted
  • Location: Hayward’s Heath - home, Brighton/East Grinstead - work.
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and storms
  • Location: Hayward’s Heath - home, Brighton/East Grinstead - work.

Add the storm surge and widespread rainfall, then flooding from a hurricane will ultimately cause the most devastation without necessarily having the strongest wind speeds.

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Posted
  • Location: Watford, Hertfordshire, 68.7m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Humid Continental Climate (Dfa / Dfb)
  • Location: Watford, Hertfordshire, 68.7m ASL

F6 Inconceivable tornado 319-379 mph These winds are very unlikely. The small area of damage they might produce would probably not be recognizable along with the mess produced by F4 and F5 wind that would surround the F6 winds. Missiles, such as cars and refrigerators would do serious secondary damage that could not be directly identified as F6 damage. If this level is ever achieved, evidence for it might only be found in some manner of ground swirl pattern, for it may never be identifiable through engineering studies

You can never get an EF6 tornado as it would be still classed as an EF5, and an EF5 winds are 250mph+ now as they found that 250mph was more then enough to do F5 damage..

A powerful hurricane/cyclone/typhoon will do more damage over a wider area but a tornado will do more damage with in a small area.

Edited by MisguidedPromotions
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Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

Add the storm surge and widespread rainfall, then flooding from a hurricane will ultimately cause the most devastation without necessarily having the strongest wind speeds.

A very good point. The Bhola cyclone that hit East Pakistan in 1970 killed 500,000 people primarily through a storm surge that flooded most of the low-lying islands of the Ganges delta.

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Posted
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)

Indeed, the biggest killer from Hurricanes is flooding caused by storm surge which irrespective of storm strength, could be deadly depending on the geographical setting of any settlement (i.e, if below sea level, a tropical storm or even depression could do a lot of damage).

In the case of tornadoes, an EF0 or 1 could tear the roofs of houses and batter streets with tiles and other debris/schrapnel, causing extensive damage.

It is, I'm afraid, a bit too wide open.

I would suspect any textbook you read would say hurricanes are on average more damaging (due to affected area being far greater), but if I was forced to get hit full on by either, I'm afraid I'd rather it be a Cat5 hurricane than an EF5 tornado (hands down!!)

Edited by Harry
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Posted
  • Location: Isle of Lewis
  • Weather Preferences: Sun in summer, snow in winter, wind in Autumn and rainbows in the spring!
  • Location: Isle of Lewis

I remember doing an honours exam on something similar at uni many moons ago. I suppose it really depends on what you mean by damage.... loss or damge to property, humans, farmland or other resources.

One must take a look at some of the most devastating hurricanes and tornados both of the F4/F5 scale. Most devasting tornados happen in relatively unpopulated areas of the USA plains, while hurricanes can happen almost anywhere coastal within the tropis. With hurricanes, epespcially in areas that are low lying poor regions eg, Bangladesh when typhoon hits and its a bad un as in 1991 it can claim the lives of millions, the worst tornado will claim probably something in the region of 100 people.

Tornados, though intense, generally dont live very long and have a destruction path of perhaps a mile max in width, while a tropical cyclone can claim to cause damage over 100x that width.

With tropical cyclones we generally see them coming and can prepare.. at least that saves lives... but very rarely saves property. With a tornado there is very little warning and its this that causes the deaths. TS in developed countries can cause 100's of billions of dollars of damage, as with the Hurricane Katrina and unfortunately we will see the same with this beauty over queensland. Tornados although they cause utter destruction in one area, it is usually a very small stretch.

The cost isnt also to humans, massive stretches of farmland can also be destroyed, by the tidal surge. Salt water isnt good for any kind of crop, unless its sea weed.

So Id go for a hurricane.... why because it causes greater loss of life over a wider area for a longer period of time.

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