Category f5 tornado. The most dangerous tornadoes. What does a tornado sound like?

A tornado (in America this phenomenon is called a tornado) is a fairly stable atmospheric vortex, most often occurring in thunderclouds. It is visualized as a dark funnel, often descending to the surface of the earth. The wind speed in a tornado develops very high - even in weak whirlwinds it reaches 170 km/h, and in some F5 category tornadoes a real hurricane rages inside - 500 km/h. Such a natural phenomenon can cause considerable destruction. Tornadoes occur in different parts of the planet, but most tornadoes and tornadoes occur in the United States, in the so-called “tornado alley.”

1. Daulatpur-Saturia, Bangladesh (1989)

The greatest destruction and casualties were caused by the tornado that hit Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. In this country, tornadoes are almost as frequent as on the North American continent. The diameter of the tornado exceeded 1.5 kilometers; it traveled 80 kilometers through the Manikganj district in the center of the country. The towns of Saturia and Daulatpur were the worst hit. 1,300 people were killed and 12,000 were injured. A powerful air whirlwind easily lifted into the air and carried away fragile buildings from the poorest areas of the cities. Some settlements were completely destroyed, and 80,000 residents were left homeless.

2. East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) (1969)

This drama took place in 1969, when Dhaka and its surrounding lands were still the eastern part of Pakistan. The tornado hit the northeastern outskirts of Dhaka, passing through densely populated areas. At that time, 660 people died and another 4,000 were injured. That day, two tornadoes passed through these places at once. The second hit the Kamilla area in Homna Upazila and claimed the lives of 223 people. Both tornadoes were the result of the same storm, but after their occurrence they took different routes.

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - during them not a single person may die, but at the same time a very significant...

3. Madarganj-Mrizapur, Bangladesh (1996)

Proportionally speaking, a small country like Bangladesh probably suffers even more from tornadoes than the United States. And the poverty of the population turns into the greatest harvest of victims that the elements collect here. No matter how people study this formidable natural phenomenon, in 1996 it again took its share of victims. This time, 700 Bangladeshis were killed and about 80,000 of their homes were destroyed.

4. “Tri-State Tornado”, USA (1925)

For a long time, this tornado that passed through the United States in the first quarter of the last century was considered the most destructive. Its trajectory ran on March 18 through the territory of three states at once - Missouri, Indiana and Illinois. According to the Fujita scale, it was assigned the highest category of F5. 50,000 Americans were left homeless, over 2,000 were injured, and 695 people died. Most people died in southern Illinois, and other cities were completely destroyed by the wind. The tornado raged for 3.5 hours, moving from state to state at a speed of about 100 km/h.
At that time there was no television, no Internet, and no special means of warning about the approaching disaster, so most people were taken by surprise. According to eyewitnesses, the diameter of the tornado funnel reached one and a half kilometers. The disaster caused damage worth 16.5 million dollars at the time (now it would be over 200 million). On this tragic day, 9 tornadoes raged across 7 states of America, killing a total of 747 residents that day.

5. La Valletta, Malta (1961 or 1965)

It would seem that an island as far from such surprises of nature as Malta also had to experience the power of angry nature on itself in the last century. This whirlwind originated over the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, after which it headed towards the island. Having sunk and broken most of the ships in Grand Harbor Bay, he came to land, where he was able to take the lives of over 600 Maltese. The most surprising thing is that eyewitnesses indicate the exact date of this disaster in different ways: for some it happened in 1961, and for others in 1965. Although they probably wrote about it in the newspapers of that time.

Throughout the history of mankind, powerful earthquakes have repeatedly caused colossal damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population...

6. Sicily, Italy (1851)

But this much older tornado is mentioned in many chronicles; it still attracts the attention of meteorologists and historians. An exact count of the victims was not carried out at that time, but there were no less than 600 people. It is assumed that the tornado acquired its colossal destructive power when two tornadoes came onto land at once and merged into one. Although history has not left any evidence for this, so this assumption will remain a hypothesis.

7. Narail and Magura, Bangladesh (1964)

Another tornado, which occurred in 1964 in long-suffering Bangladesh, devastated two cities and seven villages in addition. Approximately 500 people were killed and another 1,400 were reported missing. Despite the scale of this tragedy, very little information about it reached the world community.

8. Comoros (1951)

The African coast also turned out to be vulnerable to this type of disaster. In 1951, a giant tornado raged in earnest in the Comoros Islands, taking the lives of more than 500 islanders, as well as travelers from France. Could the latter have imagined that the earthly paradise, where they came to get pleasure, would turn into utter hell? In those years, the islands were under the protectorate of France, which decided not to disclose the details of the tragedy.

9. Gainesville, Georgia and Tupelo, Mississippi, USA (1936)

The powerful tornado, which was classified as an F5 in Gainesville and an F4 in Tupelo, literally and figuratively killed approximately 450 people, although the exact number was never determined. First, the disaster struck the city of Tupelo - it happened on April 5, 1936. At least 203 residents died there and another 1,600 were injured of varying degrees of severity. There are no exact figures for victims, but since newspapers at that time did not take into account victims among the black population, they were probably much higher.
The world was lucky that one one-year-old child survived in this utter hell, whom we later learned under the name Elvis Presley. The very next day, a tornado that passed Alabama attacked the city of Gainesville, located in Georgia. The Cooper Pants factory was especially hit by the disaster - 70 of its workers died, and another 40 were never found and therefore fell into the category of missing persons. In total, 216 people died in this city, and the state counted losses of 13 million dollars (today it would be 200 million). Early that April, numerous tornadoes of varying strength struck 6 different states: Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Hazardous natural phenomena mean extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena that occur naturally in that area...

10. Yangtze, China (2015)

In recent decades, people have learned to quite accurately predict the appearance of strong tornadoes, they began to build protective structures in dangerous areas, so in the event of a threat of a tornado, people can quickly evacuate. But even all these precautions did not help the Chinese in 2015, when a tornado suddenly fell from the sky onto a peaceful river cruise ship. 442 people died, but other ships, warned in time, avoided trouble.
From the listed cases, it becomes completely clear how such an impressive natural phenomenon as a tornado can be deadly and destructive.

World mythology is full of fantastic, invincible and deadly creatures. In reality, either nature or humanity is responsible for everything that threatens us. However, of all the destructive forces that exist on our planet, few can compare with the mythical monsters, except perhaps the tornado. These whirlwinds descend from the heavens like punishing swords and rise, like Atlanteans, above the tallest buildings.

What are these destructive natural titans? In this article we will look at what tornadoes look like, how they are formed and how they are classified.

Let's take a look in the bath

We've all seen the spiral of water that forms when water flows out of a bathtub, right? Then we all witnessed the fundamental design of a tornado. During draining, the water forms a vortex - a spiral funnel into which water particles are drawn. Because the drain draws in too much water, not all the particles can immediately fall to the very bottom, but they all tend to get there, accelerating and creating a spiral rotation. The same thing happens in a tornado, only the movement is created not by water, but by air, and it is directed not down, but up.

However, what exact weather conditions are needed for the formation of tornadoes? After all, they cannot just appear out of nowhere.

Thunderclouds and whirlwinds

Indeed, they cannot! Tornadoes are formed from thunderclouds in which there is already an upward flow of moist, warm air.

Thunderclouds, in turn, form like all others: warm, moist air rises and cools, causing water vapor to accumulate into a single mass. However, if the upward flow of air continues unabated, the clouds continue to grow and rise higher, where the vapor turns into a liquid state and then freezes.

An ordinary thundercloud can thus accumulate an incredible amount of energy, which in turn only increases the upward flow of air.

Clouds form when air vapor condenses and the moisture in them begins to change its physical state from gaseous to liquid, and then to solid. This process generates enormous amounts of heat, and heat is a form of energy.

A gram of water formed from steam releases 600 calories of heat, and when it freezes in the upper troposphere, another 80 calories are added. All this heat greatly increases the air flow towards the cloud.

Considering that a standard thundercloud can weigh tens of millions of tons, you can imagine how many calories of heat it generates. But a tornado does not form from a standard cloud.

Mesocyclone

The place where tornadoes form is a giant thundercloud called a supercell. It differs from ordinary ones not only in weight and size, but also in the presence of a mesocyclone - special conditions favorable for the formation of a tornado. Supercells, due to their incredible strength and energy, create a spiraling flow of air, reminiscent of the vortex we saw in the bathtub.

As soon as a mesocyclone appears in a thundercloud, the probability of a tornado forming in the next half hour increases to 50%. The air vortex descends to the surface of the earth and can reach a speed of 500 kilometers per hour. Once it reaches the surface, a tornado becomes an unpredictable torrent of destruction, turning everything from debris, trees and animals to cars into deadly projectiles.

The tornado remains driven by the thundercloud that spawned it. Often a tornado “jumps”, that is, it is interrupted in one place and resumes in another.

Small tornadoes can last only a few minutes and travel about a kilometer. Stronger whirlwinds can continue for hours, covering distances of hundreds of kilometers, while the elements cause irreparable damage to both nature and humans.

Tornado classification

Tornadoes were originally classified using the Fugitz scale, named after the meteorologist who proposed it in 1971. In 2007, the scale was slightly revised and called the Enhanced Fujita Scale. On the scale, tornadoes are divided into six types:

• F0 - wind speed up to 116 km per hour, minor damage - torn off branches, bent road signs, torn chimneys;
• F1 - wind speed from 117 to 180 km per hour, moderate damage - blown away roofing, overturned mobile homes, cars blown off the highway;
• F2 - wind speed from 181 to 253 km per hour, significant damage - uprooted trees, destroyed mobile homes, demolished roofs, overturned railway cars;
• F3 - wind speed from 254 to 332 km per hour, serious damage - destroyed forests, overturned trains, destroyed houses;
• F4 - wind speed from 333 to 418 km per hour, colossal destruction - houses and other small buildings removed from the foundation, cars lifted into the air;
• F5 - wind speed of 419-512 km per hour, incredible damage - destroyed buildings made of reinforced concrete.

Tornado or in other words tornado- a terrible natural phenomenon that sweeps away everything in its path. A powerful whirlwind is capable of destroying houses, breaking and uprooting trees, lifting cars into the air, destroying fields and plantations of crops and crops.

Tornado Facts

May 16, 1898 off the coast of Australia, pc. New South Wales, the world's tallest waterspout has been recorded. Its height was 1528 meters, and the diameter is only 3 m.

And the highest tornado on land was observed in 2004 on July 7 in the state of California (USA) in a national park. Its height was 3 650 meters.

The widest tornado was recorded on May 22, 2004 in the US state of Nebraska. Then the vortex reached the second most powerful category F4 and its diameter was 4000 m.

On May 3, 1999, a tornado of the highest category hit the United States near the city of Oklahoma - F5. Using Doppler radar, the wind speed inside the tornado funnel was measured - about 512 km/h This tornado was the most destructive. Oklahoma was completely destroyed, and the material damage caused by the force of the elements was estimated at 1.2 billion dollars.

The country in which tornadoes are recorded most often is - USA. In 2004, 1,819 tornadoes were reported in the United States. And in May 2003, 543 whirlwinds occurred. In 1974, from April 3 to April 4, 148 tornadoes were recorded across the midwestern and southern states of the United States.

A tornado in Oklahoma killed 91 people, but it was not the most destructive tornado. What are the 5 worst tornadoes in American history?

Moscow. May 21st. website – According to the latest data, 24 people became victims of the destruction (previously it was reported that 91 died), a significant part of them were children. However, the disaster that hit the suburbs of Oklahoma City was not the most powerful in US history.

The five most destructive tornadoes to ever hit American cities claimed a total of more than 1,800 lives. Entire cities were destroyed, and millions of dollars were lost to the budget.

1. Tri-State Tornado of 1925

As the name suggests, this tornado struck three states at once on March 18, 1925. The states affected were Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. This tornado was categorized as F5 on the Fujita scale.

This tornado went down in US history as the most "expensive" - ​​the damage amounted to more than $10 million in 1986 prices, that is, almost $3 billion in today's prices. In 2011, it was overtaken in cost by a tornado in Joplin (Missouri).

5. A series of tornadoes in the southwestern United States in 1947.

On April 9, 1947, several tornadoes struck the southwestern American states of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The most destructive was Glazier-Higgins-Woodward (named after the cities it destroyed). It covered more than 250 km, and along the way it claimed the lives of 181 people and injured almost a thousand.

Modern researchers believe that there could have been several tornadoes, but the strongest was category F5.

The tornado first hit the small town of Glasier, Texas. Local newspapers reported that two people were nearby when the tornado struck - the elements threw them 5 km away from each other.

Glasir was almost completely destroyed, as was most of Higgins.

The maximum speed was 80 km/h, and the width of the crater reached 2.9 km.

The most powerful tornado in world history

But even in total, these five cannot be compared with the tornadoes in Daulatpur and Saturia (Bangladesh). On April 26, 1989, an atmospheric vortex killed 1,300 people and injured more than 12,000. Given the lack of information, these figures are approximate.

It is not possible to evaluate it on the Fujita scale, since small houses of the poor population were hit by the elements, the stability of which is very difficult to assess. The design of the buildings is such that even a relatively weak gust of wind can overturn them.