Fujita Tornado Scale
Fujita Tornado Scale |
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| F-Scale / Intensity Phrase | Wind Strength / Frequency | Description of Damage |
| F0 Gale tornado |
40-72 mph 35-62 knots 64-116 kph 29% |
Minimal Damage - Some damage to chimneys, TV antennas, roof shingles and windows. Breaks branches off trees, pushes over shallow-rooted trees, damages sign boards. |
| F1 Moderate tornado |
73-112 mph 63-97 knots 117-180 kph 40% |
Moderate Damage - Automobiles overturned, carports destroyed, trees uprooted, peels surface off roofs, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, moving autos pushed off the roads. |
| F2 Significant tornado |
113-157 mph 98-136 knots 181-253 kph 24% |
Major Damage - Roofs torn off frame homes, sheds and outbuildings are demolished, mobile homes overturned or destroyed, boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted, light object missiles generated. |
| F3 Severe tornado |
158-206 mph 137-179 knots 254-332 kph 6% |
Severe Damage - Exterior walls and roofs blown off well-built houses, metal buildings collapsed or are severely damaged, trains overturned, forests and farmland flattened, heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown. |
| F4 Devastating tornado |
207-260 mph 180-226 knots 333-419 kph 2% |
Devastating Damage - Few walls, if any, standing in well-built houses, structures with weak foundations blown off some distance, large steel and concrete missiles thrown far distances, cars thrown. |
| F5 Incredible tornado |
261-318 mph 227-276 knots 420-512 kph less than 1% |
Incredible Damage - Homes leveled with all debris removed, strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate. Schools, motels, and other larger structures have considerable damage with exterior walls and roofs gone, steel re-inforced concrete structures badly damaged. Automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters, trees debarked. |
| F6 Inconceivable tornado |
319-379 mph 277-329 knots 513-610 kph less than 1% |
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 |
We get a lot of tornados in Wisconsin. Here's a scale to help you determine the scale or intensity of those storms. The Fujita Scale is used to rate the intensity of a tornado by examining the damage caused by the tornado after it has passed over a man-made structure.