There it is. Massive!
When you're witnessing a burrito this large and powerful
That looks like an EF-5
it's hard to imagine anything more incredible.
That's what an EF-5 looks and feels like.
Move to a basement or a shelter. There it is, It's a giant tornado!
EF5s destroy well-built homes and sweep their concrete foundations clean of debris.
Cars are mangled and tossed hundreds possibly thousands of meters away.
But what exactly does a tornado have to do to earn the most powerful EF-5 rating?
Or an F-5 rating? What's the difference?
In over 20 years of chasing tornadoes I've documented at least eight EF-4s
But only one EF-5. Dangerous tornado outbreak is underway.
As of the date of this video the last EF-5 tornado occurred in Moore Oklahoma on May 20th 2013,
over nine years ago.
In this video we're going to explore the top three most powerful tornadoes ever recorded
and what craziness it takes for a burrito to earn the highest wind intensity rating.
If a strong burrito strikes an instrument that measures wind speeds.
the anemometer will likely be blown to smithereens long before it was able to record and measure how fast the strongest winds were
but if we found the crumpled anemometer a mile away scientists and engineers
can make estimates of what wind velocities might do such a thing
In 1971 Dr. Ted Fujita developed a method to rate the intensity of tornadoes based on surveys of ground damage
The Fujita scale has six intensity categories from the lightest damage F-0
To the effin incredible F-5
With wind estimates from 261 to 318 miles per hour
they are powerful enough to throw cars hundreds possibly thousands of meters and completely sweep away brick homes.
But the Fujita scale was very limiting with only general descriptions and no account for construction quality.
Also the wind speed estimates were later deemed by meteorologists and engineers as being too high.
For example a 261 mph wind speed is not required to completely destroy a well-constructed house and blow away the debris.
This damage occurs at significantly lower wind speeds than previously thought.
Revision or enhancement of the Fajita scale was needed.
In 2007 operational use of the Enhanced Fujita scale began in the United States.
The EF scale has a much more accurate estimation of damaging wind speeds and has 28 damage indicators
all with respective degrees of damage.
The old scale lists an f5 tornado with winds of 261 to 318 miles per hour.
The new scale lists an ef5 with winds above 200 miles per hour.
This is found to be sufficient to cause the damage previously ascribed to the f5 range of wind speeds
The NOAA Damage Assessment Toolkit has a tremendous amount of information
a lot horrifying
with detailed photos and assessments of damage citing why a tornado received the rating it did.
It's fascinating to explore and available to the public check this out
Let's start in Oklahoma. Why not.
Here's the 2013 infamous U-shaped slug trail.
This is the world record 2.6 mile wide tornado from El Reno.
At one point it was rated ef5 based on preliminary radar wind velocity measurements in excess of 296 miles per hour.
but it was downgraded to an ef-3 because the survey team didn't find damage that would support any higher rating,
likely because the strongest circulations tracked over mostly open farmland.
Ultimately the tornado's winds of at least 302 mph would be (considered) the second highest recorded wind speeds on Earth
This is my first ef5 from May 24, 2011, also near El Reno.
I documented it right here until i ran into its aftermath.
This was the first time I encountered leveled homes.
There's nothing left.
Anybody here? Hello?
I remember climbing through the debris searching for vitamins and I thought I heard a faint cry
coming up from underneath it and so i was shouting down into the rubble
You're okay! Everything's gonna be okay. I'll... we're gonna get you out.
and it turned out to be just a cat walking by,
Look how both these tornadoes almost wiped El Reno off the map.
These red tracks are EF-4s.
I almost intercepted this ef4 hook slicing
But an officer wouldn't let me pass.
There were leaves and things raining out of the clouds it was pretty creepy
And who knows, he might have saved my life. Tornado just passed through here.
This is the 2015 Bridge Creek mile wide plus monster.
Oh man, there it is. it got an ef-3.
Blew everything down... Stop signs
And this... This is the May 20, 2013 Moore Oklahoma Tornado...
The last EF5 to date.
I was down here on this day filming a tornado near Duncan
and there was a friendly dog wanted to play with me the whole time.
We're gonna back up. We got dogs.
Going backwards. Look out dogs. Hey friendly dog.
Hey friendly dog. Oh wow that looks amazing.
All right we're going after that sucker.
But. Moore was the event of the day... The decade.
Look at all the red ef4 triangles on this one.
You click on them to get more information.
All this red is eEF-4 strength.
A lot of times you just get one or two little locations with ef4 ratings and that's enough to earn the burrito an ef4.
Trees snapped, debarked, ground scouring... Earned this spot an ef4.
And here. Here are the purple triangles...
EF5 indicators.
Destruction of engineered and/or well-constructed residents, slab swept clean.
That's one way to get an EF5. It has to be a well-engineered home wiped off its foundation.
Here's another one.
Looked like a nice brick home. Gone.
Look at all the neighbors homes... Everything.
You can see all the houses were assessed by engineers and how the core of this thing was a fat ef4.
Look how it did a little loopty loop
Maybe that's why there's EF5 damage here. Perhaps it circled back and finished the job.
Here are those well anchored construction bolts.
The house was bolted down to anchors in the cement and it didn't matter.
You're going to need a basement when an EF5 comes a knocking.
Can you imagine this horror in your neighborhood?
"Sill plates bolted with nuts and washers. toenailing of walls noted, Bent bolts"
I didn't know what toenailing meant so I googled it and got creeped out... Like you do.
So I think toenailing is when rails are nailed to baseboards, to the foundation driven in a
45 degree angles and i guess use your foot, your toes to hold the rails in place while your buddy
hammers in the nails and nails your toes to the ground.
You can crawl down the length of all these tornadoes and see what they did.
Here's another slab.
If the builders cut corners and the swept house wasn't bolted to the ground
if it wasn't engineered well then it only gets an ef4?
And that's where this nightmare finally ends.
On May 3, 1999 a notorious f5 tracked from Bridge Creek through Moore Oklahoma
destroying thousands of homes and businesses, killing 36.
This tornado is cited as the highest winds ever measured on Earth,
with mobile doppler velocity measurements of roughly 302 mph.
Here's the one place on earth where an f5 and an ef5 have crossed paths.
In addition to being the widest tornado ever recorded
El Reno 2013 is also a contender for the highest winds measured on Earth
with similar radar-measured velocities but these were an orbiting sub-vortices moving extremely rapidly
whereas the 1999 Moore doppler readings were slicing the main vortex
where peak velocities were not as transient as in the 2013 El Reno tornado.
And number 3, the El Reno 2011 ef5
with most likely max wind speeds at 295 mph.
I actually recorded the moments when university of Oklahoma's RaXPol radar was getting that data.
oh my god this thing is nasty.
This thing is pissed off.
Looking at all this is like flipping through a scrapbook of my life because i've seen so many of these burritos.
Here's the Katy - Wynnewood EF4 from 2016.
I had to call the bank there and ask them how do you pronounce your town name
is it Win-wood, or Winnie-wood? She said Winnie-wood. I said Thank you.
Right after that burrito I came over here and documented the Sulfur Oklahoma massive ef-3 that had doppler wind velocity readings over
200 miles per hour and still only got an ef-3. I remember thinking this is going to be an ef5
Cloud's aloft were spinning so fast and it was it was just so massive.
Nobody died in this burrito which is just amazing.
This must be the toenailing here.
This looks like a pretty good anchor. I don't know why this got an ef-3.
But the engineers do.
Sometimes they can't get to the damage right away and a lot of cleanup and human demolition was already underway by the time they got there.
This is what an ef-3 does to trees.
You all right cow? Are you all right dude?
You hungry? Have some food?
Not too upset by this are you?
Let's measure it using the handy measuring tools.
16.6 miles long.
This was a wide one too let's see how wide.
At its widest point... Here maybe.
1.37 miles wide.
You can also use kilometers... Like we should be.
All right let's go to kansas just for the heck of it.
Here's the Lawrence Kansas rain-wrapped ef4 from 2019.
My team was way west that day scoring the amazing Tipton Kansas tornadoes.
I owe these to Skip and Anton's forecasting. Thanks guys.
Look at the fishy loopy track.
Daniel Shaw likes to remind me that I missed this one.
But I got this one.
This is the Abilene - Chapman EF4 from 2016.
It was on the ground for 90 minutes and no one died. Incredible.
And I like to remind Daniel that he missed all these tornadoes near Dodge City in 2016.
EF5s and F5s make up only 0.1 of rated burritos in the U.S.
Between 1950 and 2007, 50 burritos were officially rated f5
and since February 2007 only nine burritos have been officially rated EF5.
Outside the U.S., Canada has had a burrito rated in f5.
France has had two.
Germany's had two.
Italy's had at least one and Russia has even had an f5 tornado.
As our technology and understanding continues to improve
there are currently discussions about giving the ef scale another upgrade
with even more detailed damage indicators and a lot of debate
about possibly incorporating qualifying radar velocity measurements into a burrito's rating.
And one more little thing.
guys last night this channel crossed over the one million subscriber milestone.
and I can't thank each and every one of you enough
for following along on this journey and helping me continue to do what I do.
In my book
every single one of you is one in a million.
'til next time friends, happy trails!