Lab 14: Tornadoes

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to understand all aspects of a tornado, from its lifecycle, how it’s rated, and the environment that created it, and the environment of a thunderstorm. This will build upon skills previously learned through the semester so that students are more confident and comfortable with these skills. 

Learning Objectives: Apply the Enhanced Fujita Scale to estimate the wind speeds produced by a tornado at a particular location. 

The Lifecycle of a Tornado

A tornado's life is more complex than you might think! In this section, we will review the basics before completing the lab that shows this evolution: 

EF Rating

The EF (Enhanced Fujita) scale is how tornadoes are rated, from EF0 being the weakest to EF5 being the strongest. Damage done by the tornado is telling of certain indicators for cutoffs of wind speed strength. The maximum damage done by the tornado is the EF rating the tornado is assigned. 

Damage Pictures (Open this subpage to view the pictures needed to work on the lab)

Next Page: The Lifecycle of a Tornado