I'm having to go on a trip tomorrow, but the weather is bad where i have to go at the moment, and threatens to hit the area I have to go through. I need to know what kind of storm can produce tornadoes that strong, how strong they are, and what kind of safety precautions to take when traveling.
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The weather will most likely not produce a tornado in your direct path. Super Cell Thunderstorms are the thunderstorms capable or producing a Super Cell (Tornado). A Super Cell can produce any type of tornado of the 6 ranks, ranked on the Enhanced Fujita or EF scale. In the EF scale, tornadoes are rated on the amount of damage they do, EF0 being the lowest and EF5 being the highest. The first link posted below has more information about the Enhanced Fujita Scale, including the wind speed ranges for all 6 ranks, and the size of the tornadoes. EF5 tornadoes, sometimes referred to as "the finger of God," is the most powerful and also the rarest tornado. In the past, decades have gone by where their hasn't been a single EF5 tornado. The most recent EF5 tornadoes occurred in 2011. In fact there were 3. But 3 EF5 tornadoes in one year is EXTREMELY rare. These EF5 tornadoes is part of the reason 2011 got the nickname "The Year of the Tornado." A EF3 tornado is powerful enough to derail 40 full freight train cars with a wind range of 158-207 mph. A EF2 tornado or lower will generally be too week to cause that much destruction. The description below also says how powerful each tornado is. As for precautions, if possible listen to the weather on the radio and be alert of tornado sirens and changing weather. You can also check www.weather.com before you leave to know the estimated times of when the storm will cross your path. If you really wanted you could try to plan around the storm to either get there slightly early or late. If there does happen to be a tornado near you and the sirens start going off and your in a car, you can either get out and lay in the ditch covering your head with your face down or stay in the car and protect your head while crouching down. There are good things and bad things about both options. For the ditch... Positive - Most of the debris will fly over you and you will be less effected by the wind. Negative - There is a chance that debris could fall on you and you are more likely to get struck by lightning since you are exposed. For the car... Positive - The car has airbags that can help protect you. The metal of the car can help to deflect or stop some of the debris, and you will be less effected by the wind. The car also has seat belts that could be helpful as well. Negative - The car could flip pinning you inside it. A piece of debris could fly through the window and kill you, and there is a chance that if the tornado is powerful enough, you could get thrown up in the air 10,000+ feet and free fall to the ground, but that is very unlikely. Or if you really want you could just drive away and hope not to get hit but that is not recommended. Don't be worried though, because there is a very small chance that you will come across a tornado. Just check the weather channel or the online weather channel and see how it looks, and if your terrified to go, cancel your trip and see if you can reschedule for a later time. :) Hope I helped! Enjoy your trip :D !