They’ve confirmed that it was a F1 Tornado that touched down in Colleyville on Tuesday night. As far as tornados go, F1s are pretty wimpy. They only reach wind speeds of about 80-100 miles an hour, which is enough to blow over trees and power lines, or perhaps cause severe roof problems for the house, but usually don’t cause fatalities. Basically, after a F1, homeowners need to contact their insurance companies about getting a new roof!
Another thing that matters is the width. Our tornado was only a couple hundred yards in width.
Here’s what an F1 would look like in the daytime. Notice, it’s not even very dark- not enough debris.
However, just an HOUR north of us in Lone Grove Oklahoma, an F4 hit at the same time. F4s are a whole different story. Their windspeeds reach between 210-250 miles an hour! F4s flatten entire towns. Not a building remains in Lone Grove and 8 people have been reported killed. Smaller tornados also ripped through downtown Oklahoma City most of Tuesday night.
Here’s a satellite view of the OK storm. Our storm was one of these thin fingers stretching out from the center.
Contrast this F4 with our wimpy F1!
Lone Grove search and rescue taking place yesterday
It’s hard to believe that all of this occurred just an hour north of us. It is comforting to know, however, that the last big tornado we had was in 2000, and it was only an F2. The most recent before that was an F2 in 1953 that was only a 100 feet wide. Dallas’ weather may be crazy, but we are not in tornado alley. Sure, there have been other strong tornados in Texas, but they occurred out in the flat country-side, far away from large cities.
So, if we have a small tornado every decade, I guess I can handle that. As long as it doesn’t flatten the Anthropologie down the road, I’m ok 🙂
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