"Government Revises Tornado Ratings Scale"

[GreenPartyVoter]

ATLANTA (AP) - The government is changing how it categorizes tornadoes after finding that it doesn't take 300 mph winds to disintegrate homes and turn cars into missiles - a 200 mph twister can do just as much damage.

The National Weather Service said Thursday it had changed the Fujita Scale, a three-decade-old system of ranking a tornado's strength, to align wind speeds more closely with actual damage.

"It was apparent that many of the speeds used in the estimates were too large, said Joe Schaefer, director of the service's Storm Prediction Center. "The scale guiding wind speeds wasn't in tune with reality."

The change was introduced at the American Meteorological Society meeting in Atlanta. However, the new system will not fully go into effect until February 2007, giving weather scientists time to adjust to it.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20060202/D8FH9BE01.html

[hatrack]

1. Will the new tornadoes go to 11?

Hey, I'm just sayin . . .

[KitchenWitch]

2. Perhaps a color coded scale - not unlike the DHS terror alert status

:eyes:

[woodsprite]

4. Anything above a 5 would be color coded "brown"

cause that's when Allllll the sh1t hits the fan.

[MuseRider]

3. Ha Ha!

My son is working right now with a guy who toured with Spinal Tap. I am waiting for the stories to come home.

[ewagner]

5. I get it!

:rofl:

this is Spinal Tap!

[sybylla]

6. Damn, those godless tornadoes

I can't think of tornadoes without thinking of the WKRP in Cincinnati episode where they didn't have a standard tornado warning script so they substituted the word tornado for communist in their "godless communists have invaded" warning script.

[Selatius]

7. Those tornadoes are the fault of liberals, gays, godless communists, etc.

It is because of these sick elements of our society that so angered God that he lifted up his veil of protection over this country and allowed those tornadoes to do their worst. If we want to get back into God's good graces, then we must help these sick people. We must cleanse them of sin and save their souls. It is God's will! Thy will be done! If need be, it must be done by "any means necessary."

:sarcasm: