A tornado damage survey, also known as a storm damage assessment, is a type of land survey that is conducted to determine the damage caused by

tornadoes A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

, and to give them ratings on the

Enhanced Fujita scale The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated EF-Scale) is a scale that rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage a tornado causes. It is used in the United States and France, among other countries. The EF scale is also unofficially ...

. Damage surveys have been used since the 18th century to determine tornado-caused damage, and have become increasingly common following the implementation of the

Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

in 1971.

History

Although it is unknown when damage surveys began to be used to determine structural and property damage, one of the earliest known surveys was conducted by German scientist

Gottlob Burchard Genzmer Gottlob Burchard Genzmer (8 November 1716 – 14 April 1771) was a German Lutheran theologian, tutor and naturalist, born in Hohen-Lübbichow (now Cedynia) and dying in Stargard. His pupils included the sisters Christiane and Charlotte of Mec ...

in the aftermath of the

1764 Woldegk tornado The 1764 Woldegk tornado was a powerful tornado that is claimed to be one of the strongest tornadoes ever documented in history, struck the town of Woldegk, Germany on 29 June 1764. Receiving the unique T11 rating on the TORRO scale along wit ...

. Genzmer published a detailed survey of the damage path from the tornado, which documented the 33 km (18.6 mi) long track. The study, known as the "Genzmer Report", was the first to be conducted on a single tornado. Damage surveys would become more common in the 1960s and 1970s, when

Ted Fujita was a Japanese and American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although ...

pioneered the

, used to determine the strength of tornadoes. Fujita himself had surveyed damage after the

atomic bombing of Nagasaki On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civili ...

to determine where the bomb had exploded from. Following the Fargo tornado in 1957, Fujita conducted one of the first damage surveys using photographic evidence and ground measurements, using 200 photos to determine the approximate track of the tornado. Following the implementation of the Fujita Scale in 1971, hundreds of post-event damage surveys have been conducted on tornadoes and other weather events to determine the rating of the tornado. In the 2020s, drones have been used to survey hard-to-access areas, most notably following the

2021 Western Kentucky tornado During the late evening hours of Friday, December 10, 2021, a devastating high-end Tornado intensity, EF4 tornado, sometimes referred to as the Western Kentucky tornado, Mayfield tornado, or The Beast, tracked a significant distance across West ...

Technology

Damage Assessment Toolkit

Since 2009, the Damage Assessment Toolkit (DAT), used by the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

, has been used to publish the preliminary results of damage surveys. An estimated 38,000 individual damage points have been recorded using the software.

References

{{reflist Surveying Tornado 1971 in science

History

Technology

Damage Assessment Toolkit

See also

References