Could a Tornado Destroy a Skyscraper? Tornadoes in Urban Cities

Could an EF5 tornado destroy a skyscraper in a downtown city district? Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe for more tornado related content! Love y'all for real.

contents:
0:00 Intro -Oklahoma City OK, Wichita KS, Birmingham AL Tornado
2:11 The Tornado Fujita scale
5:11 Downtown Tornado Myth
6:04 History of Downtown Tornadoes in Waco, Dallas and Lubbock
9:50 Skyscrapers
13:06 My theory on what would happen

Sources:
The B1M Youtube Channel:

The Tornado Archive (Great Website for real)

Skyscraper Center:

Baylor University - Texas Collection Fred Gildersleeve

Music:
C418
Abelard Seinwave
Goldeneye 007 N64 Music - Bunker I
Composers: Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland

#tornado #skyscraper #destruction

[SwegleStudios]

Hey Everyone! Quick correction!
I used the vintage F-Scale wind-speeds on the video rather than the current EF-Scale:
The actual metics are:

EF0- 65-85 mph
EF1: 86 - 110 mph
EF2: 111 - 135 mph
EF3: 136 - 165 mph
EF4: 166 - 200 mph
EF5: 200+ mph

My b my b. Thanks for watching!

[systlin]

As a midwesterner I can tell you I sure wouldn't want to be in one of those glass high rises when a tornado turns all that glass into shrapnel.

[BenriBea]

Fun fact: The Waco tornado explained in this video was actually the first ever tornado to officially be deemed F5!

[SadisticSenpai]

The EF5 that hit Joplin moved the hospital about 4 inches off its foundation (or something like that, I might have the exact amount wrong - it was in a Nova documentary). So an EF5 possibly is capable of bringing a skyscraper down if it hits it at the right angle. It's definitely capable of destabilizing the building the point where it just needs to be demolished.

[billclinton]

now do what happens when a skyscraper hits a tornado

[dawson]

Thank you for making this video.

Prior to moving to Kansas I really didn't have any experience with tornadoes beyond what Hollywood had shown me.

In 00' an F3 hit my small town of Parsons, KS causing a lot of damage, but luckily no lives were lost that I know of. A little over a decade later Moore, Ok was wiped off the map. So sad. The aftermath is still visible to this day.

The storm that hit Joplin, Mo, which is about 50 miles east of my house, was devastating. I remember looking up at the sky that day and honestly being scared of mother nature. The clouds looked odd with the upper and lower ones going in opposite directions. There was even a mid level current going against both of them. I knew something was about to happen. It was an odd experience prior to finding out what happened about an hour later.

When I saw the Weather Channel storm chasers reporting 2 miles from my house I knew that something big was about to happen. 158 people lost their lives not long afterwards... It still makes me sad to think about what happened in a handful of minutes that afternoon.

[Cammi_Rosalie]

My Dad knew some people who lived way out in the country in Kansas. Just open plains, wheat fields and a patch of trees where their house was. He said that one day they had friends over for a BBQ and a game of cards. The weather turned nasty and everyone went inside and began playing cards at the kitchen table to wait out the storm. They had their radio on and the news broke in with tornado warnings. So someone went outside to see if they could see it and it was barreling down on the property. Everyone rushed to the basement and sheltered there. They described the "freight train" sound and a loud BANG and the house shook. After a few minutes it was all over. When they came back upstairs everything seemed just fine. Nothing out of place. The power wasn't even out. The radio was still going on about the tornado. So they just went back to playing cards thankful of "dodging a bullet". A little while later, some spots appeared on the ceiling near the wall of the kitchen. The spots began to get darker and darker and soon began to ooze a black goo. The owner of the house got on a chair to check it out. It was engine oil. Dark, used engine oil. So he went to the little hatch to peek into the attic. When he shone his light toward the area above the kitchen, he saw his friends car, with the roof caved in, upside down in the attic. Oil was leaking out of the engine. There was no apparent hole in the roof where it could have burst through. The roof joists and wood slats beneath the shingles were intact.

He came out and told his buddy to go up and have a look. He did and was justifiably upset. They all went outside and looked at the roof above the kitchen. It was intact. A few shingles blown off, but otherwise just fine. Looking around they saw that one tree was snapped off and the top half was scattered across the field. That was when someone noticed that the eave wasn't quite right. It was crooked and out of place by and inch or so. Closer inspection showed that nails were showing and that whole side of the roof was shifted by an inch or two.

Their conclusion: The tornado had lifted the roof and simultaneously tossed the car into the air where it landed upside down in the attic, then the roof flopped back down over it. Lucky for the homeowner, his other friend had a crane. They had to tear the roof off and crane the car out of there. Part of the tree was discovered embedded into the top of the engine. It ripped open the valve cover, allowing the oil to leak out. The hood was nowhere to be found. A few of the ceiling joists below the car and the whole kitchen ceiling had to be replaced and that half of the roof was also rebuilt. The hood of the car was found 3 months later about a mile away in a field when the farmer went out to harvest the wheat. Damn near ran it over with the combine.

I have also heard about someone finding a drinking straw driven into a tree like a nail. Not smashed and accordion-ed against the tree. Like 2 inches of it just punched into the tree. Tornadoes can do some weird shit.

[debbkiato]

You should make a video of "the strangest damage from a tornado". Like forks in a tree or whole houses lifted and set back down. I'm guessing people have videos and pics of something. You typically only see them in movies but the weird does exist. I love your videos, keep on posting!!

[MissRobbiOKC]

I worked for a company in a tall downtown building of OKC. They told us that in case if a tornado everyone should go to the bathrooms which were along the inside core of the building by the elevators. It wasn't put to the test but during the 1995 Murrah Building Bombing some people who were inside the bathrooms said they did not feel the building shake. It was about 4 blocks from the bombing. Those in the offices did feel it. So I think the bathrooms would be the best choice for survival in the event of an EF5.

[jereboy]

As somebody who lives in Wichita, I got a good chuckle seeing you describe our Epic Center as a skyscraper. I guess it counts as one technically, just have never heard anybody describe it that way.

We've had plenty of tornados during my life here. Even some in the city area. Last year, in April 2022, there was one that went right by me, clear as day and tore up a nearby suburb town called Andover. That was pretty scary, but awesome to witness with the naked eye. That Tornado in particular has so many videos here on YouTube from like every angle.

[plushman]

Dude, I was a history major too!
Awesome insight. Horrible to think about cheap construction—cutting corners in a building then an EF-5 hits and blows it away

[bradleymosman]

The widest tornado ever recorded was apparently the 2.6 mile wide El Reno monster in 2013. Wind speeds were over 300 mph. It was headed directly for the hotel where my daughter worked in downtown OKC. She was going from room to room telling people to get to the basement.

[talen]

First talks about meteorology, then talks about structural engineering, “I’m not an engineer, I’m a history major.” I love it, good job!

[deisisase]

It's a shame that Dixie Alley isn't as well known as traditional Tornado Alley because more than half of tornadoes that occur there are nocturnal events, and a nighttime tornado is 2-3x more deadly than a daytime one.

[enflamedpapaya]

I spent years in Lubbock for college and I never researched the tornado that happened there! It’s so weird seeing all those streets and buildings that I’ve been to so many times on your channel

[cac_deadlyrang]

I know it was a nuke, but Hiroshima’s Genbaku Dome is a good example of how concrete structures can survive tornado force winds (albeit not unscathed).

[crruptedhusky]

Fun Fact: While EF6 is impossible to attain, F6 is possible. The damage level of this is considered "inconceivable" and only one tornado has even managed to get this rating, only in preliminary damage results. The prelim for the 1974 Xenia OH tornado was F6 before being downgraded to F5.

Also another thing i noticed. When you were naming the scales of the (E)F scale, you were saying EF2, EF3, and so on, but those wind speeds are actually for the original F scale. The F scale has higher wind requirements than the EF scale but the F scale is much easier to get F5 on than EF5, due to the F scale being weird and underdeveloped even compared to the EF scale. Hope this helps! love your vids :)

[jamesdowell]

Dude, THANK YOU! Have wondered about this for years and there are zero good answers online. Would love you to interview a structural engineer with specific expertise on Tornados for this. Tim Marshall would be the dream, but really anyone with expertise in both Tornados and structures. Otherwise I do think the honest answer remains "we don't know." The biggest question mark is how skyscrapers react to rotating and updrafting winds. As you show, skyscrapers are tested and rated against *straight line winds*. What happens when the wind is acting as an irregular, twisting, and lifting force against the structure? This makes a huge difference. Just look at the damage caused by a given straight line windspeed in a strong hurricane, and compare it to the completely different and exponentially more severe damage from a tornado of equivalent windspeed. Thanks again!

[Britspence]

Interesting video, tornadoes have always fascinated - and scared the heck - out of me. Kudos on your major, recent events have made me realize that we need all of the history majors we can get.

[KingThiccness]

Tulsa had a skyscraper hit by a tornado a few years ago. It had destroyed many windows and the interior of this empty office space. It is being rebuilt but it took a long time to make repairs.