Tornado strength is measured by which factors?

• A. Temperature change
• B. Pressure drop
• C. Wind speed and damage
• D. Size of the tornado

Answer: (C)

Tornado strength is about the forces the winds exert and the damage they cause. The most reliable way to gauge how strong a tornado is comes from estimating the wind speeds and the resulting destruction, which is exactly how the Enhanced Fujita scale works: it uses observed damage indicators to infer peak wind speeds. Size of the tornado isn’t a dependable indicator because a large tornado can be weaker than a smaller one, and a small tornado can be exceptionally intense. Temperature changes happen in storms, but they aren’t used to rate tornado strength, and while there’s a connection to pressure inside the storm, pressure drop isn’t a practical rating measure. So the best answer is wind speed and the damage it produces.