> > > We're a lot more worried about an F5 tornado hitting our > > > > house.) > > > > > > I think that you are more likely to be killed by a giant asteroid than > by an > > > F5 tornado. :-) > > > > Well, a giant asteroid hasn't hit Williamson County the whole time I've > > been living here, whereas a chunk of Jarrell was levelled in 1997, > > houses stripped off their foundations in some places; the only survivors > > in those areas were underground, so we took steps to maximize our > > chances of survival in *that* event. > > No hard feelings, but there is a bit of an error analyzing those > probabilities. Yes, a F5 death did occure in your county, but you really > need to look at the probability for the area, not just your county. Yes, > Austin has decently high probabilities, but they aren't all _that_ high. > I'd guess the chance of dying in any given year is around 1 in 10^7. I > don't sweat those type of numbers.
>From the weather geek in me: the Fujita-Pearson Scale is based on damage done to man-made structures. A super strong tornado in the Mississippi delta that destroys nothing valuable could be a F0, while a moderate tornado that by chance, as in it never moves more than a few feet for some minutes but completely destroys two houses, could be a F5. This we site compares death rates vs. scale and all tornaodes from 1950 - 1994. http://www.tornadoproject.com/fscale/fscale.htm Kevin T.
