They decided to make the final, 'boss' tornado an F5?

I hated how they had to explain the Fujita scale to another Oklahoman. Everyone here knows about it.

There is no such thing as an F-6. Even on the Enhanced Fujita scale there is no EF-6 (EF-5 is winds greater than 200MPH with no upper delineation). The reason being that the Fujita and EF scales classify tornadoes based on damage ("how much it eats"). F/EF-5 indicates total annihilation. You can't destroy more than everything..

The EF scale went into effect in 2007, because Fujita grossly overestimated the wind speeds required to do certain amounts of damage. No tornado after 1/31/07 would have been "this close to F6", because the EF scale has no upper limit for EF-5. The one you are referring to (Moore, OK - '99) was nowhere near the upper limit of the F5 rank. There were two tornadoes that day that had ground-level wind speeds of approximately 260MPH. The 300+MPH speeds were measured by Doppler-On-Wheels several hundred feet above ground level, and Fujita does not use AGL winds as a factor, since they do not directly cause the damage..

The fact that they are 'classifying' tornadoes by sight and radar (and even "predicting an F-5") at all is actually erroneous/creative license. Because (especially back then) tornado wind speeds can not be clocked in real time without the right equipment in the right place, tornadoes are not classified until official damage surveys are done - which may be several days later. This also means that tornadoes which occur in places where there is little to destroy (such as an open field) can never be accurately classified. And while the Storm Prediction Center has gotten very accurate as far as predicting where conditions are favorable for tornadic development, they still can't predict exactly when or where a tornado will form or how strong it will be.

That's actually one of the things I dislike about the movie. On one hand it's a movie about nature but it has a structure of having a big boss. The movie make it seem like the team is out to get revenge on the big bad tornado.

<<It just seems to me that, if they had wanted to give the audience the impression of a truly devastating tornado, they should have written it so that the final encounter was with a tornado described as being the first in history to push the speed record into a new category. >>

They did, didn't they? After the final tornado dissipated, when the gang runs up to Jo & Bill at the water pump house, one of them says something to the effect that the tornado was the strongest one on record, or largest, or fastest, or something.

I believe the reason they all went quiet was because it was an F5 that took Jo's dad. So it's an automatic downer subject

ONLY an F5 you say? Only the highest category ever recorded?

That's what some people want from action movies. More! Bigger! The biggest in history!

The film was big enough and bombastic enough already. The LAST thing it needed was to be even bigger.



Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

Good points. More problems with this movie.

I gotta go feed that thing in Room 33.

They may have been saving it for a sequel, it may have just been false rumours but I heard years ago they were making a sequel featuring a tornado similar to the Tri State Tornado.