It varies widely. Tornado ratings are based on the severity of the damage inflicted rather than the number of homes or buildings destroyed. For example, F4 damage to a house of good construction would typically consist of the house being leveled to the ground and left as a pile of rubble. So in some cases an F4 rating can be assigned based on the destruction of a single house, which sometimes happens in cases where a tornado tears across mostly open country. At the other end, a large F4 tornado that strikes a major urban area can destroy thousands of houses.
Typical F4 damage includes well built houses leveled, poorly anchored houses blown away, and trees stripped of bark.
F4 and F5 are the two strongest categories of tornado on the Fujita scale. A damage based scale which rates tornadoes from F0 to F5. An F4 tornado will reduce most houses to piles of rubble. An F5 tornado will completely annihilate almost any house and wipe it clean off its foundation. Winds in an F5 can exceed 300 mph.
Damage is described as "devastating." examples of F4 damage include: well-built houses leveled, trees debarked, houses with weak connections do foundations blown away some distance.
F4 and F5 are the two strongest categories of tornado on the Fujita Scale. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes from F0 to F5 by the severity of damage done. An F4 tornado will level most houses and strip the bark from trees. An F5 tornado, with winds than can exceed 300 mph, will completely annihilate a well built house and sweep it clean off its foundation. Cars and even houses can be thrown hundreds of feet.
On May 4, 1960 an F4 tornado destroyed a large portion of Soper, but did not kill anyone. An EF0 tornado tocuhed down near Soper on April 9, 2008 and did not result in any deaths either.
There were a number of tornadoes in 1925, but presumably mean the Tri-State tornado. The damage from this tornado was catastrophic. It was an F5, and maintained F4 to F5 intensity along almost its entire path. This means that in places well-constructed houses were completely blown off their foundations, and in many others they were left as piles of rubble. The tornado struck numerous towns, completely destroying some of them. It is estimated that 15,000 homes were destroyed.
A powerful tornado with an EF4 or EF5 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale has the potential to flatten houses. These tornadoes produce winds ranging from 166-200+ mph that are capable of causing extreme damage to structures.
Tornadoes are rated not based on the quantity of the damage they cause but on the severity. In an F4 tornado well-constructed houses are completely leveled and left as piles of rubble. Houses not securely anchored to their foundations may be blown away. Trees are stripped of their bark and asphalt may be peeled from roads.
An F4 tornado can be quite devastating. The typical damage indicator for an F4 tornado is well-constructed houses that are completely leveled. Even structures not impacted by the strongest winds of the tornado are likely to be severely damaged. Although it is not always the case, F4 tornadoes are often quite large, often over a quarter of a mile wide, with a fair number growing to over a mile across. This means that they can create large swaths of damage. In some cases entire towns may be destroyed. Although most tornadoes that go down in history are in the F5 category, a few F4 tornadoes have made the list as well.
F3 and F4 refer to ratings on the Fujita scale, which measures the strength of a tornado based on the severity of the damage it causes. It has six categories ranging from F0 at the weakest, causing minor damage, to F5 at the strongest, causing total devastation. F3 on the scale indicates a strong tornado that will partially or mostly destroy well-built houses, but leave some walls standing. F4 indicates a violent tornado that will completely level well-built houses.
Originally winds in an F4 tornado were estimated to be 207-260 mph, but this was found to be far too high and revised to 166-200 mph for an EF4 tornado. A tornado of this strength can completely level well-built houses, peel asphalt from roads, and turn large objects into high-speed projectiles.
Yes. Tornadoes have been known to lift houses into the air. It usually takes a very strong tornado to do so, generally of F4 or F5 intensity.