F5 damage is characterized as incredible.
F5 damage includes well constructed houses being torn clean from their foundations and steel reinforced concrete structures suffering heavy damage.
Skyscrapers will suffer "significant structural deformation."
F5 is the strongest category of tornado which rates tornadoes from F0 to F5 based on damage. An F5 tornado can sweep a house clean off its foundation.
It is not so much the biggest but the strongest tornadoes that are rated F5. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes from F0 to F5 based on how severe their damage is. F5 damage is the worst, it is complete destruction. F5 tornadoes tend to be very large, but aren't always. Size is not a factor in assessing tornado strength.
An F5 tornado does not form directly from an F1 tornado. Tornado intensity is determined by the Enhanced Fujita Scale based on wind speeds and damage. It is possible for a tornado to rapidly intensify due to various atmospheric conditions, leading to an increase in intensity from an F1 to an F5 tornado.
Amazingly, there were no deaths in the Elie tornado, which is unusual for an F5. The one house which suffered F5 damage was unoccupied at the time it was struck.
There is not given size for an F5 tornado as ratings are based on damage rather than size. Typical F5 damage is well constructed houses blown clean off their foundations.
There are theoretical categories beyond F5 but none of theme have ever been used. Since F5 damage is total destruction there is no real way of rating a tornado higher than F5. Also, a tornado's rating is not dependent on its size. So a bigger tornado does not necessarily get a higher rating.
Damage photographs from the Tri-State tornado show large areas that were completely leveled, with some neighborhoods swept away. That is a strong indicator that the tornado was an F5.
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.
It would be difficult to say, since the highest rating a tornado can receve is F5. In F5 damage, nbearly all structures are completely destroyed. House-sized structures are completely blown away. If a tornado were to theoretically attain F6+ intensity, it would be difficult, if not impossible to distinguish from an F5, as F5 damage is already total destruction.
F5 damage is described as "incredible."
The last F5 or EF5 tornado in Iowa was on May 25, 2008 when a large tornado caused EF5 damage in the towns of Parkersburg and New Hartford, Iowa.
A F6 tornado does not exist on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which ranges from F0 to F5. The most powerful tornado category, an F5 tornado, has wind speeds exceeding 200 mph and can cause catastrophic damage.