A Tornado Emergency is enhanced wording of tornado warnings used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during significant tornado occurrences in highly populated areas. Although not a new warning type from the NWS, instead issued in a Severe Weather Statement (or in rare cases, in the initial Tornado Warning), a Tornado Emergency generally means that significant, widespread damage is expected to continue and a high likelihood of numerous fatalities is expected with a large, strong to violent tornado.
There are instances where very few to no fatalities have resulted from strong to violent tornadoes (rated EF2-EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale), and not all tornadoes of at least ¼-mile in width produce catastrophic damage (though this is often assumed to be the case). Regardless, people in the path of a large tornado must take immediate safety precautions.
Read more about Tornado Emergency: Criteria, Tornado Safety, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words tornado and/or emergency:
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—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“In this country, you never pull the emergency brake, even when there is an emergency. It is imperative that the trains run on schedule.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)