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After every reported tornado, it's the job of the weather service to track its path, and estimate the damage,
But since tornadoes can travel hundreds of miles and touch down multiple times, that's not always easy. But there may be a new solution, in space.
They've counted their losses and their blessings. At this mom and pop hardware store, everyone has a tornado story.
NASA meteorologist Dr. Gary Jedlovek studies tornadoes and their devastation from pictures taken hundreds of miles away. He's discovered that high resolution satellite data, that can help forecast tornadoes, can also track the damage they leave behind.
Using satellite images of the earth's surface, land use and vegetation, Jedlovek developed a mathematical model to identify storm damage on the computer.
The result, high definition images that track a tornado's path of destruction, whether it's in a city or a forest far off the beaten path -- areas where damage can go undetected.
Information that can help communities clean up and rebuild, and help forecasters get a better understanding of the storms themselves.
TRACKING TORNADO DAMAGE FROM SPACE
THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE: The F Scale was developed in 1971 by Theodore Fujita to rate tornadoes and estimate their wind speed based on the damage they cause. But the original scale's limitations may have led to inconsistent ratings, including possible over-estimates of wind speeds. The new EF scale incorporates more damage indicators and degrees of damage to provide a more detailed analysis and better correlation between damage and wind speed.
TORNADO SAFETY TIPS:
1. Move to a pre-designated shelter, such as a basement
2. Stay away from windows
3. Get out of automobiles; don't try to outrun a tornado
4. Abandon your mobile home; mobile homes offer little protection from tornadoes
5. An underpass is not safe: debris can fly underneath it and be deadly. Instead, head for a ditch
The American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
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