Question on tornados

[Quasar44]

Just thinking a tad
Confused

Do homes get demolished by tornados because of the heavy winds or is it because of the low pressure zones

Maybe both

I don’t know

 

[WinterBorn]

The winds and what the winds are carrying. Sometimes a house will implode. That happened to my brother's house in 2011 in Tuscaloosa AL. His son's house next door was blown apart.

 

[Muhammed]

Just thinking a tad
Confused

Do homes get demolished by tornados because of the heavy winds or is it because of the low pressure zones

Maybe both

I don’t know

It's the flying cows.

 

[expat_panama]

The winds and what the winds are carrying. Sometimes a house will implode. That happened to my brother's house in 2011 in Tuscaloosa AL. His son's house next door was blown apart.

My understanding is that the pressure inside a tornado is so much lower than the outside (normal 15psi) that the buildings explode, not implode.

Just researched this and it appears I'm about 30 years out of date. in the 1990's it was shown that the explosion theory was debunked and the consensus now is that the demolition is the result of flying debris. Learn something new every day I guess...

 

[Dekster]

Just thinking a tad
Confused

Do homes get demolished by tornados because of the heavy winds or is it because of the low pressure zones

Maybe both

I don’t know

Can be both technically but more likely it is because intense winds and flying debris compromised the integrity of the walls and or roof.

 

[toobfreak]

Do homes get demolished by tornados because of the heavy winds or is it because of the low pressure zones

Actually, both are part of the same thing. The low pressure causes the winds as air rushes in to replace that lost. Anything that gets in the path of the inrush is met with the force of that flow.

Sometimes the RFD is even worse than the tornado itself.