Without warning Before the super outbreak on that April day, Joseph Schaefer, current director of the Storm Prediction Center, recalls that meteorologists were aware that atmospheric conditions were possibly dangerous. But they had no reliable way to broadcast the information to those in harm s way. At the time, few commercial broadcasters were hooked up to the weather wire, and an infant weather radio network only contained about 50 to 60 stations, mostly on the coasts. The town of Xenia didn t even have a warning siren. Trees stripped of bark The Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale rates tornadoes from F0 to F5 based on wind speed and the amount of damage possible.
Extraordinary phenomena occur.
These monsters cause 70 percent of the deaths. The super outbreak of tornadoes in 1974 forced improvements in both technology and research, according to Schaefer. More scientists began to study how exactly storms form, and there was a push to upgrade satellite and radar technology as well as develop more reliable advance-warning systems.