Tornado classroom

I've decided to bend my "no pictures of tornado damage" rule in order that people may learn a little about F1 tornados. Many people are foolish enough to chase storms. I should know, I'm one of them. The difference with me is I've made the effort to learn about thunderstorms and tornados first, which allows me (in most cases, anyway) to stay well out of harms way. That's not the case for many people who do this, though. So tonight I'm going to show every how even a "small" tornado can be deadly.

On August 18th, Wisconsin had a tornado outbreak. The tornado in Stoughton was large enough to scare most people from getting too close, but I've heard several accounts of people getting too close to the several F1 and F0 tornados. The tornado that struck Fort Atkinson that night was an F1 tornado-in the grand scheme of things, it was small. But it was still big enough to do harm.
This is a little difficult to see, but the tree on the right of this picture was a fairly nice sized tree. The winds had twisted the tree, and the torque placed on the trunk caused it to splinter and snap. Most amateur storm chasers aren't too afraid of downed trees, but the thing to remember is that splintered shards from that tree become little missiles traveling, in this case, about 100 mph.

This is a metal storage shed, the type you may rent to hold belongings in during a move. The tornado demolished a small portion of the shed. The damage done to this building is bad enough, but added to that is the fact that this small tornado flung large pieces of metal from this shed across a busy road. They came to rest about 75 yards away.
Again, structural damage is part of the curiosity factor that drives amateur storm chasers, so I am going to present the most convincing piece of evidence for why even small tornados should be accorded much respect. This is a hotel is approximately 60 yards from the metal storage shed shown above. The tornado took a small piece of metal debris and launched it into the hotel, where it embedded itself into the wall. If someone is outside and in the vicinity of a tornado, small pieces of debris such as this can be deadly. If someone's car is hit with a piece of debris such as this, the damage is going to be pretty bad, and if it were to hit the windshield or side window of the car, it can be deadly to the driver or passengers.

If you are going to go out and chase storms, know what you are doing. If you find yourself in the storm, give up the chase and take cover. When the tornado warning first went out for Jefferson County, I was going to go to a vantage point to view the incoming storm that was close to home, mostly because it seemed like the storm was going to track to our north. In the short amount of time I took to get ready, the storm changed track slightly, and I knew better than to try to view this one. I'll admit, I'm dumb for doing this sort of thing. But I knew when not to risk it.

Rumor has it that one person driving through town saw the tornado and followed it in their car, taking digital photos. I'll admit, I'm hoping that my friend of a friend can get a hold of those images so I can see them. Doing that was dumb, though, and that person is lucky they weren't hurt or killed, even by this small tornado.