Meteorologists use damage to estimate the maximum winds of a tornado at any given point. Engineers and meteorologists worked together to figure out how strong winds have to be to cause certain levels of damage.

Dr. Theodore Fujita pioneered the study of tornado damage in the mid-20th century. He developed the Fujita (F) Scale to rate damage to buildings, vehicles, and vegetation on a scale ranging from F0 (weak) to F5 (extreme).

Scientists began using a revamped version of the scale in 2007. This Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale reflects the fact that objects like homes and trees require much lower wind speeds to incur damage.

The Fujita/Enhanced Fujita scales are damage rating scales. Some ratings are controversial as a result. There are several cases where meteorologists have gotten accurate measurements of a tornado's winds, but couldn't find damage to warrant a higher F/EF-Scale rating.

Meteorologists confirmed 68,998 tornadoes between January 1, 1950, and December 31, 2023.

The vast majority of those tornadoes were relatively weak and short lived. Only 0.1% of all confirmed tornadoes were rated a top-of-the-scale F5 or EF-5.

Here's a breakdown of confirmed tornado ratings between 1950 and 2023:

F0/EF-0: 32,218 (46.7%)

F1/EF-1: 23,782 (34.5%)

F2/EF-2: 9,767 (14.2%)

F3/EF-3: 2,585 (3.7%)

F4/EF-4: 587 (0.9%)

F5/EF-5: 59 (0.1%)

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