Complete sample script can be found below.

Pitch

As severe weather season continues, the threat of tornadoes lingers. When a tornado occurs, it’s rated using the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale, which was developed by researchers at Texas Tech University as a replacement to the Fujita (F) Scale. Kishor Mehta, a Horn professor of Civil Engineering at Texas Tech, was one of the researchers behind the development of the EF Scale. He described why a change to the original tornado rating system was necessary and how the scale was created.

Expert

Kishor Mehta, Horn Professor of Civil Engineering, [email protected]

Quotes

  • “We really wanted to advance it, enhance it or change it. We had done so much work on damage investigation; we had all kinds of photographs.”
  • “That’s what kind of got us going and thinking that the wind speeds are important. They’re not as high as the Fujita (F) Scale showed.”
  • “With the help of the funding from NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology), as well as the work we had done, we set up a steering committee just to consider (and) think about it.”
  • “The idea came that we should have a workshop. Get about half meteorologists (and) half engineers; some of the people who are using it (F Scale) on a daily basis. What they agreed on (was) we can do an elicitation process, which is really using a judgement of experts.”

Sample Script

THERE ARE ABOUT 12-HUNDRED TORNADOES IN THE U-S EVERY YEAR—THAT’S ACCORDING TO THE “NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE”.

AND EVEN IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN “TORNADO ALLEY”… THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE YOU’VE HEARD OF THE “F” SCALE—WHICH RANKS TORNADOES FROM ZERO TO FIVE.

            BUT SINCE 2007, THEY’VE BEEN CATEGORIZED ACCORDING TO THE “E-F” SCALE—OR THE “ENHANCED FUJITA” SCALE.

            IT WAS DEVELOPED BY RESEARCHERS AT TEXAS TECH—WHO AFTER YEARS OF ASSESSING TORNADO DAMAGE… FOUND THE “F” SCALE WAS “LIMITED”… AND IN SOME CASES, TORNADOES MAY HAVE BEEN “OVERRATED”.

            THAT’S WHY “KISHOR MEHTA”—A TEXAS TECH PROFESSOR… WORKED WITH DOZENS OF METEROLOGISTS AND ENGINEERS TO CREATE AN IMPROVED SCALE.

“We really wanted to advance it, enhance it or change it. We had done so much work on damage investigation. We had all kinds of photographs.”

            THE “E-F” SCALE IS A SET OF WIND “ESTIMATES” BASED ON DAMAGE.

            FOR INSTANCE… AN “E-F” FOUR TORNADO IS ESTIMATED TO HAVE WIND SPEEDS FROM 166 TO 200 MILES-PER-HOUR.

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