Dr. John Scala takes a look back at the Plainfield, Illinois tornado

Former storm analyst Dr. John Scala takes a look back at the F5 tornado that struck Plainfield, Illinois in August 1990. He shows us the conditions that produced this deadly twister and tells us that it's very rare to have an F5 tornado anytime, but even more unusual to have one in the month of August, with some statistics about this tornado. This clip if from Your Weather Today, from August 2001, on the 11th anniversary of this tornadic event.

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• 2001

[simongarth2001]

I was in this tornado, and saw it ripping through a line of trees, as it came into our sub division. It had no shape....just a dark, evil green mass of destruction. Def not your typical wedge shape.

[ILovestorms]

@simongarth2001 Was it a multiple vortex? How could it have no shape? Was it rain-wrapped and invisible? You say it had green, which is typical because of the hail shaft.

[GOODY61]

Torando size has nothing to do with the rating. 

[ILovestorms]

@GOODY61 No, not necessarily. In a lot of cases it does, but not always. It annoys me when storm chasers say when they are looking at mile-wide twister, "probably an EF4 or an EF5!!", especially on those programs that occasionally air on the discovery channel. Wrong. The EF-Scale rating is not determined when the tornado is in progress. It's not determined until the tornado is over and the National Weather Service sends a survey team out to study the damage.

[AllenFamilyChannel]

Why did they use that radar in 2001??

[ILovestorms]

@AllenFamilyChannel They didn't. He is showing the radar they used in 1990, at the time of the Plainfield tornado.

[MysticArksRevenge]

@ILovestorms  I wish they didn't get rid of those. I liked those old WSR-74's.

[MysticArksRevenge]

@metsfreak4life I agree. NBC Universal should've never bought them out.

[Water4Jeremiah]

This video...is amazing.

This is real history and I just looked up what a WSR-74 is. I really hope someone can tell me more history about them or what's being used today? Also he said back in 2001 they were using ADRAD? Is that right? Thanks.

[GOODY61]

@talladegajunkie1439 Chicago has just as much chance as many other cities but your post stated it's not a matter of "if" Chicago will be destroyed by a EF5 tornado but "when". Statistics do not support this in fact they would support that Chicago is very unlikely to ever be hit by an EF5.

[talladegajunkie1439]

@GOODY61, But look at it... Birmingham earlier this year... Atlanta in '08... Chicago has just a good a chance as any. Just because a city is big, that dont mean that it wont get hit.

[GOODY61]

con'td A larger tornado will likely produce a wider damage path than a smaller tornado but in no way can you say a larger tornado will produce damage which is more severe than a smaller tornado. In fact I have read that as tornadoes start to rope out the circulation and wind speed can increase briefly and produce even more catastraphic damage than it had previously.