Tetsuya Theodore Fujita

 

                                        Tetsuya Theodore Fujita 

         Tetsuya was a Japanese meteorologist that is best known for his contributions to the science of storms. Through his countless discoveries and advancements, he earned the nickname Mr. Tornado. His early sines of science interest came after World War II, after the bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he visited both of the sites and observed debris, and calculated at what height the bomb detonated. Along with this, he began working for the Department of Education in his area and taught Meteorology to teachers, during this he would venture to high mountain ranges to see the clouds and observe their movements. Most of the observations that he documented were published in both English and Japanesse. One of the first groundbreaking discoveries that Fujita had was the creation of a mesoscale. This mesoscale was simultaniusly with mesoanalysis which is the observation of weather patters on a horizontal scale. This scale was able to measure high and low pressure in storms less than 1 mile wide and up to 600 miles wide. 

           The most notable creation of Fujita was his Fujita Scale (F1-F5), this was a scale that was used to measure the strength of tornados. This scale was very efficient and accurate because it combined the use of qualitative and quantitative observations that occurred during or after the storm. These observations allowed the storm to be placed on a scale of F1-F5. The scale was updated to the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF1-EF5) after there were more additions to the damage analysis portion of the scale. Another important contribution of Fujita was the discovery of micro and downbursts, these were windstorms that carried extremely violent winds that were very dangerous. This discovery came after Fujita connected a mysterious plane crash to his atomic bomb studies in his early years. When he connected the wind patters and how they traveled he realized how similar they are. Because of this, there have been a lot of safety mechanisms that are paired with traffic control and meteorologist that keep people safe from these windstorms.