What is the heaviest thing a tornado has ever picked up?
The Pampa, Texas tornado moved machinery that weighted more that 30,000 pounds. Whether it was slid or picked up, we don’t know. A tornado would certainly have no trouble tossing a 2000 -3000 pound van into the air. Freight cars are often blown sideways from their tracks. In the huge cleanup after a tornado, no one bothers weighing the debris, so there is no record kept of heavy flying objects, other than cars. • Sometimes you see pink or yellow stuff stuck to everything in a photo of tornado damage–what is that stuff? Insulation. The pink insulation from the walls of a home has draped trees as much as 50 miles from the point where a house was torn apart. • What does a tornado do to the crops and dirt when it goes over a field? Depending on the forward movement of the tornado and how strongly the tornado is interacting with the ground, there can be a wide variety of effects. A nearly stationary tornado which has extended to near ground level has been known to dig (actually blow) a tre
