Flipping cars?

[Bocadude85]

What wind speed do you think it would take to start flipping cars over?

http://www.ultimatechase.com/Hurricane_Video.htm


The first video in that link shows Hurricane Wilma hitting Miami Beach and Ft Lauderdale beach...... notice all the cars flipped over.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Well it really depends on the angle of the winds in relation to the vehicles. It also depends on the vehicles height and weight as well. My estimate (on a general scale) would be:

-65 to 75mph for semi trucks
-90 to 100mph for SUVs
-105 to 120mph for typical cars<<I believe Wilma had 105-115mph gusts in the Miami area.

**These numbers are if the vehicles are exposed directly to the wind. These numbers are also not official and are backed by no scientific evidence, just observation of different car flipping incidents during different levels of wind.**

[Jim Cantore]

I remember a urgent shout out from the NOLA NWS when Katrina was a 5 mentioning that cars could go airborne, that would be quite a sight to behold

[Extremeweatherguy]

I remember a urgent shout out from the NOLA NWS when Katrina was a 5 mentioning that cars could go airborne, that would be quite a sight to behold

I doubt that would have happened. The cars may have rolled around...but to go airborne and fly around, there would have to be an upward component to the wind (like in a tornado). Still, rolling cars would certaintly be a scary sight. Once again though...for this to happen the cars would need to be open to the wind.

[Jim Cantore]

Imagine an airborne car flying into a house at 200mph

[melhow]

Imagine an airborne car flying into a house at 200mph

1.21 jigawatts? 1.21 jigawatts? Great Scott!

[flashflood]

Wind tunnel tests resulted in a car was upset at 115mph at one angle and 130+ mph at other angles. A minivan was upset at 130mph at one angle and at other angles from 160-180 mph.


ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/50675.pdf

[Pearl River]

Once you get a car rolling, it can become airborne, but it would have to be rolling at a decent speed and need an impetus to get it airborne.

[Recurve]

Memory that probably a lot of people recognize from Andrew in South Dade -- a school bus on top of a house, just west of the Turnpike in the Culter Ridge area. It was at an angle, with the back end almost on the ground and the front wheels on the peak of the crushed roof. Needless to say, it was there for a while. Of course, Andrew was reported to have many vortices, tornado-like eddies, and wind damage was greater than expected from straight-line winds.

[DoctorHurricane2003]

There were reports of a car stuck in an 8th story window in Darwin after STC Tracy in 1974

[Extremeweatherguy]

Most of those incidents when a car is lifted far off the ground are probably caused by tornadoes within the storm that are never "officially" reported to be tornadoes (because no one was outside to witness it).

[Opal storm]

This is a pic I found from hurricane Andrew

According to the article (link below) this truck flipped onto the roof.




http://www.sptimes.com/2002/webspecials ... ory1.shtml