was a Japanese and American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although he is best known for creating the Fujita scale of tornado intensity and damage,

Career

Fujita surveyed a tornado alongside Rodger A. Brown in Chicago in June 1961, which occurred March 1961 through the city's South Side. A report described the tornado as "the most destructive" of all of the tornadoes in the city over the previous 90 years. The survey also noted the strange damage patterns of the tornado, with most houses receiving only minor damage to shingles and windows being on the same property as destroyed garages and uprooted trees. Wind patterns and news reports were used to determine that another likely tornado occurring in Homewood at the same time was a "gust of straight-line wind".

Fujita was approached by an expert with the Flight Safety Foundation to investigate the case of Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a deadly aviation crash that killed 112 under up-to-then unknown circumstances. By comparing the patterns of tree damage near the airport to previously-known patterns of non-tornadic damage, including those he surveyed during the 1974 Super Outbreak, he had come to the conclusion Flight 66 was downed by a downburst. This theory was controversial, with his theory of downbursts disagreeing with the existing theory of downdrafts and some academics not believing downdrafts could be strong enough to produce the aforementioned wind patterns. Fujita surveyed downburst wind patterns in corn fields from a low-flying Cessna plane between 1975 and 1978. The idea to analyze the wind pattern using doppler radar technology originated from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and culminated in Project NIMROD, which established a network of mesonets and doppler radar sites across northern Illinois. This project observed a microburst near Yorkville, Illinois on May 29, 1978, and subsequent analysis of data from this event aligned with Fujita's model of downbursts. Project NIMROD observed about 50 downbursts over its lifespan, and greatly improved the understanding of both the intensity and frequency of these events. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) held the "Symposium on The Mystery of Severe Storms: A Tribute to the Work of T. Theodore Fujita" during its 80th Annual Meeting in January 2000. a documentary film that originally aired on the PBS series American Experience on May 19, 2020.

References

Sources

  • Shanahan, J. A., and Fujita, T. T., 1971c. The Lubbock tornadoes and Fujita suction vortices. Presented at October 18–22, 1971, ASCE Annual and National Environmental Engineering meeting, St. Louis. [October 1971]
  • Fujita, T. T., and Forbes, G. S., 1976f. Photogrammetric analysis of tornadoes, D. Three scales of motion involving tornadoes, in Peterson, R. E., ed., Proceedings of the Symposium on Tornadoes, Assessment of Knowledge and Implications for Man: Institute for Disaster Research, Texas Technological University, Lubbock, p. 53–57. [June 1976] (also issued as SMRP 140c)

Further reading

Memoirs

  • Tetsuya Fujita, 78, Inventor of Tornado Scale (The New York Times obituary)
  • Dr. Tetsuya Theodore Fujita (The Tornado Project, 1998)
  • Who was the legendary 'Mr. Tornado'? (AccuWeather, May 18, 2021)
  • Oral History Interview with T.T. Fujita (interview by Richard Rotunno on February 2, 1988)
  • Tornadoes and Severe Weather – In Memory of Tetsuya T. Fujita (Dr. Kazuya Fujita)
  • Mr. Tornado: Tetsuya Theodore "Ted" Fujita (Bio by Keith C. Heidorn)
  • Fujita publications (Texas Tech University)
  • Fujita archival records (Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University)
  • Video of presentation at Tornado Symposium III, 4 April 1991