Could a tornado destroy a skyscaper?

Question

if say, there was a tornado in new york, and it hit the empire state building, what would happen? would the building be completely destroyed?

if so, you'd think it would've happened before? there's thousands of tornados every year, thousands of skyscrapers, why hasn't one been totally destroyed by a tornado yet?

Answer 1

Quite a few tall buildings have been hit over the years with Atlanta being the latest. Also, Fort Worth and Lubbock Texas have had high-rise buildings hit. Yes, damage was quite extreme, in fact I don't think the one in Fort Worth has been occupied since that tornado nearly 10 years ago. They can't decide to tear it down or to fix it. Most high rise buildings have an very high safety factor built into them. It would take a direct hit by a very substantial tornado to completely destroy one. Most often it breaks a lot of the  windows and does a lot of wind blown debris damage inside.

Answer 2

The Empire State Building is extremely big, but a tornado is stronger. In a city like New York, it would be chaos. Remember a city has more debris, more dangerous debris that can be used as flying missiles. A car coming at a skyscraper at over 250 mph will cause a lot of damage before the tornado even reaches the building.  Let's hope that never happens, its a nice building. Also skyscrapers are a rarity, there aren't that many of them, which makes it a smaller target. Skyscrapers won't usually get destroyed entirely but actually physically twisted. The only f-5 tornado to hit a large city was in Lubbock, Texas. It directly hit a skyscraper causing significant damage, at one point people thought that one of the high rise buildings was going to collapse. Most skyscrapers are very powerful though and can with stand even the strongest hurricane.

Answer 3

A tornado needs a flat ground to maintain its strength. For that reason, it would avoid tall buildings. So, skyscrapers are quite safe.

Answer 4

If the tornado is strong enough, it can destroy more than you think. winds of 130 miles per hour is not something to take lightly.