Insane Russian Dashcam Video Shows a Tornado Destroying a Neighborhood
One of the great side effects of millions of Russians using dashcams is that it provides us with insane videos pretty regularly. Most of the videos of the Chelyabinsk meteor were caught by dashcams, and now we have this incredible video of a tornado destroying a neighborhood.
According to the always-accurate Google Translate, the title of the video appears to indicate that the tornado struck Bashkiria, a republic in western Russia situated along the western edge of the Ural Mountains.
An Italian website claims that the tornado was the equivalent of an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, but the site does not substantiate these claims. The strength of a tornado is estimated based on the damage it produces; EF-3 damage suggests that the tornado had winds between 136 and 165 MPH.
Poorly-constructed homes are more easily destroyed than a well-built structure, so the amount of damage we see in videos and photos could be deceiving when trying to estimate the tornado's strength.
Thanks to its prime location, the United States has a monopoly on the world's tornado supply, but places like eastern Europe and western Russia do see tornadic storms on occasion. The U.S.S.R. saw a particularly violent tornado outbreak back in 1984 that killed hundreds of people.
