11 Facts About Ted Fujita

Tetsuya Theodore Fujita was a Japanese-American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather.

Ted Fujita was born in the village of Sone, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, an area that is part of the city of Kitakyushu.

Ted Fujita studied and taught at Kyushu Institute of Technology.

Ted Fujita remained at the University of Chicago until his retirement in 1990.

Ted Fujita is recognized as the discoverer of downbursts and microbursts and developed the Ted Fujita scale, which differentiates tornado intensity and links tornado damage with wind speed.

Ted Fujita established the value of photometric analysis of tornado pictures and films to establish wind speeds at various heights at the surface of tornado vortices.

Ted Fujita was the first to widely study the meteorological phenomenon of the downburst, which can pose serious danger to aircraft.

Ted Fujita was largely involved in developing the concept of multiple vortex tornadoes, which feature multiple small funnels rotating within a larger parent cloud.

Ted Fujita's work established that, far from being rare events as was previously believed, most powerful tornadoes were composed of multiple vortices.

Ted Fujita died in his Chicago home on November 19,1998.

Ted Fujita was the subject of Mr Tornado, a documentary film that originally aired on PBS American Experience on May 19,2020.