# Is Level 7 a Ripoff of John Barnes' Mother of Storms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861 "2005-11-07T02:49:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/21 "2005-11-07T18:58:17Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > You have to understand. The Hollywood storm classification system goes all the way to 11 … Well, we already know it goes at least to 10.5… ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/22 "2005-11-07T19:07:41Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > I thought of starting a thread on all the errors in the first hour of this POS Feel free to post them to [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=343625) thread. That’s what it’s there for. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/23 "2005-11-07T19:16:59Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > No. “Mother of Storms” had decent writing, believable explanations for how sthings happened, and was a pretty good story. > > “Category 7” has none of these things. I, too, turned it off after 45 or so minutes(I was rapidly becoming nauseous and was gagging) and went back to a “Matrix Reloaded” rerun. > > I thought of starting a thread on all the errors in the first hour of this POS, but then realized it was so bad, I really didn’t care. I am just waiting for the next one, where they combine “10.5” and “Category 7” for an ultra-end-of-mankind movie titles “10.5.7 - The End of Reason.” Yeah, I gotta admit, when I saw the rain of frogs at the formal dinner I pretty much figured the jig was up as far as good writing goes. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/24 "2005-11-07T22:02:16Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Yeah, I gotta admit, when I saw the rain of frogs at the formal dinner I pretty much figured the jig was up as far as good writing goes. Yep, I’m on board with that! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/25 "2005-11-07T23:19:29Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > Can they get the classification correct in any of these movies? No such thing as a category 6 hurricane as someone called one in the movie. It would be an F6. Reminds me of another hurricane movie where they kept calling the storm a class 6. bleh. Nope, it’d be a category 5. Tornadoes have the F-scale. F6 is a theoretical horrific tornado that would be, in the real world, indistinguishable in damage from an F5 because an F5 pretty much takes down everything in its path and then some. I don’t think there is anything beyond a 5 for hurricanes or typhoons or cyclones or whatever else they might be called. I didn’t see the piece of crap in question. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/26 "2005-11-07T23:25:18Z")
Did John Barnes’ book end with the words, “To Be Continued”, too? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/27 "2005-11-08T00:11:56Z")
> [@whiterabbit](#): > > Nope, it’d be a category 5. Tornadoes have the F-scale. F6 is a theoretical horrific tornado that would be, in the real world, indistinguishable in damage from an F5 because an F5 pretty much takes down everything in its path and then some. I don’t think there is anything beyond a 5 for hurricanes or typhoons or cyclones or whatever else they might be called. > > I didn’t see the piece of crap in question. Some people think we’ve already had something that could be called an F6 Tornado. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the [Tri-State Tornado.](http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pah/1925/) Wikipedia [has a nice article, too, with some good links.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/28 "2005-11-08T01:21:23Z")
The classification of F6 does exist, but would have interior winds in excess of 319 miles per hour. [Fujita Scale](http://www.tornadoproject.com/fscale/fscale.htm). I recall reading once that any given location could expect to experience an F6 tornado approximately once per ten million years. I’ve also seen scales that run F6 up to the speed of sound, instead of capping it at 379 MPH as the linked chart does. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/29 "2005-11-08T01:34:02Z")
[http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/satelliteseye/educational/fujita.html](http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/satelliteseye/educational/fujita.html) Looks like F12 is possible, not that we’ve ever seen such. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861/30 "2005-11-08T04:22:52Z")
> [@whiterabbit](#): > > Nope, it’d be a category 5. Tornadoes have the F-scale. F6 is a theoretical horrific tornado that would be, in the real world, indistinguishable in damage from an F5 because an F5 pretty much takes down everything in its path and then some. I don’t think there is anything beyond a 5 for hurricanes or typhoons or cyclones or whatever else they might be called. > > I didn’t see the piece of crap in question. I posted in haste and made all sorts of errors so please forgive. One movie I was watching called a hurricane a class 5, not a category 5 as would be correct. In the piece of crap on CBS, they called a tornado a category 6 instead of an F6. Hopefully this makes more sense the way off post before. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-level-7-a-ripoff-of-john-barnes-mother-of-storms/329861.md?page=1)