At Tornado Alley Armor Safe Rooms we occasionally get asked, “Will opening windows in my house during a tornado equalize air pressure and help minimize the destruction caused by the storm?”
The answer is no. Opening windows during a tornado will do nothing for you but waste precious time that you should be using to seek shelter. Not only is there no scientific benefit to opening your windows, it allows debris to easily enter your home.
Emergency procedure manuals used to recommend that people open their windows in order to help equalize the pressure in the house when the tornado hits. Before a thorough study was conducted by the National Wind Institute at Texas Tech, it was believed that homes “exploded” by the drop in air pressure when a tornado strikes a home, creating unequal pressure. This has since been proven WRONG. Houses are destroyed by the incredible wind speeds (over 250 mph) that a tornado can produce not by unequal air pressure. These winds can lift a roof off a house, causing the walls of the home to flatten, creating an illusion that the house is exploding.
So, instead of wasting time opening windows use your valuable time to get into your Tornado Alley Armor Storm Shelter.