Several different phenomena have lent credence to the idea that tornadoes "skip" houses, like a person jumping over hurdles. Tornadoes vary in intensity along their path, sometimes drastically over a short period and distance. If a tornado was causing damage, then weakened to the point where it could cause no damage, followed by a re-intensification, it would appear as if it skipped a section. Occasionally with violent tornadoes, a smaller subvortex within a tornado will completely destroy a structure next to another building which appears almost unscathed and thus apparently skipped over.