What is a tornado? A tornado is “a rapidly rotating vortex or funnel of air extending groundward from a cumulonimbus cloud.” (Haddow et al) Tornadoes produce destructive winds that can destroy everything that comes in its path. Meteorologists use the speed of the winds to classify the strength of tornadoes on the Fujita-Pearson scale. The weakest tornadoes, F0, have wind speeds from 65-85 miles per hour, all the way to an F5 tornado, with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour. On the afternoon of Monday May 3, two air masses met over central Oklahoma. One of the air masses was warm, moist air traveling north from the Gulf of Mexico. The other was cold dry air moving west across the plains from the Rocky Mountains. This collision of air …show more content…
This storm produced fourteen tornadoes, including a tornado with a twister, which impacted Oklahoma City. This tornado was a very strong F5 tornado, the highest classification. This single F5 tornado produced by this one storm caused the most damage, injuries and loss of life. The tornado occurred little after 6:00 p.m. and was first reported in Grady County Oklahoma, approximately two miles south-southwest of the town of Amber. The tornado varied in intensity from F2 to F5 over its track, which was over 38 miles long, and approximately a mile wide at the widest point. With a maximum wind speed, measured by doppler radar, close to 300 miles per hour, this was the most powerful tornado ever recorded. An estimated 1800 homes were destroyed and over 2000 damaged. The Oklahoma State Department of Health attributed 36 fatalities to the tornado, with five additional fatalities classified as related. Damage totals were approximately $1 …show more content…
“In terms of structural losses, a total of 8,132 homes, 1041 apartments, 260 businesses, 11 public buildings and seven churches were damaged or destroyed”. Some of the most egregious, devastating damages occurred in Cleveland County, particularly in the city of Moore, where 11 people were killed and close to 300 others were injured. The local response was instantaneous. Communities came together with local police and fire/rescue and EMS agencies to begin the task of controlling hazards and searching for victims. The Oklahoma State government mobilized its resources. Over 1000 members of the Oklahoma National Guard were activated to respond and assist. The State also requested federal assistance. By the end of the day on May 4, President Clinton had declared the event a major disaster and authorized federal assistance under the Federal Response Plan. This allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate the efforts of any Emergency Support Functions (ESF) involved in the mitigation of the
Although the tornado of 10 June 1938 has been known about, at least anecdotally, within the scientific community since it was brought to light in 1939 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, this potentially rich source of historic information has lain fallow. It is within this rich field of mobile, American thinking that we undertake this effort. A team of scientists with courage, brains, and even heart brought the resources to bear on the challenge.
According to the article The Joplin Tornado: The Evil Swirling Darkness it states,”Instead, they speak of the power of their faith, the strength of their community, and the generosity of the thousands of people from around the country who came to help heal their wounded city.” This is saying that they were happy that people came and helped them to persevere and rebuild their town. A Storm Chaser’s First Hand Account on the Joplin Tornado explains,“I'm watching a pick-up truck loaded with supplies and ladders--it's a local grassroots effort. That's what America's about. People helping people. That's what we're seeing here. It's not people waiting for government aid, even though there's going to be lots of people that need it. We've just got grassroots efforts of people pouring in and helping.” This shows that the people were helping those in need, and that they weren’t waiting for the government to come and help them rebuild they did it on their own. Finally Jeff Piotrowski says,”The way we got people out was that the people that came in there, they started picking up their family members and loading them into trucks and driving them to the only hospital left in Joplin. That's how we got people out of here.” He is telling us that family members and other people help each other, and help to bring back the people from their
On May 11, 1953 in the town of Lorena Mclennan County in Central Texas this deadly disaster strikes and damage very thing in its path. This intense spinning of a tornado is partly the result of the updrafts and downdrafts in the thunderstorm interacting with the windshirt.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, a tornado is a rotating column of air accompanied by a funnel shaped downward extension of a cumulonimbus cloud and having a vortex several hundred yards in diameter whirling destructively at speeds of up to three hundred miles per hour. There are six classifications of tornadoes, which are measured on what is known as the Fujita Scale. These tornadoes range from an F0 to an F5, which is the most devastating of all. Abnormal warm, humid, and oppressive weather usually precede the formation of a tornado. Records of American tornadoes date back to 1804 and have been known to occur in every state of the United States.
In 2003, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was rolled into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FEMA’s responsibilities are to prepare, protect, respond, and recover from diminish all hazards. There was a mass coverage about the failure for FEMA to act immediately to Katrina, but once they were able to get things organized such as giving food and water, and setting up the tent and shelters communities can be strong and move on.
At sometime between 4:45 p.m. (Regina: The Early Years, 2014) to 5:00 p.m. (Saskatchewan Archives Board, 2011) local time on Dominion Day, June 30, 1912, a funnel cloud, and possibly a second funnel cloud which dissipated early on, touched down 18 km to the south of Regina, Saskatchewan, near 50.4547° N, 104.6067° W (see Figure 1), and travelled north along the ground (see Figure 2). The tornado, popularly called the Regina Cyclone, first cut through several farmlands, then Wascana Lake, before hitting downtown Regina (Heidorn, K.C., 2008), and continued to travel 12 km north past the city of Regina until it subsided (Saskatchewan Archives Board, 2011). The tornado was three blocks wide (Heidorn, K.C., 2008), and managed to demolish farms, residential areas, the downtown core, and the warehouse and railway districts (CBC, 2013). It traversed the city in about three minutes (Regina Public Library, 2007).
May 4 began in much the same way as many other spring days in the Great Plains. Cool, dry air from the north clashed with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, creating the sort of unstable atmosphere that is so common to "Tornado Alley." An intense low pressure system moved in and stalled over the area during the morning hours, providing all the ingredients that meteorologists and storm chasing groups expect for severe weather. With an extremely volatile mix of conditions in place, the National Weather Service began to issue watches in anticipation of developing storm activity.
Federal intervention in the aftermath of natural disasters began after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. This 8.3 magnitude earthquake killed 478, and left over 250,000 homeless. While the disaster itself was obviously unavoidable, the subsequent fires that burned throughout the city were a result of poor planning. (1, 17) In an effort to consolidate existing programs, and to improve the nation’s level of preparedness, President Carter created FEMA in 1979. Initially, FEMA was praised for improving communication between various levels of government, and multiple agencies during a crisis. (1,19)
A tornado warning means that a tornado has been indicated by radar or seen by spotters in the area of the warning. It also means that there is a serious threat to people’s lives and property in the affected area. Lastly, it means that you should stay inside a safe place, seek shelter, and follow tornado safety guidelines. Wind speeds in a tornado can range from 40 mph to 320 mph.
Oklahoma has a violent history of tornados, but for some reason placing shelters in schools still has not become a priority. Of course it has been talked about now since the May 20th tornado and some people are trying to make it happen for those schools that took a direct hit, but what about the other schools that have not been hit? On the National Public Radio Organization’s website they wrote an article about how many schools in Oklahoma do have shelters and how many of them do not have shelters. The state wide survey shows that out of the 1,804 public schools in Oklahoma 62 percent do not have storm shelters and only 15 percent have shelters that are built to withsta...
A tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 at around 5:40 pm. With a population around 50,559, it killed 161 people and injured approximately 1,100 people. The cost was an estimated $2.8 billion in damage. The American taxpayers had to give about $500 million in recovery money. This made it the deadliest tornado since 1950, which was when modern recordkeeping began. Since it was an EF5 tornado, it destroyed everything in its path. The city was ruined with only piles of debris left. It was a half-mile wide when it hit Joplin and grew to three-quarters of a mile wide. It destroyed nearly 7,000 homes in Joplin and damaged hundreds more. It covered over 1,800 acres of land. The warnings that the Joplin residents received were through three different ways. The tornado warning that was sent out for Joplin’s county was from Jasper County Emergency Operations Center (JCEOC) and they claim that the first siren went off at 5:11 pm. Two other warnings for the Joplin residents was they saw the tornado heading their direction, and the media coverage which was all local electronic media switched to wall-to-wall coverage seeing live footage of the tornado.
To begin with, according to Source 3, about 1,300 tornadoes hit the U.S. each year. Most tornadoes usually happen in the Midwest. Also, tornadoes are formed when warm air mixes with cool air. They can have wind speeds that exceed 300 miles per hour! On spc.noaa.gov, it states that these storms usually last about 10 minutes. Also, in Source 3, it states that you can't always tell where a tornado will strike. Although some people can see it in the distance, it can be blocked by rain or clouds, causing it to not be as visible. On brainpop.com, we learn that tornadoes usually occur during thunderstorms. Finally, according to accu.weather.com, about 60 people are killed by tornadoes each year.
Hurricane Katrina killed 100,000 people. According to CNN Student News, there was a hurricane in Fiji. It killed 10 people. There was a tornado in Bangladesh that killed 300,000 people. Hurricanes and tornadoes are very deadly. They could kill a few people, like Fiji, or they could kill thousands, like Katrina.
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest and most unpredictable villains mankind will ever face. There is no rhyme or reason, no rhythm to it’s madness. Tornados are one of the most terrifying natural events that occur, destroying homes and ending lives every year. April 29th, 1995, a calm, muggy, spring night I may never forget. Jason, a buddy I grew up with, just agreed to travel across state with me so we could visit a friend in Lubbock. Jason and I were admiring the beautiful blue bonnets, which traveled for miles like little blue birds flying close to the ground. The warm breeze brushed across the tips of the blue bonnets and allowed them to dance under the perfectly clear blue sky. In the distance, however, we could see darkness. A rumbling sky was quickly approaching.
The atmosphere rises to 500 km above Earth's surface. The atmosphere is divided into four parts based on temperature change in relation to change in altitude. The four parts are the: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, and Thermosphere. This paper will be discussing instability in the Troposphere, the lowest level, since it is where the Earth's weather takes place. Tropospheric instability often times yields severe weather, such as tornadoes. A Tornado is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and pendent from a cumulonimbus cloud. A tornado's fierce winds have the ability to severely impact the lives of humans by: turning innocent stationary objects into flying missiles, collapsing buildings, and even throwing people hundreds of yards. One researcher summarized tornadoes well when he said "Tornadoes are one of the World's strongest forces, and they will not stop at anything that will get in their way!"(Elias Demakes).