A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of two hundred and fifty miles per hour or more. Damage paths can be more than one mile wide and fifty miles long. In an average year, eight hundred tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in eighty deaths and over one thousand five hundred injuries. In the body of my essay, I will tell you about types of tornadoes, where tornadoes come from, where and when tornadoes occur, the damage they inflict, variations of tornadoes, and how to detect tornadoes.
There are many types of tornadoes. The average tornado is usually split up into categories based on the strength of the tornado. Most tornadoes, about sixty nine percent 69%, are considered weak, which means they usually last between one minute and ten minutes, have winds less than one hundred and ten miles per hour, and the percent of deaths that occur during these is less than five percent. Strong tornadoes, about twenty nine percent 29%, may last about twenty minutes, have winds between one hundred and ten and two hundred and five miles per hour, and the percent of deaths that are found are about thirty percent of all tornado deaths. The last category for tornadoes is violent ones. With these comes winds greater than two hundred and five miles per hour, they can last about an hour, and have seventy percent of all deaths from tornadoes. Another type of tornado is known as a waterspout. This is a weak tornado that forms over warm water. They are most common along the Gulf Coast and southeastern states. In the western United States, they occur with cold late fall or late winter storms, during a time when you least expect it to develop. They occasionally move inland becoming tornadoes that can cause a great deal of damage and many injuries.
Most tornadoes evolve from energy. Tornadoes come from the energy released in a thunderstorm. As powerful as they are, tornadoes account for only a tiny fraction of the energy in a thunderstorm. What makes them dangerous is that their energy is concentrated in a small area, perhaps only a hundred yards across. Not all tornadoes are the same, of course, and science does not yet completely understand how part of a thunderstorm's energy sometimes gets focused into something as small as a tornad...
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...ms using all the information they can obtain from weather maps, modern weather radar’s, storm spotters, monitoring power line breaks, and so on.
These are all important tornado facts and reasons of why this phenomenon occurs. Tornadoes are natural disasters that we can not do anything about, we just have to learn to live with them and be smart about how we approach them. There is no preventing a tornado from occurring so we must merely take all the precautions so we will be safe.
Bibliography:
Rosenfeld, Jeffrey O.; Eye of the Storm: Inside the World's Deadliest Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Blizzards; HarperCollins Trade Sales Dept, January 1999
Robinson, Andrew,; Earth Shock: Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes and Other Forces of Nature; Themes & Hudson Ltd., September 1993
Tufty, Barbara; 1001 Questions Answered about Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Other Natural Air Disasters; Dover Publications, Incorporated, August 1987
Verkaik, Arjen; Under the Whirlwind; Whirlwind Books, March 1998
Miller, Norman; "How A Whirlwind Works"; Geographical Magazine, June 1999
Compton's Encyclopedia Online; www.comptons.com
SKYWARN Online; www.skywarn.org
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.
Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson was a very fascinating book because it is difficult to say absolutely what the true subject of the book is. There are three key players in the book, first it is Isaac Cline a meteorologist for the U.S Weather Bureau, The U.S. Weather Bureau itself, and finally the storm of 1900. However, all three elements collaborate with one another in a significant way. The storm of 1900 is the main catalyst for one of the most devastating storms in the United States. However, the Weather Bureau and Isaac Cline both had an impact on the outcome of the catastrophic storm. The book generally focuses on the Galveston Hurricane of 1990, but more so the actions that Isaac Cline takes, or didn’t take rather. It was very tricky to
On May 22nd, 2011 a massive tornado hit Joplin, Missouri killing 162 people and injuring 1150. With wind speeds of 322km/h, the tornado made a total cost of over $2 billion for the city. 8000 structures were destroyed, 2000 of which were homes. Many people were left homeless. The tornado held an incredible EF5 rating on the Fujita scale, measured from the amount of destruction. The tragic event lasted 38 minutes, from 5:34 pm to 6:12pm. Cool wind from the Rockies in Canada and warm wind from the gulf of Mexico formed into a supercell thunderstorm creating a tornado in Kansas. The tornado rapidly moved into Joplin and continued on its 35 km path.
I know very little about the 1900s storm, but I feel very educated on the subject now. Work Cited Larson, Erik. A. Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. New York: Crown Publishing, 1999. 1-316.
Once there was, as never before, a hurricane of great might and strength. As never before, there once was a hurricane of many names: storm, cyclone, tempest, typhoon, and flood. Yet it has lived on in history as the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Humanity has glorified and immortalized the hurricane. The Great Galveston Hurricane has been the subject of numerous articles, novels, plays, and poems, as well as four major nonfiction studies (Longshore). It is truly one of hurricane lore’s greatest of storms.
On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the most expensive hurricane in American history, made landfall in Louisiana with winds of one hundred and twenty-seven miles per hour (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts”). The sheer magnitude of the amount of lives and property lost was enormous, and it was triggered simply by warm ocean waters near the Bahamas ("How Hurricane Katrina Formed"). Nature was indifferent to whether the raging winds and rain would die off in the ocean or wipe out cities; it only follows the rules of physics. A multitude of American authors has attempted to give accounts and interpretations of their encounters with the disinterested machine that is nature. Two authors, Stephen Crane and Henry David Thoreau, had rather contrasting and conflicting interpretations of their own interactions with nature.
In this paper, I will discuss what tornadoes are and how they form, what different forms of tornadoes there are, what tornado watches and warning are and give examples of tornadoes in Oklahoma and what destruction they caused, also while providing information about the Doppler radar.
A.S.A. & Co. “Hurricane History Facts.” New York Times, New York Times. 17 Jan. 2008. The 'Standard' Web.
Jump up ^ Galway, Joseph G. (1977). "Some Climatological Aspects of Tornado Outbreaks". Mon. Weather Rev. 105 (4): 477–84. Bibcode:1977MWRv..105..477G. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1977)105<0477:SCAOTO>2.0.CO;2.
Most tornados produced from these storms are relatively weak, don’t enter inhabited areas, and cause little to no damage. The problem is that Oklahoma gets 55.1 tornados annually. With all of these tornados, a couple of them are bound to go through populated areas and cause damage. The damage the tornado causes incre...
Hurricanes are powerful and destructive storms that involve great rain and wind. The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a great amount of damage. However, there is one hurricane that happened in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, a category 5 on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. An estimated 1836 people died because of the hurricane and the floodings that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially beg...
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.
D. Thesis: In order to better understand tornadoes, it is important to explore what causes tornadoes to develop, how researchers classify types of tornadoes, and odd occurrences that may be associated with tornadoes.
Hurricanes occur all over the world, at different times, but commonly through June first and late November. However in late August 2005 a catastrophic hurricane struck. This was Hurricane Katrina. With winds traveling over one hundred miles per hour making it a category five on the Saffir- Simpson Hurricane Scale it was said to have cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage. Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly forty thousand homes, and killed at least two thousand people (“Hurricane”). An average category five hurricane has enough energy to power street lamps for more than twenty seven thousand hours (Williams 58). Knowing about Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation of the city in New Orleans would be beneficial. Also, general information on hurricanes can help civilians and people of higher authority better understand and prepare for damage that could once hit their town and community. Because experts know the general information on these storms they can help explain to the public why and how Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes occur. Hopefully, in the future civilians will know and use this information to their advantage against hurricanes.