Tornadoes

Tornadoes

A tornado is a violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes can produce massive destruction with wind speeds of 250 miles per hour or more. The typical tornado moves from southwest to northeast, but they have been known to move in any direction. The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 miles per hour but it may vary from stationary to 70 miles per hour. Although tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, they are found most frequently in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains during the spring and summer months. In an average year, 800 tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in 80 deaths and over 1,500 injuries.

All thunderstorms are characterized by updrafts, rising air currents which supply the warm, humid air that fuels thunderstorms; sometimes, however, the column of rising air becomes a vortex—a funnel cloud, or if it reaches the ground, a tornado. A tornado is often located at the edge of an updraft, next to air coming down from the thunderstorm with falling rain or hail. This explains why a burst of heavy rain or hail sometimes announces a tornado’s arrival. As air rises from the ground in the tornado’s vortex, a low-pressure area is created near the ground. Air rushes to fill this area, causing additional damaging to areas not directly hit by the tornado. As air rushes into the vortex, its pressure lowers, cooling the air. T...