Tornadoes are some of the most unpredictable weather we have on earth. Tornadoes belong to the category of meteorology in earth science. Meteorology is the science that deals with the weather and conditions. A tornado is a violent destructive whirling wind accompanied by a funnel-shaped cloud that progress in a narrow path over the land, (Merriam-Webster, 2014).
How are tornadoes created? Tornadoes are the result of an extremely large storm called a supercell. A supercell is a storm that has the presence of a mesocyclone. A mesocyclone possesses a deep, persistently rotating updraft. These storms are also referred to as rotating thunderstorms. There are five classifications of thunderstorms: supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell.
Supercells tend to be the least common but have the potential to be the most severe. Supercells are isolated from other thunderstorms and can impact area weather from as far away as 32 miles. A squall line is a thunderstorm that forms alongside of a cold front. The squall line contains heavy precipitation, hail, constant lightning, strong straight-line winds, and potentially tornadoes. Strong straight-line winds usually occur when the squall line is in the shape of a bow echo (Wikipedia, 2014). The bow echoes develop within the summer months are commonly known as derechos.
Single cell showers are when a single moist convective cell develops in an air mass that is moderately unstable. When the up draught and the rain downdraught come together in the atmospheric column, the downdraught overtakes the up draught. There then becomes a change of wind speed with height of the up draught column becomes tilted forward. The cold downdraught overtakes the inflow of surface air, cutting off the up dr...
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...ation along the radar beam. It measures the speed of the rain or hail is moving toward or away from the radar. From a volume scan forecasters can get a detailed look at structures in the storm’s path.
Some safety tips are as follows if you live in an area where tornadoes are frequent. A house with a finished basement, corner rooms or bathrooms and closets offer extra protection. This reduces the risk of your home caving in on you and better protects you from flying debris. If you are in a high-rise building go to the lowest level or the most interior room of the building you can find. One of the worst places to be during a tornado is in a vehicle. Tornadoes usually move from southwest to northeast or from west to east. Occasionally tornadoes can take a turn in any direction. If the storm is approaching fast, you should seek shelter in a sturdy building or ditch.
Appears in Preprints, 18 th AMS Conf. Severe Local Storms (San Francisco, CA), 19-23 February 1996, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 471-473. Typos and other minor problems have been fixed in this Web version.
Many scientists often find themselves wondering if the tri-state tornado was really a single massive tornado or if it was part of a family of tornadoes that continuously evolve from one supercell to another. Only one factor stands in the way of this theory and that is a cyclical supercell usually has breaks in its destructive path. The tri-state tornado's path of damage appeared to be continuous despite two slight decreases in the destruction. One of which was near the onset of the storm, and one near the demise. No matter which is believed, one thing is for certain, and that is a storm like the tri-state tornado could very well happen again, but there is no telling when or where it may occur.
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.
Tornadoes, also called twisters or cyclones, are a localized, violently destructive windstorm occurring over land, and characterized by a long, funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground and made visible by condensation and debris. They come in many different shapes and sizes, but are typical in a funnel formation, where the narrow end makes contact with the earth. Most don’t reach winds over 110 miles per hour (177 km/h) or have a path wider than 250 feet (76m), and most only travel a few miles on ground before dissipating. Although, some can reach winds as high as 300 miles per hour (483 km/h) or higher, have a path that can be as wide as two miles (3.2 km) or more, and can travel for dozens of miles on the ground before dissipating.
Although Greensburg was almost entirely destroyed, the storm helped to reinforce the important role that storm chasers play in the tracking and warning process of severe weather. By having well-trained, experienced people in the field, meteorologists and weather services are better able to track the exact location and characteristics of tornadic events, relaying that information to the public faster and more accurately than ever before.
Tornadoes are devastating atmospheric events that affect the ecology and the lives of people in their paths. Tornadoes are defined as “a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud” (Glossary of Meteorology, 2011). The Tri-state tornado was the deadliest tornado in the United States. It stayed on the ground for a total of 219 miles through areas of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killed a total of 695 people, and an estimated $16.5 million in damages (National Weather Service, 2011). Luckily, the tornado’s path was largely rural farmland with scattered small towns between them.
Thunder rolled intensely outside, my aunt, mother, sister and I were sat calmly in the basement. We had been through this many times before; I mean afterall, Kansas was part of Tornado Alley. 2. My sister and I were young when this happened, her probably four or five, me about eight. 3. Before we had even started driving to my aunt’s house; since she’s the only one with a basement; my sister and I were complaining about being hungry. 4. Mom said she would get us something to eat soon, but then the sirens started blaring. 5. She called my aunt and told her we would be over in about ten minutes. 6. Me and my sister continued to complain about being hungry because, we always had to get what we wanted. 7. So my mom stopped at McDonald’s and got us some food. 8. After we were almost five minutes later than we said we would be my aunt panicked. 9. Jenny, my aunt, was calling like crazy. 10. When we finally got to her house she lectured my mom about how it wasn’t safe to have us out there like that with a tornado in the area. 11.Afterwards, we all sat on the porch and watched the storm. 12. That’s my favorite memory with my family, and it’s one I’ll never forget.
A tornado requires some basic ingredients to come together. First, energy in the form of warm, moist air must exist to feed thunder storms. Second, there must be a top layer of hot, dry air called a cap. This air acts like a lid on a simmering pot, holding in the warm air that’s accumulating in the atmosphere below until the storm’s ready to burst. Last, there has to be rotating winds speeding in oppositedirections at two different levels in the atmosphere, a phenomenon called wind shear, can cause the storms to rotate. Tornado alley is perfectly situated to meet these requirements. (1)
In tornado construction, the wind speed, humidity, temperature, and pressure arrange an unusually violent event that is always alluring and sometimes deadly. About 750 tornadoes strike the United States each year. Wind speeds in a tornado vortex are difficult to measure directly. Early efforts used video footage of debris carried in the vortex. By knowing the distances involved and the time between frames, one measured the speed. Today Doppler radar makes real-time wind-speed measurements achievable, especially with mobile Doppler units that can achieve good resolution if one can park the truck adequately close to the action. While the wreckage that tornadoes produce is ugly, an organized aspect in nature, which quickly produces high- entropy disorder, they are amazing and beautiful in their physics. Their complexity emerges from out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics in a multiphase fluid. The weather in general forms a nonlinear system—recall that “chaos theory” and the “butterfly effect” beginfrom the study of meteorology.
The kind of thunderstorms that produce our summer rains are called ordinary thunderstorms, or air mass thunderstorms. They form when warm, humid air rises in an unstable atmosphere. Warm air cools down as it rises, and once it becomes colder than the air around it, it will begin to fall back down. In an unstable atmosphere, the temperature of the surrounding air decreases faster with height than the temperature of the rising warm air. This causes the warm, moist air to continually be warmer than the atmosphere, and continue rising to large heights. When this happens, we have the basis for a thunderstorm. Thunderstorm formation occurs in three stages - the cumulus stage, the mature stage, and the dissipating stage.
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.
1. According to the USA Today Tornado Information website, a tornado is a "violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and pendant from a thunderstorm." Therefore, thunderstorms are the first step in the creation of a tornado.
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm cloud to the earth’s surface. They are sometimes nicknamed twisters because of their shape and because of what they do. The winds in the tornadoes are usually 100mph or less. In +F4's they can exceed 250mph. They usually stay on a track of a few miles or less and are less than 100 yds. wide. For the development of tornadoes there are a few conditions required. An abundant low-level of moisture and unstable atmosphere is required not only for the tornado, but for a thunderstorm also. A “trigger”, which is a cold front or low level zone of converging winds, is needed to lift the moisture and the air. When the air rises , it becomes saturated and continue to rise higher and higher. They then form in areas where winds at all levels of the atmosphere are strong and turn clockwise with height.Some tornadoes appear as a funnel shape and some have a churning smoky look . Some contain multiple vortices , which are small individual tornadoes rotating around a common center. Some can be invisible , with only swirling dust or debris at ground level as the only indication of the tornado’s presence. Tornadoes can occur at any time of the year, and anywhere in the world. The unique geography of the US is what helps us produce some of the most violent tornadoes because of the favorable condition’s for their development . The months with the greatest amount of tornadoes are April, May and June .
It is important to remember that two percent of all tornadoes are severe, and most well-built homes can withstand the brutal punishment. The next time nature’s fury strikes your city, you will be well aware of the raw power of the tornado. Nothing guarantees your survival, but since you are ready for impact, you have just tripled your chances. In the words of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “there is no place like home, there is no place like home.” Be prepared!
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.