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It varies from one to another. A very weak tornado may spin at only about 40 mph at ground level. By contrast, some small but extremely intense tornadoes (informally called "drillbits") can spin at over 300 mph.

It gets complicated, however, as a tornado is often not a simple spinning vortex. Large tornadoes spin more slowly than the strongest "drillbits", but often contain smaller vortices that move with the rotation of the tornado, adding their own spin to the peak wind speed. These multiple vortex tornadoes are the ones that most often produce winds over 200 mph. Winds over 300 mph have been recorded. The forward movement of a tornado also adds to the wind speed on one side of the funnel, left if it spins clockwise (Southern Hemisphere), right if it spins counterclockwise (northern hemisphere).

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11y ago

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