Tornadoes

Illinois averages between 50 and 55 tornadoes per year.

Tornadoes activity is monitored largely using a network of Doppler radars. In the U.S. those radars are owned and operated by the National Weather Service, which is an agency of the federal government.

A firewhirl can develop with any sufficiently intense fire.

Yes. Tornadoes very often rip up vegetation. Even a relatively weak tornado can topple hundreds of trees if it goes through a wooded area.

A typical tornado lasts one to five minutes. The longest-lived tornado on record lasted for three and a half hours.

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The first recorded tornado occurred near Kilbeggan, Ireland on April 30, 1054.

Yes, though circumstances still led to some being caught off guard. The City of Joplin was under a tornado warning for 17 minutes before the tornado actually formed, so residents were told of a thunderstorm with the potential to produce a tornado. When the tornado actually touched down, it was only a mile outside of Joplin and was causing damage in the city only two minutes later. While the warning was updated accordingly, it gave little time for the people on the west side of Joplin.

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The tri-state tornado hit the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana in the US.

To some degree, yes. It is safer than being out in the open but not as safe as being in a closed basement, unless you are more than one sublevel down.

The warm air usually originates from a tropical or subtropical latitude, usually from over a warm body of water such as the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas, averaging about 150 tornadoes per year.

Currently the biggest problem with tornadoes is their unpredictability. We are able to save lives with the warnings we have, but our abilities are limited. Most tornado warnings issued are false alarms, which leads people to become complacent. When a new warning is issued many expect another false alarm and do not take shelter in time. Such complacency may have contributed to the catastrophe of the 2011 Joplin tornado, which killed 158 people. The key to eliminating these false alarms is understanding why some storms produce tornadoes while other, similar storms do not.

Yes. Many tornadoes have a calm center similar to the eye of a hurricane.

As of November 23, 2015 the last fatal tornado in the US killed one person near Cameron, Texas on May 25. It was rated EF2.

If a thunderstorm is capable of producing a tornado in the immediate future or if a tornado has been detected then a tornado warning is issued. If general conditions are favorable for tornadoes but there is not necessarily an immediate threat, then a tornado watch is issued.

While property damage in a tornado is primarily caused by the tornado's extremely powerful winds, the greatest danger of injury and death to people comes from flying debris.

The greatest amount of damage in a tornado is caused by extremely strong winds. Additional damage is from flying debris.

Tornadoes form during severe thunderstorms called supercells, which often produce heavy rain and sometimes large hail. The tornado itself often develops in a rain-free part of the storm, but may also be shrouded in heavy rain. Rainfall rates can exceed an inch per hour.

The degree of impact from tornadoes varies considerably. A weak tornado may cause minor damage to buildings, down trees, and cause power outages. In the worst cases tornadoes have been known to destroy entire towns, leaving only a handful of buildings standing, if any.

Lower levels of the atmosphere.

It is not known. About 1,800 tornadoes are recorded worldwide in an average year, most of them in the U.S. but the actual number of tornadoes is probably several times higher. It is likely that thousands of tornadoes occurring in poor countries or remote areas are never recorded.

People and animals impacted by a tornado may be killed or injured and lose their homes and habitats. Plants may be uprooted, broken off, or damage.

Tornadoes come in a variety of shapes. Most commonly they appear as an elephant truck or elongated cone. In other cases they may take the shape of a wider cone, or an hourglass. Some appear as simple vertical columns while others look like massive wedges driven into the ground.