Tornadoes

Direct warning signs of a tornado include rotation in the clouds and a persistent lowering of the cloud base. Many people associate hail or green skies with tornadoes. These signs do indicate a severe storm, but not necessarily tornadoes.

Tornadoes can strike quickly and sometimes without warning.

Tornadoes are most often associated with a rotating thunderstorm called a supercell. Supercells are the most powerful thunderstorms on Earth, capable of generating very large hail and straight-line winds in excess of 100 mph in addition to tornadoes.

Your best option would be to seek shelter in a room or hallway on the lowest floor of the building, rather than in the apartment itself. If you do not have access to any areas downstairs, take cover in a room or closet as close to the center of the building as possible. You want to put as many walls between you and the outside as you can.

Tornadoes are a product of severe thunderstorms, which take the form of cumulonimbus clouds.

No. While Ontario does get tornadoes, it is nowhere near Tornado Alley. Tornado Alley is farther west.

As of April 28, 2015 Georgia has had 125 tornadoes in the past 5 years.

Tornadoes occur most frequently in an area known as Tornado Alley, which includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. Southeastern states like Alabama and Mississippi also experience a high frequency of tornadoes.

There is no way of knowing until it happens. It is impossible to predict when the next tornado will be in any given location.

The Woodward Oklahoma tornado of 1947, with a death toll of 181, was one of the deadliest tornadoes in US history, and the deadliest ever to strike Oklahoma. Since it occurred no single US tornado has surpassed it death toll. The great loss of life combined with the fact that no warnings were issued led to increased calls for some sort of waring system. Some work was done to create a warning system in the following years, but efforts did not begin in earnest until another series of extremely deadly tornadoes struck in 1953.

Tornadoes do not have names; they are simply referred to by the places they hit. This tornado is known as the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado for hitting the cities of Daulatpur and Saturia.

If you see a funnel cloud, take cover immediately! The funnel cloud itself means that there is already an imminent threat of a tornado touching down. The tornado may already be on the ground, as violent winds may have reached the surface even if the visible funnel hasn't. Generally, you should not rely on looking out the window, as the tornado may be obscured by rain or blocked from view by objects between you and it. It is dangerous to be near a window during a potentially tornadic storm, as the thin pane of glass offers little to no protection, and broken glass can cause serious injuries. It is best to pay attention to weather waring issued by the National Weather Service. Keep a battery powered weather radio handy and pay attention to any severe weather alerts issued for your area.

Thus Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado of 2011 varied in width, but at its maximum the tornado was about a mile and a half wide.

True. Doppler radar can detect tornadoes.

No. Tornadoes are purely wind events. The storms that spawn tornadoes, however, typically produce heavy rain. So, tornadoes can be accompanied by flooding, but the flooding is not a product of the tornado itself. Hurricanes, which some people confuse with tornadoes, can also cause major flooding.

We employ a warning system that alerts people to tornadoes or storms that may produce tornadoes. People who get such warnings are advised to seek shelter underground or in the center part of a sturdy house or building.

A tornado watch is issued when general conditions across a region are favorable for the formation of tornadoes. Such an advisory does not indicate an imminent tornado threat for any given location; that would warrant a tornado warning.

Chances are fairly high overall. Killeen has had several weak tornadoes in the past, and a number of strong tornadoes have hit fairly close to the town. The chances of it getting hit at any given time or in any given year, however, are low.

Fewer homes would be destroyed in tornado-prone areas and we would not have storm cellars or tornado sirens. Severe thunderstorms would not be considered as dangerous as they are. Fewer people in the US would die from storms. Thunderstorms that would spawn tornadoes would expend their energy in some other way.

It is impossible to predict if a specific location is going to be hit by a tornado unless that tornado is already close to striking. That said, while tornadoes do occur in Arizona, they are rare so you probably don't have much to worry about.

Tornadoes are not a direct product of fronts but rather of thunderstorms. The storms that produce tornadoes most commonly occur along a cold front or dry line, but can be associated with stationary fronts or, less often, warm fronts. Some tornadic storms develop in the absence of any fronts.

No. Tornadoes do not damage the atmosphere.

As of April 22, 2014 the last tornado to hit Connecticut was an EF0 in Wolcott on July 27, 2014. It toppled trees and fences, with some of those trees falling on homes.

There were a number of tornadoes in 1925, but presumably mean the Tri-State tornado. The damage from this tornado was catastrophic. It was an F5, and maintained F4 to F5 intensity along almost its entire path. This means that in places well-constructed houses were completely blown off their foundations, and in many others they were left as piles of rubble. The tornado struck numerous towns, completely destroying some of them. It is estimated that 15,000 homes were destroyed.