Tornadoes

As it is during most tornadoes, fear was probably the predominant emotion. Experiencing a tornado was just as terrifying then as it is now.

In the U.S. tornado warnings are issued by local offices of the National Weather Service.

It was the deadliest tornado in history with a death toll of over 1300.

The Xenia, Ohio tornado of 1974 killed 32 people directly. Two others died from indirect effects of the tornado.

Joplin has been affected by 11 tornadoes since record began in 1950. This works out to an average of about 1 tornado every 6 years. Most are of EF0 or EF1 intensity.

Fujita released the scale in 1971, but much of the development was based on a detailed survey of the Lubbock, Texas tornado of 1970.

Since tornadoes are a form of weather, they would be predicted by a meteorologist.

There is no way of knowing. The farther back you go, the less reliable records become. Accounts from before 1950 are pretty incomplete, and reliable accounts from before 1880 or so are few and far between. There are no reliable accounts of any tornado-related deaths in the United States in 1800, though it is likely that deaths occurred somewhere.

We do not know. The Natchez tornado was in 1840, and it is hard to get reliable information from records that old. The tornado itself was probably an F4 or F5, which would put wind speeds in the range of 200 mph or more, but that does not indicate anything about how fast the tornado itself moved.

There are 13 states that fit this criterion:

Kansas (95 tornadoes per year)

Oklahoma (65)

Florida (63)

Nebraska (56)

Illinois (53)

Colorado (49)

Iowa (48)

Missouri (46)

Alabama (45)

Mississippi (45)

Minnesota (43)

Arkansas (40)

Louisiana (38)

Note that these are only averages. The number of tornadoes in a state in any given year can vary greatly.

No. The description of hot and cold air coming together is based on an oversimplified scenario often given by the media. A collision of hot and cold air simply results in a front. Fronts, particularly cold fronts where cold air pushes away warm air, often result in stormy weather, but the nature of those storms depends on other conditions. In the summer cold fronts often bring thunderstorms, which may be severe. If the storms are strong enough and the winds are configured in the right way, then some of them might produce tornadoes.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, organizes relief for tornadoes and other disasters. However, much relief is also provided by non-government organizations such as the Red Cross.

The mesocyclone developed from horizontally rolling air that get caught in the updraft of a thunderstorm and turned vertical.

Severe thunderstorms

You don't pack when a tornado is coming; you take cover immediately. You don't have time like you do with a hurricane.

Tornadoes start as a funnel cloud, becoming a tornado when they reach the ground.

A tornado is a violently rotating windstorm that connects tot he base of a thunderstorm to the ground, often made visible by a condensation funnel.

To form a tornado, first, you need thunderstorms, then you need a condition called wind shear, in which the speed or direction of the wind changes with altitude. If the shear is strong enough it can essentially tilt a thunderstorm. This separates the updraft and downdraft of the thunderstorm, preventing them from interfering with one another. This allows the storm to become stronger and last longer.

Additionally, if the wind shear is strong enough it can start the air rolling in what is called horizontal vorticity. This horizontal vorticity can then be turned vertical by a thunderstorm's updraft. When this happens, the thunderstorm may start rotating. The rotation is especially strong in an updraft called a mesocyclone. If the storm intensifies rapidly enough, a relatively warm downdraft called a rear-flank downdraft or RFD can wrap around the bottom part of the mesocyclone. This can then tighten and intensify its rotation and bring it down to the ground to produce a tornado.

Roofs and windows get resurfaced and replaced. Damaged parts of buildings and entire buildings are rebuild based on standard construction and repair methods.

The highest rating a tornado can attain is EF5. If you are referring to some other parameter, please specify in another question.

The fuel of a tornado is the warm, moist air that powers its parent thunderstorm.

Wind. A tornado is a type of violent windstorm.

However tornadoes can form over bodies of water. When that happens they are called waterspouts.

There are a couple ways in which a tornado can form, both involving the updraft of a thunderstorm. In the classic model of tornado formation, the updraft of the thunderstorm starts rotating due to interaction with wind shear (differences in wind speed and direction with altitude) and may be influenced by the general rotation of the parent storm system. The tornado then develops from this rotating updraft.

In the other model, by which landspouts and most waterspouts form, a broad-level circulation at the ground gets caught in the updraft of a developing thunderstorm, becoming narrower and more intense.

There is no exact year in which they were invented. The practice developed gradually through the 1940s and 1950s.

Tornadoes can cause a localized disruption to transportation. Debris and downed trees may block roads and railroad tracks. Tornadoes can blow cars and trucks off roads and derail trains. Some very strong tornadoes can directly damage transportation infrastructure, stripping asphalt from roads and destroying some bridges.