Tornadoes

Yes. This is when the atmosphere is usually the most unstable.

F2 wind speeds were originally esitmated at 113-157 mph. The new Enhanced Fujita scale has adjusted that estimate to 111-135 mph.

Tornadoes do not have names. Some tornadoes are referred to by where they hit (e.g. the Oklahoma City tornado), but that is not a name.

Accurate worldwide records are not available, but the United States, which keeps the best tornado records, experiences about 1,200 tornadoes in an average year.

Warm anc cold air colliding are not a direct cause of tornadoes, but they can be a step in the process. where they come from depends on the region the weater system is in. But normally the warm air comes from a warm part of the ocean while the cold air comes from a cold region. In the Central United States, for example, the warm air comes from the Gulf of Mexico while the cold air comes from Canada.

In most nations, the Red Cross or the Red Crescent provides help to tornado victims, including emergency shelter, food, clothing, and other necessities. Many religious groups also provide emergency shelter, food and aid; the Salvation Army is well-known for providing emergency aid. In the U.S.A., FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) provides organization, protection and massive amounts of financial assistance for towns, cities, counties and states. The National Guard provides protection, prevents looting and assists in all forms of rescue.

Yes, the most recently recorded tornado in the area of Enid, OK, was in April of 2009. See the link below for Enid area statistics from the National Weather Service.

The May 3, 1999 tornado ripped through Chickasha, OK, through south Oklahoma City and the suburbs of Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Moore, Midwest City and Del City.

There were three tornadoes there in 1960. The National Weather Service records two F2 tornadoes in Moore, OK, on April 28, 1960, and an F2 tornado in Moore, OK, on May 16, 1960. See link attached below.

Since records began in 1950 there have been 12 recorded tornadoes in Moore.

You would go to the most sheltered area of the basement, away from any windows or outside doors.

The National Weather Service records 63 tornadoes in Oklahoma in 2012. See the link attached below.

An EF5 tornado has an estimated wind speed of over 200 mph (miles per hour,) while an EF4 has wind speeds from 166 up to 200 mph. The scale approximates the intensity of a tornado. "F" stands for the Fujita Scale, with "EF" standing for the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Both rate tornadoes based on engineered wind estimates and damage descriptions. Both F4 and F5 tornadoes are ranked as "intense" and "violent," but the difference between the ratings can only be determined by Doppler Radar data and other technical meteorological measures. See the Wikipedia article linked below for further information and sources. In more detail, an EF4 tornado will level a well built house and blow away ones of with less integrity. An EF5 will wipe well built houses clean off their foundations.

An EF5 tornado does extreme damage. Even the sturdiest houses are swept away, leaving behind empty foundations. The few trees that remain in place are stripped clean of their bark and lose all limbs. In places, vegatation may be scoured from the ground, and asphalt peeled from roads. Since EF5 tornadoes are typically very large, entire neightborhoods and even whole downs can be devsastated.

Yes. In developed nations such as the United States all of those who initially go missing in a tornado are accounted for, whether they are found alive or dead.

It depends. Some people mistakenly refer to the size of a tornado as its length, while width is a more appropriate term. No tornado has ever come close to 10 miles wide. However, in terms of. Path length, or the distance a tornado travels, a tornado can easily go for 10 miles or more. The most destructive tornadoes often have path lengths of 20 to 50 miles.

In long term forecast, the potential for tornadoes across a region, but not individual tornadoes, is forecast using weather models. Given data based on temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind speed and direction at different locations and altitudes, supercomputers forecast the behavior of weather systems, including those that might produce tornadoes. However, forecast models cannot predict where individual tornadoes will strike. Doppler radar can detect rotation within a thunderstorm, and thus tell if a storm is likely to produce a tornado in the near or currently producing one, with an average lead time of 14 minutes.

No community gets hit with tornadoes every year. Evansville has been hit by a total of 5 tornadoes since official record keeping began in 1950. This works out to an approximate average of 1 tornado every 12 years.

Most tornadoes are capable of at least breaking tree limbs and downing a few trees. Significant tornadoes uproot and snap large number of trees, in some instances carving large swaths of deforestation. In rare, extremely violent tornadoes the topsoil may be scoured away.

There is no such thing as "a meteorology". Meterology is the scientific study of weather. A tornado is a weather event.

Yes. There are a few ways this can form. Large, intense tornadoes sometimws spawn weaker satellite tornadoes that orbit the main tornado. A supercell, the kind of thunderstorm most likely to produce a tornado, will sometimes produce several tornadoes in succession in what is called a tornado family. In some cases a new member of a tornado family may touch down before the previous one has dissipated. Landspouts are weak tornadoes that form without the larger rotation of a mesocyclone. Sometimes a storm can produce more than one at a time. In one case six landspouts were on the ground near Lazbuddie, Texas at the same time.

Another phenomenon worth noting is something called a multiple vortex or tornado. A multiple vortex tornado contains smaller, short-lived vortices within the main circulation of the tornado itself. Tornadoes have been documented to have anywhere from one to six of these smaller vortices at a time. Under the right conditions these vortices can be visible as multiple funnels, but are usually hidden within the main funnel. Many of the most destructive tornadoes have multiple vortices. Even if multiple visible funnels, it is still considered one tornado.

Note that tornado ratings are not based on size, and F5 tornadoes have been recorded at a wide variety of widths. One F5 tornado in Kansas was 2.2 miles wide. However, one F5 in Texas was less than a quarter of a mile wide, and narrowed to only 60 yards when it reach ed F5 strength.

No. The highest rating a tornado can acheive is F5.

Tornadoes are formed during powerful thunderstorms, which are usually preceded by hot, humid weather and followed by milder conditions.

Not exactly. However, it is not uncommon for the same weather pattern to produce several waterspouts at a time.

Additionally, some tornadoes, which can form as or become waterspouts, contain multiple vorticies, like mini tornadoes, within the main vortex. In some cases this leads to a tornado having two or more funnels, somwtimes appearing to split.

The Tri-State tornado dissipated about 10 miles northeast of Princeton, Indiana.