Tornadoes

There have been numerous tornadoes in Oklahoma City, but the most well-known was the one which struck on May 3, 1999. This tornado was rated F5, the highest intensity level on the Fujita scale. It was the worst tornado to hit the U.S. in 20 years. It killed 36 people and injured 583, the highest number of deaths and injuries in a single U.S. tornado since the Wichita Falls tornado of April 10, 1979. The damage from this tornado was $1 billion. This made it, at the time, the costliest tornado in U.S. history, though it would later be exceeded by the Tuscaloosa and Joplin tornadoes of April 27 and May 22, 2011.

All in all, it was a devastating tornado.

Tornadoes are very destructive along a narrow path of land, but hurricans cover a much larger area.

No terrain is safe. It is a common misconception that tornadoes cannot hit hilly or mountainous terrain. They can and do. Although mountains may inhibit the initial development of a storm, once a tornado is estalblished hills do not affect it. In fact they can make an approaching tornado harder to see.

Meteorologists can detect the signature of a tornado or the rotation that may lead to one using Doppler Radar, which can measure wind speeds at a distance. They also receive reports from weather spotters who report tornadoes and other severe weather as they occur.

Yes. New Jersey has had tornadoes as strong as F3.

Yes. Apart from a few exceptional cases a tornado will spare more people than it kills.

yes

Usually it is a warm body of water. In the United States it generally comes from the Gulf of Mexico.

Unfortunately full records for 100 years of tornado data are not available. Official record keeping in the United States did not begin until 1950 and many countries do not keep official records even today. Even in the U.S. many of the weaker tornadoes were missed until about 20 years ago.
Since 1950 there have been just under 56,300 recorded tornadoes in the U.S.. Prior to that, accessible accounts give an estimate of about 6,000 tornadoes from 1916 to 1949 . Estrapolating this for the earliest few years this would probably gives us close to 64,000 recorded tornadoes for the U.S. in the past 100 years. However, if the more accurate counts from more recent years are any indicator, the actual number of tornadoes in the U.S. is probably at least twice this figure or more than 128,000.

The deadliest tornado in Nebraska history was the Omaha tornado of March 23, 1913. This F4 tornado killed 101 people in Nebraska and 2 in Iowa. More than 90 of the deaths were in Omaha.

Not really. Although tornadoes can hit Tuscon, it is unusual and tornadoes stronger than EF1 are rare in Arizona.

Tornadoes are accompanied by the same color lightning that you would see in any other storm. It can be white, orange, pink, blue, or violet.

Tornadoes are usually accompanied by rain and are often accompanied by hail.

Most deaths and injuries in a tornado are the result of flying debris.

Head for a sturdy building if one is nearby. Otherwise, if it is heading toward you and is still in the distance you should try to drive perpendicular or diagonal to its path, depending on what the roads will allow, to get out of its way. If it is getting close get out of the car and lie in a ditch as a last resort.

A satellite tornado is a tornado that touches down near and usually orbits a larger tornado within the same mesocyclone.

Tornadoes are usually preceded by heavy rain and often by hail.

Both of these values are highly variable. Tornadoes can be stationary or move at over 70 mph. A typical speed would be around 35 mph.
Most tornadoes produce winds of less than 110 mph and winds may be as low as 60 mph. However in extreme cases, winds in a small portion of an exceptionally violent tornado may exceed 300 mph.

They do not have much of an impact. Actual tornadoes are very rare in desert environments and when they do occur are almost always weak. Such tornadoes may tear apart some shrubs.

A "fire tornado" or more properly a firewhirl can spread a fire to new locations, burning trees and structures it impacts. The winds in a firewhirl can also cause severe damage, toppling trees and damaging roofs. One firewhirl was reported to have been as strong as an F3 tornado, which is capable of tearing apart a well built home.

In terms of wind speed, yes. Tornadoes are the only storms on earth that can produce gusts in excess of 300 mph. However, tornadoes this intense are very rare.

Tornadoes are most likely to occur when a cold front or dry line is moving into an area, providing weak to modest lift in an area of sufficient instability with strong low level wind shear, high helicity, and that has an inversion cap.

There were 37 recorded tornadoes in Florida in 2009.

It isn't. Some tornadoes do have a calm eyelike structure at their center. However, the only way in or out is to go through the tornado's violent winds, and at the speed that most tornadoes travel, this eye is usually not over any one spot for more than a few seconds, so it would be nearly impossible to stay there.