Tornadoes

There were 33 recorded tornadoes in Arkansas.

Yes. All tornadoes are dangerous. F0 tornadoes have been known to bring down trees, resulting in deaths.

Most states have more than 6 tornadoes per year. Weak tornadoes are more common than most people think. Florida averages about 65 tornadoes per year. This is due to Florida's somewhat unique position. Over the Florida peninsula warm, moist air masses converge. This convergence, combined with intrusions of cooler air from further north means the Florida very frequently gets thunderstorms. In some cases these can spawn tornadoes.

In cleanup and rebuilding, the aftermath of a tornado can bring people closer together, and some people learn to become less materialistic. Construction companies profit, as they are paid to build new homes. But overall tornadoes do far more harm than good.

No. That is a common myth. Tornadoes destroy buildings with wind and derbris, not low pressure.

No. First of all, a tornado does not create a climate. Climate is the egneral trend of weather over the course of long periods of time; at least several decades. A tornado is a short live weather event. Second, a tornado is a small scale event and does not affect large scale systems.

No. For mathematical purposes, Fujita scale categories up to F12 are calculated. The scale that is used in practice only goes up to F5.

For long term readings, satellites and weather balloons can take measurements at different levels in the atmosphere to look for conditions that ar conducive to tornadoes such as instability, inversion caps, and wind shear. Computer models use data such as this to forecast the behavior of large scale systems, including the potential for the severe storms capable of producing tornadoes. In the short term, Doppler radar can detect the rotation within a thunderstorm that can lead tor a tornado.

The Joplin tornado occurred on the afternoon of May 22, 2011.

Most tornadoes have peaking winds of less than 110 mph, but these events are rarely notable. Violent tornadoes are much stronger, with the most powerful packing winds well over 200 mph. The fastest wind speed ever recorded in a tornado was to 302 mph in the Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999, though this was at a point more than 100 feet off the ground where winds are stronger. Other tornadoes have produced more impressive damage than the OKC tornado without getting their winds measured and may very well have been more intense.

Yes. Hawaii will get tornadoes on rare occasions.

Most tornadoes in the northern hemisphere move to the northeast.

maelstrom (whirlpool), though it should be noted that this should be called an underwater vortex as, by definition, a tornado is a vortex of air.

Very likely. June is the peak month of tornado activity in Nebraska

On average Nebraska gets 57 tornadoes per year of which 21 (37%) occur in June. Of course actual activity varies from year to year.

Yes. The figure of 695 for the Tri-State tornado is only a "best guess" and may not include people who died later of their injuries. So the actual death toll of that tornado may be higher. Two tornadoes in Bangladesh have higher official death tolls. The 1969 East Pakistan tornado (East Pakistan being the former name of Bangladesh) killed over 900 people and the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado of 1989 killed an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest tornado ever recorded.

Tornadoes do not form under clear, sunny, or stable weather conditions, of if the weather is too cold. They cannot form without thunderstorms.

Yes. In some cases the absence of tornado records is due to a lack of documentation rather than a lack of tornadoes. In other cases an area may experience tornadoes so infrequently that none have occurred since before people were around to document them. If a place has little record of tornadoes, that still means tornadoes have been recorded in that area.

Vacuums and tornadoes are alike in that they both involve the movement of air and particles in a circular motion. Both create a swirling effect and draw in surrounding materials into a central vortex. Vacuum cleaners use this concept to suck up dirt and debris, while tornadoes naturally form due to changes in atmospheric conditions.

That is difficult to determine as very few tornadoes actually have their winds measured. Wind speeds are estimated based on damage, but that is limited by how much a tornado hits. However, a reasonable estimate might be in the range of 80 to 100 mph. Very destructive tornadoes are far more powerful, with peak falling in the range of 150 to just over 300 mph. However, only a a fairly small tornadoes are this strong and even then, the strongest winds usually only affect a fairly small portion of the path.
The average tornado probably has winds of about 80 to 85 mph.

Tornadoes are not a significant cause of hunger. While they can damage crops and kill livestock, their overall impact on such things is relatively small. Some families may go hungry for some time because of financial problems

Like all weather events on earth, tornadoes take place within and as a part of earth's atmosphere. They are produced by thunderstorms, which are driven by thermodynamic instability in earth's atmosphere.

Tornadoes cannot be predicted so far in advance. The only way you can know that a town or city will likely be hit, is if the tornado is already on the ground and heading toward that community. The chances of a given location being hit byt a tornado on any given day, though, are quite small.

If you ever worked in a prison you would swear that one occurs every day

The size of a tornado does not necessarily relate to the destruction it causes. While a large tornado can case damage over a larger area, the damage is not necessarily more severe. However, larger tornadoes do tend to be stronger and thus more destructive. The intensity of a tornado can be assessed based on the severity of the damage it causes. The most severe damage a tornado causes is used to assign a rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Below are the levels on the scale with damage typically associated with that rating. Note that a tornado only needs to cause a small amount of a given type of damage to qualify for a rating. e.g. one house with EF3 damage is enough to rate a tornado EF3.

EF0: 65-85 mph. Shingles peeled from roofs, fences blown down, tree limbs broken, weak trees toppled. Very weak structures such as sheds may be destroyed.

EF1: 86-110 mph. Roofs of frame houses badly damaged. Windows broken, Trailers overturned and/or badly damaged. Barns destroyed. Poorly secured roofs may be torn off.

EF2: 111-135 mph. Roofs torn from well built houses, trailers completely destroyed. Large trees snapped. Cars lifted and tossed. Poorly anchor structures may be shifted.

EF3: 136-165 mph. Exterior and possibly interior walls collapsed in well built houses. Large vehicles lifted. Weaker houses and businesses may be leveled. Trees lifted into the air.

EF4: 166-200 mph. Well built houses completely leveled. Houses with structural deficiencies swept away. Trees debarked. Asphalt peeled from roads.

EF5: over 200 mph. Well built, well anchored houses wiped clean from foundations. Debris broken into small fragments. High rise buildings significantly deformed. Significant ground scouring may occur.

The actual wind speed is not known as it was never measured. The tornado was rated F5, indicating estimated winds over 260 mph. Today, however, it is believed that the wind speeds in very violent tornadoes have been overestimated. However, modern estimate would still place the winds of a tornado similar to the one that hit Waco at over 200 mph.