Tornadoes

Official record keeping for tornadoes in the U.S. began in 1950. Annual tornado death tolls are available as far back as 1875, though their accuracy is not as great as it is for years after 1950. Other data is hit-miss.

As of May 21, 2012 the most recent tornadoes were part of a small outbreak in Kansas on May 19, with another, unrelated tornado touching down on the same day.

to prepare for a tornado you need to have canned food and water bottles ready because you do not know how much the tornado will last do not open windows or doors have a radio and check for news broadcasts and have faith in yourself and remember tornadoes are dangerous things so be aware

Some efforts for tracking tornadoes in the U.S. began as early as 1943. Official record keeping began in 1950.

If a tornado is coming go to you basement or cellar. If you don't have one go to an interior room on the lowest floor of you house. Stay away from windows. If you live in a tornado prone area you may also choose to install an above ground tornado shelter. Abandon vehicles and mobile homes for sturdier shelter.

Worldwide records are unavailable, but the first tornado to touch down in the U.S. in the years 2000-2012 was an F1 that touched down at 6:22 AM on January 3, 2000 in Baxter County in northern Arkansas.

Worldwide records are unavailable, but the first tornado to touch down in the U.S. in 2000 was an F1 that touched down at 6:22 AM on January 3 in Baxter County in northern Arkansas.

Remain seated, buckle the safety belt, and put the seat in the upright position. Basically the same procedure for turbulence or the possibility of a crash. However tornadoes occur during severe thunderstorms and the pilot of an airplane should know to avoid such storms.

That depends on what you mean by "mini tornado," as there is no real definition for the term. Some people apply the term to whirlwinds such as dust devils, which aren't really tornadoes. In that case, then no.

Sometimes, especially outside of the U.S. tornadoes with relatively narrow damage paths are referred to as "mini tornadoes," regardless of intensity. In that case, such a tornado may be able to lift up a cow depending on how intense it is.

One tornado in France in 2008, which some outlets called a "mini tornado" caused isolated F4 damage. Such a tornado could pick up cows and much larger objects.

Tornadoes can cause great economic harm on a localized scale, and even on a regional scale in major tornado outbreaks. People can be left without homes and some may be injured or killed. In extreme cases such as that of Tuscaloosa, Alabama hospitals may be overwhelmed by the injured. Tornadoes can also bring about great fear among the public.

Tornadoes are not necessarily dark, though they are often opaque. Tornadoes occur during severe thunderstorms and the clouds of such storms often block a significant amount of sunlight. The condensation funnel is essentially a part of the cloud and will appear a similar color. However tornadoes that are front lit can appear light gray or even white. Tornadoes can also lift up large amounts of soil, which changes the color of the tornado. If the soil is dark, the tornado will be too.

If the tornado is relatively close and no other shelter is available then yes. Tornadoes are fast moving and unpredictable, you should not attempt to outrun one.

Tornadoes do not have names as hurricanes do. Most tornadoes are simply referred to by where they hit. For example the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri in 2011 is known as the Joplin tornado.

Go to the basement or lowest floor of the building you are in. Try to find an interior room without windows.

If a tornado threatens go to you basement or the center part of you house away from windows. Thunderstorms usually pose a less serious threat, though it is still a good idea to avoid windows. In a hurricane you should stay away from windows and be prepared to move to a higher floor. The number 1 killer in a hurricane is flooding.

You shouldn't. Contrary to popular belief opening windows during a tornado does nothing to save a house and may in fact make damage worse. If a tornado is coming opening windows is a waste of precious time that you should use to take cover.

The F5 tornado of 1999 May 3, 1999 does not have a name, nor does any tornado. It is often called the Oklahoma City tornado, the Moore tornado, or the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado in reference to the areas it hit.

If you mean Edmonton, Alberta then yes. On July 31, 1987 a devastating F4 tornado struck Edmonton, killing 27 people. This marks it as the second deadliest tornado in Canadian history. There has even been speculation that this tornado may have briefly reached F5 intensity.

They are called funnel clouds or, more often, twisters.

Given the timing of this question, a tornado warning has been issued for St. Louis, but so far no funnel cloud has been reported. Just strong rotation indicated by radar.

A tornado is a microscale weather pattern, meaning that in weather terms its is very small and fairly short lived, and so it can be influenced by small-scale and short lived factors. These factors interact in complex ways. What causes a tornado or its parent thunderstorm to go through one place and not another is influenced by differences in temperature, humidity and wind too subtle to even detect on the long term, especially considering that we cannot take measurements at every single location. It is only when the direct precursors to the tornado, which typically gather together in a matter of minutes, can we say that a specific location is at risk.

That said, a less definite sort of prediction can be made on more long term. Many tornadoes, especially the strong ones, tend to occur in outbreaks. In these circumstances large-scale weather patterns have to have a favorable setup for tornadoes across a region. Such large scale patterns are easier to work with. With this we can often tell that a tornado outbreak is likely across a region three days in advance, sometimes more. However, such forecasts cover broad areas such as a state or two and cannot predict if any specific location will be hit, or exactly how strong the tornadoes will be.

That would be the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado of May 31, 2013. At peak size the tornado was 2.6 miles wide.

It has an effect on the environment by knocking down trees and it has an effect on people because the tornado would pick up dust from the ground and throw it around and people would breath it in instead of clear oxygen.

Electronic logic uses just two states, high and low voltage, or "1" and "0". The output of a gate will always be at one value or the other. This is convenient when only a single output is used to drive a signal. In some cases, it is useful to have two or more outputs driving the same signal line. However, if two outputs are linked together, if they have different outputs, there is likely to be damage to the outputs and the level on the line will be un-predictable.

A tri-state output has the same high and low levels as standard logic outputs but it has a third state, namely high impedance. A high impedance state means that the output is not transferred to the line so effectively, the output is simply turned off. Another logic gate can now drive the line and the level is entirely predictable. Numerous outputs can now drive a single line as long as only on is turned on at any time.