Tornadoes

Yes. In fact northeastern Texas is in Tornado Alley.

Tornadoes can form over just about any sort of terrain but tend to be more common in flat or gently rolling areas. Hurricanes can only form over warm ocean water.

A typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane, just in the western Pacific Ocean.

Both tornadoes and typhoons are powerful, destructive storms that produces very fast winds and move air in a circular manner around a center of low pressure. Air at low levels is drawn inward. Except for a very small percentage of tornadoes, both have cyclonic rotation, meaning they rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern.

Aside from these similarities the two are very different. A typhoon is its own self-sustaining storm system consisting of numerous storm cells. Typhoons are usually a few hundred miles wide and last for days if not weeks. They can only develop over warm ocean water. While typhoon winds are dangerous, most of the damage they cause is from flooding either from their torrential rains or from the storm surge, which occurs when the wind pushes seawater onto land.

A tornado is a small-scale vortex that is dependent on a parent storm cell. Most tornadoes are no more than a few hundred yards wide and with only the largest exceeding a mile in diameter. Most tornadoes last only a few minutes and rarely last more than an hour. Tornadoes can develop almost anywhere over land or water and in almost any climate. They are most common in temperate and subtropical climates. The danger of tornadoes comes entire from powerful wind they generate and the debris that wind carries. Tornadoes may be accompanied by other hazards such as flooding, but do not cause them.

The main idea is to put as much between you and the tornado as possible. Go to your basement if you have one. If not, take cover in an interior room, hallway, or closet on the lowest floor. A bathroom and especially a bathtub often provide good protection. Avoid windows.

Hurricanes and tornadoes both depend on convection and thunderstorms, fueled by warm, moist air and associated with low pressure.

Hurricanes usually develop from disorganized low-pressure areas called tropical disturbances, which produce some showers, thunderstorms, and gusty winds. Fueled by the moisture that evaporates from warm ocean water, the system begins to organize and intensify, eventually gaining an well-defined circulation. This development depends on warm sea-surface temperatures, plentiful moisture, and wind shear being weak or absent. Wind shear is a difference in the speed or direction of the wind at different altitudes and can disrupt the organized convection of a hurricane, causing it to weaken and dissipate. While the individual thunderstorms in a hurricane are rather weak, their combined strength makes for a powerful storm.

Unlike hurricanes, which are topical, tornadoes are more common in temperate and subtropical climates. They usually develop from thunderstorms in which strong wind shear induces rotation; so the same wind shear that can stop a hurricane is essential for tornadoes to form. Tornadoes most often occur in thunderstorms called supercells, the most intense thunderstorms on Earth. Such storms usually develop along fronts, where air masses of differing temperatures or humidifies clash. Such fronts are less common in the tropics and usually do not play a role in hurricane formation.

Tornadoes are far more numerous than hurricanes and they form and dissipate much more quickly. The average Atlantic hurricane season produces about 10 named storms (tropical storms or hurricanes) with relatively few seasons producing more than 15 named storms. Such a small number makes it fairly easy to maintain a list of names. A hurricane takes days to develop and can easily last for more than a week, so they can be easily named and tracked as they occur.

By contrast, the United States experiences between 1,200 and 1,300 tornadoes in an average year. During a major outbreak several dozen tornadoes may form in a single day. This is far too many for any naming system to handle. Additionally, the duration of most tornadoes is measured in minutes, making them harder to track in real time. Surveys to distinguish between tornado damage and non-tornadic winds and to determine where one tornado ended and another began can take days.

As with all weather forecasts, there is always some uncertainty in severe weather outlooks. In the case of the storms that occurred in late May 2016, conditions favored supercells with strong rotation more than was expected. Forecasts are based heavily on computerized models, which are imperfect but are often tweaked and improved.

They all have different causes.

Hurricane formation starts when an area of low pressure, showers and thunderstorms called a tropical disturbance moves out over warm ocean water. The warm, humid air from that water fuel the thunderstorms, causing more to develop. The rising air currents of the thunderstorms lower the pressure even more, which causes the system to draw in more air to fuel the storms. As the pressure drop the wind speed increases. Through this cycle the disturbance grow stronger. As the wind speed increases the Coriolis effect, a consequence of Earth's spin, causes the disturbance to start rotating. The rotation causes the system to become more organized, which lets it draw in air more efficiently. When the rotation becomes well-defined the system is upgraded to a tropical depression. When sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour the depression is called a tropical storm and is given a name. When winds reach 74 miles per hour the system is declared to be a hurricane.

To form tornadoes, first we need thunderstorms. The thunderstorms that produce tornadoes most often, though not always, develop along a cold front or dry line, where cool or dry air pushes into warm, moist, unstable air. The next step needed is wind shear, or difference in wind speed and direction at different altitudes. The wind shear affects the storms in two ways. First, it separates the updraft and downdraft sections, preventing the cold downdraft from choking off the updraft, an event that kills most thunderstorms. With this obstacle out of the way the storms can become stronger and last longer than usual. Second, the wind shear sets the thunderstorms rotating. If this rotation can tighten, intensify, and reach the ground then a tornado is formed.

Tsunamis are usually triggered in one of two ways: an underwater earthquake or a landslide. Earthquake-triggered tsunamis occur at places called subduction zones, where one of Earth's tectonic plates slowly slides underneath another. As the plates move, they snag and then build up tension over many years. When that tension is released an earthquake occurs. At subduction zones the release can also cause vertical shifts int he sea floor, which displaces huge amounts of water and generates tsunami waves. A landslide that either occurs underwater or slides into the water can also trigger a tsunami in a similar way.

It is unlikely that two tornadoes could maintain such high intensity so close to each other.

There were at least 6 tornadoes near Dimmitt on the night of April 14, 2017. Most were brief touchdowns that caused no damage, but there was one large tornado that inflicted EF3 damage. Dimmitt itself may not have been struck by an actual tornado but by damaging thunderstorm winds.

The Dimmitt, Texas tornado of April 14, 2017 was rated EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, equivalent to an F3 on the Fujita scale. The tornado itself was estimated to be a little bit over a mile wide.

No. A highway overpass is not a safe place during a tornado at all. An overpass offers almost no protection from flying debris and can actually act as a wind tunnel, causing the wind from a tornado to speed up as it passes through.

The Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak was not a single tornado. It was an outbreak of 86 tornadoes across a large portion of the southeastern U.S. The worst hit areas were in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama.

Moore, Oklahoma has been struck by a number of significant tornadoes. The two most well-known and most destructive were an F5 on May 3, 1999 and an EF5 on May 20, 2013. Moore was also hit by an F3 tornado on November 19, 1973 and an F4 tornado on May 8, 2003. The last tornado to hit Moore was an EF2 on March 25, 2015.

Hurricanes develop over warm ocean water while tornadoes usually form over land.

Waterspouts can be dangerous but it would be very unusual for one to reach EF5 strength.

There are two types of waterspout: tornadic waterspouts and fair weather waterspouts.

Fair weather waterspouts are the more common variety by far. They form from convection over a warm body of water. They are weaker than true tornadoes, rarely exceeding EF1 strength. They rarely cause damage, but they can be dangerous to people in boats.

Tornadic waterspouts are simply tornadoes that happen to be on a body of water. They can be just as strong and just as dangerous as regular tornadoes. One reaching EF5 strength would still be unusual. EF5 tornadoes are rare as it is. It so happens that the regions (at least in the U.S.) where violent tornadoes are most common don't have many large bodies of water. Occasionally, though, a violent tornado has crossed a lake or river and briefly become a waterspout of sorts.

Tornadoes are most commonly associated with cold fronts. A cold front occurs when a cool air mass pushes into a warmer one. Since cold aid is denser than warm air, the warm air mass gets forced upwards. If that air is warm enough and moist enough that upward motion can trigger the formation of strong thunderstorms. If upper-level wind conditions are right, then these storms can start spinning, giving them the ability to produce tornadoes.

There are two basic ways in which tornadoes cause damage. First, the wind in a tornado carries an enormous amount of force, which can damage tor destroy structures and vegetation. Second, debris carried by a tornado can cause significant damage on impact.

No, not withing human means anyway.

Although Georgia can get tornadoes at any time of year, the peak of activity in the state is in late winter and spring, with the months of March, April, and May seeing the highest activity.

Allentown has been hit with an EF-1 tornado. September 6, 2008. This was confirmed by the National Weather service the following day.

In excess of 200 mph at the peak, possibly as high as 250 mph.

The air pressure in a tornado is lower than that of its surrounding but the pressure difference varies with the strength of the tornado. The greater the pressure difference, the stronger the tornado.

The greatest pressure drop recorded from a tornado was 100 millibars or about 10%.

Although tornadoes can cause wind erosion, but are usually not major contributors as exposure to tornadic winds is usually brief. Tornadoes are better described as natural disasters due to their destructive impacts on developed areas.