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Tornadoes
A tornado or twister is a violent, rotating column of air which typically has a speed ranging from 177 km/h to over 480 km/h. This devastating windstorm is usually characterized by its funnel-shaped cloud that extends toward the ground.
8,901 Questions
What are condensation funnel cloud and debris cloud?
The condensation funnel of a tornado is basically a cloud formed when moisture inside a tornado condenses and in that sense it is similar to an ordinary cloud.
The debris cloud of a tornado is a cloud of debris picked up by a tornado usually from buildings and trees the tornado has damaged or destroyed.
Tornadoes can vary in size, with most being between 100 to 600 meters wide. However, there have been larger ones that exceed 2 km in diameter and smaller ones known as rope tornadoes that are thin and narrow.
What is the farthest a tornado has traveled?
The greatest distance a tornado is recorded to have traveled is 219 miles.
What is a tornado called in the southern hemisphere?
A tornado in the southern hemisphere is still called a tornado.
Tornadoes can vary greatly in size, with most being around 50 to 100 meters wide. The largest tornadoes on record have been over 2 miles wide and can stay on the ground for over 100 miles. These are very rare and extreme cases.
What does tornado scientists do?
Scientists who study tornadoes do various things. Some such as Josh Wurman use a Doppler radar mounted on a truck to gather wind and other data from a distance. Others work on deploying probes, which carry scientific instruments, to take measurements from directly inside a tornado. Still other scientists work on creating computer models of thunderstorms and tornadoes.
How does a tornado come at night?
Tornadoes occur at night the same way they do during the day.
First, a condition called wind shear, in which the speed or direction of the wind changes with altitude. If the shear is strong enough it can essentially tilt a thunderstorm, this separates the updraft and downdraft of the thunderstorm, preventing them from interfering with one another. This allows the storm to become stronger and last longer.
Additionally, if the wind shear is strong enough it can start the air rolling in what is called horizontal vorticity. This horizontal vorticity can then be turned vertical by a thunderstorm's updraft. When this happens, the thunderstorm may start rotating. The rotation is especially strong in an updraft called a mesocyclone. If the storm intensifies rapidly enough, a relatively warm downdraft called a rear-flank downdraft or RFD can wrap around the bottom part of the mesocyclone. This can then tighten and intensify its rotation and bring it down to the ground to produce a tornado.
How many tornadoes occur each year in the world?
On average, there are around 1,000 tornadoes reported worldwide each year. However, this number can vary greatly from year to year based on weather patterns and reporting methods. The United States experiences the most tornadoes of any country, with an average of around 1,200 tornadoes annually.
A vast tropical funnel cloud in the pacific ocean?
The tropical funnel cloud in the Pacific Ocean is likely a waterspout, which is a tornado that forms over water. They are typically weaker than tornadoes over land but can still be dangerous to boats and ships in the area. It is important to stay away from waterspouts and seek shelter if you are in the affected area.
Cells form from the division of pre-existing cells through the process of cell division, which includes both mitosis for somatic cells and meiosis for reproductive cells. This allows for growth, development, and repair in multicellular organisms.
How can you control tornadoes?
Tornadoes cannot be controlled or manipulated by human intervention. They are natural phenomena that form as a result of specific weather conditions, and are typically unpredictable in terms of their path and intensity. The focus is on improving early warning systems and emergency preparedness to minimize the impact of tornadoes.
What planet has tornadoes frequently?
The planet with tornadoes most frequently is Earth. Tornadoes are most common in the Central United States, known as Tornado Alley, where warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cool, dry air from the Rocky Mountains, creating the perfect conditions for tornado formation.
What is the source of tornadoes?
Most tornadoes from supercells follow a recognizable life cycle. That begins when increasing rainfall drags with it an area of quickly descending air known as the rear flank downdraft (RFD). This downdraft accelerates as it approaches the ground, and drags the supercell's rotating mesocyclone towards the ground with it. FormationAs the mesocyclone approaches the ground, a visible condensation funnel appears to descend from the base of the storm, often from a rotating wall cloud. As the funnel descends, the RFD also reaches the ground, creating a gust front that can cause damage a good distance from the tornado. Usually, the funnel cloud becomes a tornado within minutes of the RFD reaching the ground. MaturityInitially, the tornado has a good source of warm, moist inflow to power it, so it grows until it reaches the "mature stage". This can last anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour, and during that time a tornado often causes the most damage, and in rare cases can be more than one mile (1.6 km) across. Meanwhile, the RFD, now an area of cool surface winds, begins to wrap around the tornado, cutting off the inflow of warm air which feeds the tornado. DemiseAs the RFD completely wraps around and chokes off the tornado's air supply, the vortex begins to weaken, and become thin and rope-like. This is the "dissipating stage"; often lasting no more than a few minutes, after which the tornado fizzles. During this stage the shape of the tornado becomes highly influenced by the winds of the parent storm, and can be blown into fantastic patterns. Even though the tornado is dissipating, the tornado is still capable of causing damage. The storm is contracting into a rope-like tube and, like the ice skater who pulls her arms in to spin faster, winds can increase at this point.
As the tornado enters the dissipating stage, its associated mesocyclone often weakens as well, as the rear flank downdraft cuts off the inflow powering it. In particularly intense supercells tornadoes can develop cyclically. As the first mesocyclone and associated tornado dissipate, the storm's inflow may be concentrated into a new area closer to the center of the storm. If a new mesocyclone develops, the cycle may start again, producing one or more new tornadoes. Occasionally, the old (occluded) mesocyclone and the new mesocyclone produce a tornado at the same time.
Though this is a widely accepted theory for how most tornadoes form, live, and die, it does not explain the formation of smaller tornadoes, such as landspouts, long-lived tornadoes, or tornadoes with multiple vortices. These each have different mechanisms which influence their development-however, most tornadoes follow a pattern similar to this one.
2 types of air masses that form a tornado?
Most often a warm, moist air mass collides with a cool air mass, a cold air mass, or both. However, such a collision alone will only form thunderstorms. Other factors are needed for those storms to produce tornadoes.
Where do tornadoes mostly occur at?
Tornadoes mostly form over Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and other states along Tornado Alley, although they can happen almost anywhere on land. Tornadoes can also form on water, which are called waterspouts.
tornado in Latin is turbo turbis with a macron over the "o". turbo is a masculine 2nd declension noun
Where does cold air come from that produces a tornado?
The thunderstorms that produce tornadoes often form along cold fronts, when a old air mass pushes into a warm air mass. The cold front develops when a low pressure system (which rotates counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere) pulls cold air from the north. For U.S. storm systems this cold air is pulled down from Canada.
Where are most of the tornadoes formed in a severe thunderstorm?
Usually tornadoes are found in the southwest quadrant of the thunderstorm, which is the updraft portion, usually at the back of the storm.
Tornadoes often form from a type of cumulonimbus cloud called a?
Cumulonimbus incus, which has an obvious anvil top. Only very strong ones, called supercells, spawn tornadoes.
Cumulonimbus icnus is the most likely type of storm cloud to produce a tornado. These cumulonimbus clouds are often supercells.
Tornadoes can form from any cumulonimbus cloud, but they usually form from Cumulonimbus incus (heaped rain cloud with anvil) with a rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. The type of storm this rotating cumulonimbus cloud brings is a strong thunderstorm called a supercell, the thunderstorm most likely to form a tornado
cumulonimbus clouds
Why are tornadoes considered severe weather?
Tornadoes are considered severe weather because they are capable of causing significant damage and posing a serious threat to life and property. They can produce extremely strong winds, large hail, and heavy rainfall that can result in destruction of buildings, uprooting of trees, and disrupting transportation and communication systems. The unpredictable nature of tornadoes makes them particularly dangerous for those in their path.
Tornadoes usually last only a few minutes, some only for seconds. However, a few tornadoes can go for a couple of hours.
Do high level clouds produce hail and tornadoes?
High level clouds, such as cirrus clouds, typically do not produce hail or tornadoes. Hail and tornadoes are more commonly associated with severe thunderstorms that develop from cumulonimbus clouds, which are characterized by their towering vertical structure. These types of storms have strong updrafts and downdrafts that are conducive to the formation of hail and tornadoes.
What layer of the atmosphere are alto-stratus clouds in?
Altostratus clouds are found in the middle layer of the atmosphere known as the altocumulus layer, typically between 6,500 to 20,000 feet. They are thin, gray clouds that often cover the sky and can sometimes produce light precipitation.
It depends on the intensity of the tornado. For the weakest and most common category, EF0 there isn't much that it can destroy.
For an EF5, there is little that can survive except structures that are designed with EF5 tornadoes in mind. These include closet-sized shelters than can be installed in homes and the reactors of nuclear power plants.
