Tornadoes

On average, Utah experiences about 3 to 4 tornadoes annually. These tornadoes are generally weak in intensity and have a limited impact compared to those seen in other parts of the United States. Utah's mountainous terrain tends to inhibit the development of strong tornadoes.

Yes, tornadoes can impact the ecoregion known as the Texas Blackland Prairies. This area, characterized by tallgrass prairies and fertile soil, is prone to severe weather events like tornadoes due to its location in Tornado Alley.

There have been many tornadoes in Arkansas. However, given the timing, you presumeably mean the tornado that struck the towns of Mayflower and Vilonia on April 27, 2014.

That tornado killed 16 people.

It is usually called a tornado shelter. It may be called a storm cellar if it is underground.

Severe storms called supercells. Sometimes hurricanes even bring tornadoes. Most people don't know whether a storm will produce a tornado or not. Here are some signs:

large Hail, heavy rainfall, high winds, greenish skies are often associated with tornadoes. then, study the clouds. You will often see pouches hanging under the cloud base. These are called Mammatus clouds, and they are often associated with tornado production and other severe weather.

You will notice the storm's anvil. This is the part that extends out and turns flat once it stops at the top of the troposphere (the bottom layer of the atomsphere). Most of the time the top is flat. If you happen to see a big poof of cloud breaking through the stratosphere, this is sign of a poweful updraft possibly a mesocycone (a strong , rotating updraft in a thunderstorm from which a tornado may develop).

A major sign to look for is rotation if the clouds in a storm are rotating, especially in a lower-hanging section of clouds called a wall cloud, that is a sign that a tornado may develop.

Most tornadoes in the northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise due to the Coriolis effect, which causes the air to rotate around an area of low pressure. This rotation is typically more pronounced in stronger tornadoes.

The duration of Enigma tornado outbreak is 15 hours.

Since official record began in 1950, Lawrence has been hit by 5 tornadoes.

The duration of Tri-State Tornado is 3.5 hours.

It is uncertain at this point. If the storms approaching western North Carolina intensify, it will be possible.

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First, WikiAnswers isn't the right source for up-to-the-minute weather. Try Accuweather, at the link below.

Second, it sure looks like it! The storms currently (as of 7:40 PM Eastern Time, 4/28/2014) moving accross Tennessee are showing on the weather radar in all shades of yellows, oranges, reds, purples and even scarier colors.

They don't really. Tornadoes are an erosive force, though significant erosion is rare. The soil or sediment picked up by a tornadoes does eventually get deposited, as does all eroded material, but not as a direct result of any process from the tornado itself.

Tornadoes can be devastating to vegetation and man-made structures, but the ground itself is usually not affected in any significant way except in the most violent tornadoes. In rare cases tornadoes can be stroung enough to scour away the soil.

The ideas is that the mountains would intereferew with and break up the tornado's circulation. In some cases mountains can interefere with the parent storm organizing, but once a tornado develops, it can pass over mountains unhindered.

Yes, extremely violent tornadoes can occur within severe thunderstorm watches. Severe thunderstorm watches indicate conditions are favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms, which can produce tornadoes with little warning. It is important to stay informed and be prepared for rapidly changing weather conditions during such watches.

An isolated tornado in Texas is little different from an isolated tornado anywhere else. An isolated tornado occurs with few or no other tornadoes in the region. Such tornadoes are usually, but not always, weak but are still dangerous. Like any other tornado, an isolated tornado will damage or destroyed trees and man-made structures in its path.

It doesn't really matter.

Although tornadoes tend to come out of the southwest, the direction of movement varies greatly. The strongest winds in a tornado are usually on its right side in the direction of the tornado's movement. However, since a tornado rotates and may have smaller circulations inside it, it is impossible to predict the wind direction for any given location. Violent winds may impact a structure from multiple directions in a short period of time.

Yes, tornadoes are not a significant factor in the weathering of rocks. Tornadoes mainly cause physical erosion by moving and transporting rocks and sediment. Other factors like water, wind, and temperature fluctuations play a larger role in the chemical and mechanical weathering of rocks over time.

The Doppler radar itself does not predict tornadoes, meteorologists do.

Doppler radar can detect the signature of a possible tornado, but it usually takes reports from weather spotter to confirm a tornado is occurring.

The meeting of warm, humid air and cool, dry air is not the direct cause of tornadoes. The boundary where these air masses meet is called a cold front, as the cooler air mass is advancing. Cool, dry air is denser than warm, moist air. As a result, the cooler air mass acts as a wedge, forcing the warm, moist air upward. As the warm air rises it cools and the moisture in it condense. If it is unstable enough, this will lead to the formation of thunderstorms. If a few other conditions are right, these storms may go on to produce tornadoes.

There does not appear to be such an incident based on a look at available data. Such a situation is unlikely to arise, since the Storm Prediction Center is in charge of issuing both severe weather outlooks and tornado watches. If it saw fit to issue a PDS tornado watch, it would likely issue a moderate or high risk outlook as well.

No, tornadoes are typically associated with dark or black funnels due to the debris they pick up. The color of a tornado is determined by the materials it has sucked up and the lighting conditions around it.

This means that there is a chance of tornadoes occurring in a few isolated areas. It suggests that tornadoes may form sporadically and not affect a wide area. Residents in the affected areas should stay alert and be prepared to take necessary safety precautions.

No, a tornado could not have lifted up the Titanic as it was a massive ship weighing over 46,000 tons. Tornadoes are powerful weather phenomena but they do not have the force to lift such a heavy object out of the water.

It is difficult to determine, but the heaviest objects lifted by a tornado appear to be a set of three oil tanks, each weighing 90 tons. The tornado struck Pecos County, Texas on June 1, 1990. The tornado was officially rated F4 as it hit few structures, but of ground scouring and the carried oil tanks suggests that the tornado's intensity was well into the F5 range.