Tornados

Tornados

     As I was searching for a topic to write about I came upon an article about tornados that caught my attention. A tornado is a violent destructive windstorm occurring over land and characterized by a long funnel-shape cloud. It is formed of winds of high speeds usually going in a counter-clockwise direction (in the Northern Hemisphere) that produce a partial vacuum.

     I have always wondered how a tornado is formed and through this research I have finally informed myself about it. Before a thunderstorm forms, there is an area in the lower atmosphere of horizontal spinning air caused by a change in wind direction and an increase in wind speed and height. When the thunderstorm starts to develop, the updraft lifts this area of spinning air, changing its direction from horizontal to vertical. At this point, there is a large area of rotation, from two to six miles in diameter, where the tornado typically forms. A wall cloud will form, which is a low mass of clouds that rotate. Finally the tornado forms and is accompanied by high winds and damaging hail.

     Tornadoes destruction can be severe and can arrive with little or no warning. A tornado can completely destroy a house or an office building in less than a second. Even those buildings that are not in the tornado’s direct path can suffer damage from the lightning and hail that accompany it. In the United States, there is an average of 910 tornadoes per year and cause an average of 80 deaths and over 1,500 injuries. A weak tornado has maximum wind speeds of 110 mph and lasts up to ten minutes. The average tornado measures around 250 feet in width and travels approximately one mile.

     I have never experienced a tornado but through this research I have been informed that a sum of weather activities have to occur for a tornado to develop. I found the developing of a tornado to be very interesting.

http://www.weatherexplained.com/Vol-1/Tornadoes.html