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11 Facts About Tornadoes

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Although the world is devastated by many natural disasters, the United States are known for their severe, annual destructive tornadoes. A tornado can reach 300 miles per hour and has a funnel-shaped cloud (“11 Facts About Tornadoes”). The way to know if a tornado is forming is if there is hail, a dark or greenish sky, a low lying cloud (possibly rotating), or a loud roar similar to a freight train (“Tornado Facts And History”).
The best predictors for tornado activity are rotating thunderstorms. They are well defined thunderstorms on a radar that include flash floods, hail, lightning, or severe winds. (“11 Facts About Tornadoes”) These storms are called supercells (“Tornado Facts”). Once they reach land, tropical storms or hurricanes can be accompanied by tornadoes. When a warm front meets a cold front, a thunderstorm can form, which can create 1 or more tornadoes (“11 Facts About Tornadoes”). With little to no warning, a tornado may strike.
Tornadoes can tear apart buildings, cars, forests, and can kill numerous people. In the U.S. alone, tornadoes cause 70 fatalities and 1,500 injuries on average annually (“Tornado Facts And History”). A tornado swept through Yellowstone in the late 1980’s which left a path of destruction up and down a 10,000-foot mountain (“Tornado Facts”). …show more content…

That is an average of about 100 tornadoes per month (“Tornado Facts”). In the southern states, March through May is peak tornado season, but is normally late spring to early summer for the northern states (“11 Facts About Tornadoes”). However tornadoes can form at anytime. A tornado can form in any place in the world if the conditions are right. They form in places such as, eastern and south-central Asia, New Zealand, east-central and northern South America, South East and North West Europe, Africa, West, and North East Australia, and most commonly, Tornado Alley in North America (“Tornado

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