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Autumn Tornado Outbreak in Midwest Essay

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I would like to start out by what we know about tornados and outbreaks, and what is said to be the cause of such catastrophic events, such as the outbreak that occurred November 17th in the Midwestern, portion of the United States. Tornado outbreaks occur when there are multiple tornados that are said to be produced by the same weather system. The classification of an outbreak can vary depending on interpretation. It is said that in order to be classified as a “tornado outbreak” there must be a certain number of tornados that touch down. It is said that the US has the most tornados of any country. This can be attributed the location with in the mid latitude. The Rocky Mountains, have the ability to block moisture and “buckle” the …show more content…

On November 17th alone, there was said to be almost 130 tornado warnings issued.
The tornados that occurred during this event ranged on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF) ranges from EF0-EF5. This scale measures the particular damage to estimate the wind speed, as it is pretty impossible to measure the actual wind speed inside of a tornado. This Midwest tornado outbreak had a variety of tornado intensity. Most of the tornados were EF1-EF3 although a couple very strong EF4 tornados were reported. The first tornado to touch down that day was in Pekin, Illinois; the tornado was measured as an EF2, with a wind speed around 120 mph. thankfully there were no fatalities associated with this particular tornado, although there were at least 10 people injured from this event. In Washington, Illinois soon after the Pekin tornado the first EF4 occurred, this twister was said to have lasted 48 minutes in total and had wind speeds around 190 mph, hundreds of homes were destroyed, as you can imagine with a tornado that was said to be at times one half to one mile wide. Experts believe that this massive EF4 stemmed from the same “parent cell” as the Pekin tornado mentioned above. Unfortunately one life was lost and approximately several were injured. The impressive EF4 tornados did not stop there, it was reported that a second EF4 touched down in New Minden, Illinois. The area of New Minden is a more rural area, although there was

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