To form a tornado the atmosphere needs to create an “instability.” The air closest to the ground will be warm, humid, and have south facing winds. In the upper atmosphere, the air will be cold with west or southwest facing winds. These two components in the upper and lower atmosphere together create the atmospheric instability. Another key component to form a tornado is wind shear. Wind shear is the change in wind speed and direction of wind while the warmer and cooler air are chasing each other around in the circle, creating the height of the tornado. (“Prepare for a Tornado,” 2017) Although tornados have been recorded in every continent except for Antarctica most are found in central United States better known as “tornado alley” a stretch of land from the western part of Texas to North Dakota. On average, there are two thousand tornadoes annually, but two out of three of those tornadoes happen in the United States. The states with the most tornados on average are Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Florida. Tornadoes form in the central part of the United States most commonly because of the reoccurring atmospheric instability from the dry polar air that meets the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. (Prepare for a Tornado,” 2017) A storm capable of producing a tornado can occur at any time but most often they occur in the spring and summer, June and May have the highest number of tornados recorded. Tornadoes can happen at any time of the day but most often occur between the
Tornados are one of the most destructive and devastating natural forces on Earth. When a tornado is fully created, wind speeds can reach up to more than 300 mph (483 km/h). Most tornadoes that occur are between the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains, but tornados can happen where ever the conditions are right. 90% of tornadoes that happen in the United States, happens in the Central United States. Even though scientist have not yet understood how tornadoes are formed, they’ve developed a theory that consist of the process and conditions of which a tornado must have to form.
Meanwhile tornadoes are dramatically different from hurricanes. Hurricanes form over vast stretches of water, and the warmer the water the more the potentially deadly the hurricane will be. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 ""¦was responsible for at least 8000 deaths" (Blake, et al, 2011). Hurricanes develop in tropical oceans and move westward in the direction of the southern and eastern United States. Tornadoes also affected by the jet stream form over land, not over water, and although they can be up to a mile wide, they are generally a quarter of a mile wide. Hurricanes are sometimes several hundred miles wide which makes them a far
A low pressure system was over Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri moving towards the northeast. To the east of the low pressure system there was a warm front advancing north and a cold front trailing to the southwest. The temperatures recorded just before 1 p.m. was over 60o F. We can assume there was a 100-knot upper-level jet max moving from the west/southwest given the speed of the tornado. Wind shear was also present, helping with the rotation (National Weather Service, 2011). With these factors there was everything to make the perfect tornado.
The first thing that starts a tornado would be the winds. The wind updraft can form a funnel. This funnel is called a Mesocyclone and when the mesocyclone touches the ground it is considered a tornado. Clouds play an important role in forming tornadoes too. Some other clouds are called, Wall Clouds. These clouds protrude from the sky and look like a giant waves coming down about to crash on earth. When wall clouds form the sky might turn to a greenish color or some other color. This wall-cloud
The most area that gets thunderstorms more frequently is the Gulf Coast. This area includes all of Florida, to include parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. “We also find that, in summer along the Gulf Coast, a thick layer of warm, moist air extends upward from the surface” (Ahrens, 2015, p.303). This also makes a point that more storms consuming Hail are located in the Great Plains. Thunderstorms typically form more in the tropical latitude, which makes the gulf coast a prime location. The two areas that tornados occur most is the Tornado Alley and the Dixie Alley. Tornado Alley stretches from Central Texas to Nebraska, as Dixie Alley over Mississippi to Alabama. “The Central Plains region is most susceptible to tornadoes because it often provides the proper atmospheric setting for the development of the severe thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes”
Some tornado specifics can be interesting, some can be boring but these are the fascinating ones. There is a part of land in the Midwestern U.s where more than 1,000 tornadoes form. Most tornadoes only stay on the ground for less than five minutes and some tornadoes stand still while others can go on devastating speeds. The destruction tornadoes make is mostly from the debris that it picks up. More than half of tornadoes are weak and don’t cause many
What is a tornado?A tornado is a narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from the base of a thunderstorm to the ground. Because wind is invisible, it is hard to see a tornado unless it forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust and debris. Tornadoes are the most violent of all atmospheric storms.Where do tornadoes occur?Tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, including Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. Even New Zealand reports about 20 tornadoes each year. Two of the highest concentrations of tornadoes outside the U.S. are Argentina and Bangladesh. How many tornadoes occur in the U.S. each year?About 1,200 tornadoes hit the U.S. yearly. Since official tornado records only date back to 1950,
Hurricanes usually form over the warmer tropical oceans. Hurricanes form from the evaporation of the warm water. Hurricanes are the most powerful over warm seas. Many of the hurricanes that hit the United States form near the African Coastline before traveling over the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricanes that hit the United States are most common in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Carolina, and North Carolina. Hurricanes are most common in early fall. Tornadoes form over land usually as heat from the surface causes air to rise. The air is humid which then becomes cooler and rises up making clouds that make
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
The Joplin tornado was caused by a sandstorm that turn into a a lot of winds. Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico moved north until it faced cold air brought by the gasses from a jet stream. Most tornado happen in spring and summer that form really big thunderstorms to a tornado.Wind spins and forms into
A tornadoes form when it is humid but the ground is wet and slower winds are by the ground as the fastest wind are higher in the sky. Because of this the wind starts to circle around when the slow wind moves up higher. Rain will fall and so will a funnel which is the tornado. The reason twister in Florida left extreme damage and many houses were being fixed or covered with tarp. Today they are cleaning up the damage or debris all over town. Other places tornadoes have touched down resonantly are Virginia and North Carolina the worst one was the one in Carolina taking three lives. To not be one of those three you must find shelter once you hear the word "WARNING." if you hear "watch" then prepare to go into "WARNING." Pleas remember that.
A tornado is a very complex and complicated type of outdoor vacuum. The various types of tornadoes are caused when a great size of particles become part of cloud and start releasing heat rapidly which makes it rise and create a vacuum underneath it. The air that quickly goes into the vacuum creates the center of the tornado or the tornadoes vortex. Then when the air temperature changes it causes a sudden drop in the air pressure. When the heat is being released in the vacuum it causes precipitation. The rain released is equal to the amount of heat absorbed.
A tornado is a violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes can produce massive destruction with wind speeds of 250 miles per hour or more. The typical tornado moves from southwest to northeast, but they have been known to move in any direction. The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 miles per hour but it may vary from stationary to 70 miles per hour. Although tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, they are found most frequently in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains during the spring and summer months. In an average year, 800 tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in 80 deaths and over 1,500 injuries.
Hurricanes and tornados are related in many ways. One such way is there appearance. According to Hammond, “A tornado can be described as cyclonic…” (Page 46, paragraph 1) Tornados are always cyclonic, yet in the Northern hemisphere they spin counterclockwise, and in the Southern hemisphere they rotate clockwise. This is very similar to hurricanes, as they move and rotate the same way. Another reason why hurricanes and tornados are similar is that they both cause a similar amount
Tornadoes can also occur in many other areas of the world as well. They have been recorded in Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America as well as in North America. They occur mostly during the spring and summer; however, the tornado season comes early in the south and later in the north because spring comes later in the year as one moves northward. They usually occur during the late afternoon and early evening. However, they have been know to occur in every state in the United States, on any day of the year, and at any hour.