The Tornado
Rural area with clay ditches following a narrow gravel road, the flat yard was covered in green grass and tall trees surrounding a newly built house. This is what I could see from my window after moving to a new town in Arkansas. There was a sense of loneliness because our house had only one other beside it and no one had purchased it yet. No other kids to play with just my younger sister. The air was crisp and six black crows landed in a row outside my window.
I went outside to see what the view was like from the backyard. A fence surrounded an acre of yard with a swing set and sandbox ready to be enjoyed. There in the back of the property was a newly built shed that my parents built. They argued about every aspect of that building and wanted it to look perfect. I even helped paint it white. I was only five years old at the time but my mother’s constantly said “you’re never too late to learn how to set goals.” I only had one secret goal to grow up and matter to the world and stop moving all the time. At my young age of five this was my 8th house and neighborhood. I had a sense of being an outsider at school but especially in my family.
My parents never let me go without the things I needed. I think my feelings of not mattering came from the diagnosis both my sister and I had of autism. We both were on opposite ends of the spectrum and mine was social problems hers was far more complicated. My parents began to take her to speech, physical, and occupational
I saw my father, young and determined, working at the crack of dawn in the brickyard, while my mother stayed home to childproof their small apartment. Using the potent mixture of caffeine and chemicals contained in Mountain Dew, he was able to resist the urge to doze off during his daily classes. I saw myself running around the large oak tree that dwarfed our first house, and couldn’t help but smile as I thought about my mom, pregnant with my sister, walking me to the library to play with the puppets and pick up books about my favorite dinosaurs. I saw the terrifying night that the oak tree was stuck by lightning, and heard my mothers voice over the phone at school, eagerly telling me about my new baby brother. My stream of consciousness was broken as we entered the scorching area where they bake the bricks, but I quickly zoned out again as my grandpa began to explain the technical aspects of brickmaking. This time, the memories took place in a new house, as our cozy home had turned claustrophobic with the addition of a fifth member. Quiet walks to the library were replaced with chaotic days at the pool. The cards began to pick up speed, as I got deeper into my life. The dark years of middle school, when my hair covered my eyes and I
Tornadoes are devastating atmospheric events that affect the ecology and the lives of people in their paths. Tornadoes are defined as “a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud” (Glossary of Meterology, 2011). The Tri-state tornado was the most deadly tornado in the United States. It stayed on the ground for a total of 219 miles through areas of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killed a total of 695 people, and an estimated $16.5 million in damages (National Weather Service, 2011). Luckily, the tornado’s path was largely rural farmland with scattered small towns between them. <Add thesis>
It was a seemingly normal, sunny day in Kansas. It did began to rain, but that was normal, rain happens everywhere. I still remember everything from what I was doing, and where I was at. This is the story of the tornado that ripped through my town in 2011.
In this paper, I will discuss what tornadoes are and how they form, what different forms of tornadoes there are, what tornado watches and warning are and give examples of tornadoes in Oklahoma and what destruction they caused, also while providing information about the Doppler radar.
It is vital for the survival of mankind that we respect and understand the severity and danger of natural forces and weather conditions. Although advances have been made in the predictions and warning systems of the National Weather Service, or NWS, we must be vigilant in our efforts to always respect what is coming. It is also imperative that we learn from the mistakes we have made in the past and grow from them. One such piece of literature which can help to do this is "Storm Warnings: The story of the a Killer Tornado", by Nancy Mathis, which depicts an amazingly horrific incident where mankind was not prepared for what was coming. The following is understanding of the events that took place on May 3rd, 1999, which showcased an amazing, and terrible, spectacle of tornadoes in Oklahoma. Furthermore we will delve into what has changed since this to better our understanding of upcoming weather related dangers as well as planning for said forces of nature.
“Storm Country” by Paul Crenshaw is about his own childhood growing up in Arkansas which is in the heart of tornado alley (Crenshaw, 2004, pg. 203). He explains his encounters with tornadoes and the memories that this remarkable but destructive storm left. Paul Crenshaw explained his story about a tornado in a descriptive way which gave life and meaning with every sentence. After I was done reading I started to think about my own experiences with storm watching during the day and even at night. I agreed with every point he made about the mesmerizing moment of when a storm hits by relating it with my own points about storms.
My tornado came in the Summer of 2009, on a humid day in June, at Camp Constantin, the Boy Scout summer camp I had been attending. As a timid eleven year old, to whom life still seemed perfectly choreographed, adversity was not quite an often used word in my vocabulary. I came from a comfortably middle class family in the well-off area of Dallas, so my childhood was never a struggle. Entering my first Boy Scout troop was really the first part of my life where I seemed to struggle the tiniest bit. As it turned out to my eleven year old self, other children might not always like me, a problem which I had dealt with before, but handily ignored, as I was a child. My first encounters with true conflict came on this
Every year we practice tornado drills for our safety. A tornado is a violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground.They can destroy large buildings, trees and vehicles hundreds of yards. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide to 50 miles long. In an average year, 1000 tornadoes are reported nationwide. Tornadoes form out of thunderstorms, where moist air rises, cools and condenses into clouds that release heat and force cooler air back down. If the updrafts are strong enough, the feedback loop forms an air vortex that continues to shunt more moist air upwards and eventually forms a tornado.
I remember when I was ten years old and my family and I were in Florida for two months for my father’s awesome job as usual. My dad works for the Phillies, so whenever they would go down for Spring Training we would too. My family and I always thought that Florida is as beautiful as the Bahamas. Almost everywhere you went you could smell the terrific ocean. It was a normal typical day of school until it wasn’t. I remember every haunting moment of it.
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.
Tornadoes cause a lot of damage making communities and volunteers to help rebuild from the damages the volcano left, also tornadoes are dangerous since they can change directions suddenly at a high speed of 290 MPs making these not have a certain direction once it hits the ground. Tornadoes are classified using the Fujita scale- FO being not so dangerous since they only stir up dust and break a few limbs off a tree. F5’s are potentially deadly destroying houses and lifting up vehicles as well as other objects
This rural scene that I’m going to be writing about is an open swath of land that has a few homes or other buildings, and not very many people. This area population density is very low. This place is located in the United States.
People see tornadoes as a threat well let us see, an average of 800 tornadoes reported each year, leading to 80 deaths and 1,500 injuries and ripping a path up to 10-50 miles. Then tearing big buildings, and lifting vehicles hundreds of yards. They can also drive straw into trees, some tornadoes are invisible to see but most catch swirling dust or debris.
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest and most unpredictable villains mankind will ever face. There is no rhyme or reason, no rhythm to it’s madness. Tornados are one of the most terrifying natural events that occur, destroying homes and ending lives every year. April 29th, 1995, a calm, muggy, spring night I may never forget. Jason, a buddy I grew up with, just agreed to travel across state with me so we could visit a friend in Lubbock. Jason and I were admiring the beautiful blue bonnets, which traveled for miles like little blue birds flying close to the ground. The warm breeze brushed across the tips of the blue bonnets and allowed them to dance under the perfectly clear blue sky. In the distance, however, we
A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of two hundred and fifty miles per hour or more. Damage paths can be more than one mile wide and fifty miles long. In an average year, eight hundred tornadoes are reported nationwide, resulting in eighty deaths and over one thousand five hundred injuries. In the body of my essay, I will tell you about types of tornadoes, where tornadoes come from, where and when tornadoes occur, the damage they inflict, variations of tornadoes, and how to detect tornadoes.