Tornadoes Nebraskans are no strangers to tornadoes. They are a part of the spring and summer living in the Central Plains. We all know the damage tornadoes can create either first hand, as some can remember being around for the 1980 tornadoes that ripped through Grand Island, or know someone who has experienced a tornado first hand. Even though I have been living in Nebraska my entire life I still do not understand exactly how a tornado forms or what ingredients are needed in order to make a tornado form. In this paper that is exactly what we will look at, how a tornado is formed. We will look at the conditions needed for tornado formation, how tornadoes are formed out of supercells, and finally what spotters look for when chasing …show more content…
The most violent tornados form from supercell storms. Not all tornadoes form from a supercell storm, but this will be the focus of the paper because these are usually the tornadoes that do the most damage and stick around the longest (About Tornadoes). Figure 1. Anatomy of a supercell thunderstorm from Wicker, Crystal. "Weather Wiz Kids Weather Information for Kids." Weather Wiz Kids Weather Information for Kids. Crystal Wicker, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.
“A supercell thunderstorm consists primarily of a single rotating updraft. Its organized internal structure allows the storm to maintain itself for several hours” (Ahrens). Figure 1 above illustrates what the inside of a supercell thunderstorm would look like and shows the tornado produced from this storm. As figure 1 illustrates, the counterclockwise rotating air labeled the mesocyclone is the warm, humid air coming into the cumulonimbus cloud. The heavy rain-chilled air from the mesocyclone then descends as a strong downdraft called the forward-flank downdraft. Vertical wind shear is also an important part of the how a tornado forms. “The vertical wind shear causes the air near the surface to rotate about a horizontal axis. If the strong updraft of a developing thunderstorm should tilt the rotating tube upward and draw into the storm, the tilted rotating tube then becomes a rotating air column inside the storm” (Ahrens). The updraft, the counterclockwise swirling precipitation, and
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.
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>
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
When tornadoes do form; such places as the National Weather Service (2014) classify tornadoes into three categories. These categories are weak, strong, and violent. “
They are known as convective storms. Cell thunderstorms form in regions where limited vertical wind shear is present. The winds direction or speeds do not abruptly change rapidly. Ordinary storms develop and mature through a cycle, as cell thunderstorms don’t have this development. Different conditions vary from warm air rising, random turbulent eddies and terrain. These are a few that can be a trigger to these more impactful storms.
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,
We also learned In earth science class that tornadoes typically are more likely to form when the sky is covered with cumulonimbus or towering cumulus clouds. However, in the Twister movie, we learned that often times meteorologists as well as forecasters will use lifted index's to pin point a tornados whereabouts. Also in the Twister movie, we learned that tornados are often times formed from funnel clouds created by cumulonimbus or towering cumulus clouds. Another thing we learned from the Twister movie is that a water spout happens when tornados crosse over water and the water then begins the get sucked up into the tornados suck zones forming a water spout. In addition, in the movie Twister we also learned about Sister Tornados which typically spawn next to an already occurring tornado. Most Importantly, in both earth science class, and the movie Twister, we learned about the Fujita Scale which is a scale that classifies rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornados inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The Fujita Scale if rated F1-F5 with F5 being the most strongest and most severe tornados,
Tornadoes and hurricanes are very destructive. Tornadoes are spinning columns of air that form from the the sky to the ground. Hurricanes are the most powerful storms on Earth. Hurricanes are tropical storms that travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricanes happen when winds exceed to 75 miles per hour. Tornadoes have winds that can get to the speed of up to 200-300 miles per hour. There is a level 5 hurricane which means that the winds exceed up to 150 miles per hour.
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.
The Joplin, Missouri Tornado included many details common to Tornadoes. All Tornadoes are created by a series of rotating air from thunderstorms. Once a lot a rotating air combines a funnel cloud starts to form from underneath
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.
Tornadoes are very complex natural events. The tornado has to be the right size so that the tornado can release the rain at the precise amounts. If the tornado was too small the tornado would not produce enough heat to create a vacuum. The height from the ground is also a really important factor in the creation of a tornado. This is because the higher up the tornado is from the ground the more air the tornado will have rushing into it. These are just some of the many factors that have to be exactly perfect for a tornado to be naturally created and sustain the wind speed required for it to be a tornado.
The strongest tornadoes come from the kind of long-lasting fierce thunderstorms known as supercells. As the name implies, these are intense thunderstorms, which can produce large hail and downbursts in addition to tornadoes. Supercells are most common on the Plains in the Southeast and across the Midwest, but do occur elsewhere.
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.