Tri-State Tornado Essay

On the afternoon of April 14, 1886, the city of Sauk Rapids in Minnesota was nearly wiped out after a tornado had struck the city. The whole city was left in complete devastation. Natural disasters have always interested me, specifically tornadoes. Something about tornadoes, whether it’d be how they form or how they acquire their power to cause great destruction, interests me to learn more about tornadoes. This led me to research about tornadoes in Minnesota. As I began surfing the internet about tornadoes that occurred in Minnesota, I came across the effects that each tornado had caused to the areas that it had struck. This is where I discovered the effects of one particular tornado called the Sauk Rapids Tornado. As I looked at the

Outside, cool dry, seeking air starts to rap around the back of the mesocyclone, known as a Rear Flank Downdraft. The Rear Flank Downdrafts creates a start temperature difference between the outside and inside temperature of the mesocyclone. Building the instability for a tornado to thrive. Then the mesocyclone’s lower part becomes tighter, increasing the speed of the wind. If the funnel of air moves down into the large moist cloud base at the bottom of the parent storm, it sucks it in and turns it into a rotating wall of cloud. Forming a link between the storm that is created and the earth, as known as the touch down phase. The second the spinning cloud touches the ground; it becomes a tornado. Producing winds of 65 to 110 miles/hour or 104 to 177 km/hour with 200 mph winds. A tornado can last up 5 minutes or for multiple hours. The distance the tornado covers depends on the rate at which the RFD cools. If the RFD cannot further provide any more air to the tornado, it begins to die. Warm air decreases, the vortex begins to weaken and shrivel

Natural disasters often occur in the extreme climate in the American Prairie. Some examples of these are Tornadoes, Hail Storms, and Heat Waves. These natural disasters are the most that occur in the American Prairie, but at different times of the year. One example is the Dallas hailstorm of 2012. Baseball-sized hail stones destructed the northern part of Texas as part of a series of several strong thunderstorms. Hailstorms like this usually take place in the American Prairie’s cold winters. Another example, is the deadliest tornado to ever hit Oklahoma, the Woodward Tornado of 1947. This was 1.8 miles wide, killed over 100 people, and destroyed about 1,000 building structures. It was rated as an F5 on the Fujita Tornado Scale, and flew at

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.

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

The Joplin tornado was the biggest tornado on the record for that year. The Joplin tornado was the most powerful tornado that people have ever seen. After the tornado was over there was no building without debris on or in or by them everything was destroyed. The tornado killed thirty-eight people and over 1,000 people were injured. The cost of everything was about 2.8 billion dollars for stores, houses and even cars. The Joplin tornado was the tornado that caused the most damage that year. Now learning from that I have some tips for you. Some tips for you when there is a tornado in the area: If you see a tornado then run to the lowest area in your house and protect yourself. If you don't have a lower level then go to a room without a window. When the tornado hits keep covering yourself till it

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

May 3rd, 1999 is day that bore witness to one of the strongest spectacles of weather that mankind has ever seen. The storm is one of the largest, and deadliest, tornados in history. The definition of a tornado is "a mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud and advancing beneath a large storm system". A tornado is rated on a Fujita-Pearson scale which takes into account, overall damage reports, ground swirl patterns, as well as eyewitness and media accounts of the

To begin with, a strong and heavy storm was on its way to a small town of Mapleton, Iowa. The town had several practices before, which allowed everyone to be safe during that night. The wind rate was 136 to 165 mph during that time. The sky was turning colors, hail started to beat down, and the wind picked up.

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.

     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 have different ratings ef-0 - ef-5, ef-5 being the worst. An ef-0 will have 65-85 mile an hour winds and will blow off a few shingles and brake a few branches. An ef-1 will have winds up to 110 miles an hours, It will peel more shingles off and brake a few windows. An ef-2 will have wind speeds

Of course we all know a tornado is hazardous situation to be placed in, and they come during bad storms. stormaware.mo.gov, defines a tornado as a “Rotating, funnel-shaped cloud that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling winds that can reach 300 miles per hour” (2 para. 1). Tornadoes come in a wide variety of sizes and strengths, each of which are variables to the total amount of damage assessed. The total damage brought by a single tornado is how tornadoes are classified. The original scale of tornado classification was the Fujita

The twister had just hit the ground and was gaining power and strength as it devoured everything in its path. We found ourselves even more frightened than we were just moments ago. The whirling "finger of God" was approaching us at a tremendous rate. The sound surrounding us was outrageous, it sounded something like a steam locomotive roaring towards us, whining and whistling with an awful high pitched roar. As the rumbling cloud of darkness approached us, we started to realize it's outstanding power. This event would be one that we wouldn't soon forget. The rain had almost completely stopped, but the wind was nearly blowing us off the ground as we huddled together under the overpass. We could hear the screeching sounds of car tires as they started sliding across the rain-soaked cement pavement. Electrical explosions lit up the darkened sky as the tornado ripped over power lines,

The damage from tornadoes comes from the strong winds they contain. It is generally believed that tornado wind speeds can be as high as three hundred miles per hour in most violent tornadoes. Wind speeds that high can cause automobiles to become airborne, rip ordinary homes to shreds, and turn broken glass and other debris into lethal missiles. The biggest threat to living creatures, including humans, from tornadoes is from flying debris and from being tossed about in the wind. It used to be believed that the low pressure in a tornado contributed to the damage by making buildings "explode" but this is no longer believed to be true.