How Are Tornadoes Formed?
Tornadoes belong to the category of the most violent storms seen on earth, and the damage they have caused and will continue to cause is extreme. Just like any other storm no tornadoes are ever the same, however they all need certain kind of conditions to be able to form, specifically intense heat. When considering the formation of a tornado there are two other specific things that are of high importance; geography and rotation, following this the formation of a tornado and its subsequent life cycle can be explained as a series of stages or phases.
Stage One
The first stage of the formation of a tornado involves the ground being heated by the sun. This heating procedure causes convection and a thermal which is an upward movement of air. As the temperature of the ground continues to increase, moist air is formed and this rises to meet the cold air above it. When the warm air rises it forms low level and shallow cumulus clouds. These cumulus clouds are then trapped underneath the warm air. Because of this, they combine with the layer of warm air and eventually form an even denser cloud referred to as cumulonimbus clouds. Following this phase the dust and whirl phase begins. This when we can see the evidence of light debris being lifted off the ground and also the beginnings of a
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At the beginning strong down facing drafts of wind are created by the rain. At this stage the draft of wind begins to take the shape of a funnel and then as it descends it gathers more speed and power and becomes stronger. As these strong wind currents move, they tend to move through the clouds in opposite directions, this then results in rapid changes in speed and direction which is called wind shear. The winds then begin to travel higher and start to rotate, the rotation causes the funnel to mutate into a spiral and tighten, moving faster and faster until the winds become increasingly
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,
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
When tornadoes do form; such places as the National Weather Service (2014) classify tornadoes into three categories. These categories are weak, strong, and violent. “
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.
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 can tear apart buildings, cars, forests, and can kill numerous people. In the U.S. alone, tornadoes cause 70 fatalities and 1,500 injuries on average annually (“Tornado Facts And History”). A tornado swept through Yellowstone in the late 1980’s which left a path of destruction up and down a 10,000-foot mountain (“Tornado Facts”).
How tornadoes form you ask? Tornadoes form when different winds from different places met and form this giant spinning destructive cyclone which can be powerful or only cause minor damage. Tornadoes form when hot air from different places and cold air from different places collides which can make a tornado at any speed,
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>
“Today students we are going to look closer at tornadoes and where they are formed. Who will tell me how tornadoes are formed that we learned yesterday?” answer: tornadoes are formed by a cold front coming from Canada pushing into a warm front from the gulf of Mexico. The cold air pushes the warm air up in a spiral causing a tornado to form. Ask “where do you think tornadoes form the most?” accept answers of all kind and ask the students to explain their thinking by asking why. Call on a few students. “Well, we are going to find out where they form today.” Pass out the graph papers and the chart of tornado numbers to all of the students.
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.
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
Hurricanes and tornadoes are both severe weather events that can potentially cause a great deal of damage to property. Both of these storms can threaten human life and in severe events with either a hurricane of a tornado there may well be a loss of life. They may be quite different in how they form and what they actually do but on the other hand those storms are both potentially devastating so they fall into the same category of potential severe weather danger. People who live in areas where hurricanes and tornadoes are known to appear during certain seasons of the year are always urged to be alert to weather warning systems. Those same residents know from experience to keep their radios tuned to weather emergency stations and they are in many cases prepared for the brunt of a storm by building basement shelters.
So the warm moist air creates clouds of rain and thunderstorm. Adding to that winds with different speed going in different directions assisting in expanding these great clouds of rain and thunderstorm. With
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.
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.