Cyclone, twister, or tornado. All violent and destructive natural disasters that leave behind devastation and nothing else.
A tornado is a whirling wind of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground. If forms in a funnel or cone that touches the ground and spreads across the land demolishing the earth beneath it. A tornado has changes in the variables of wind, temperature, moisture, and pressure.
Tornadoes are formed when a change in wind direction and an increase in height and wind speed form a horizontal spinning wind in the lower part of the atmosphere. This change occurs just before a thunderstorm takes place. Once a thunderstorm is present, the updraft from the storm makes the horizontal rotating air change direction and spin vertical. Spinning wind between two to six miles wide now spins within the thunderstorm. This is called a funnel cloud. The funnel cloud spins from the base of the thunderstorm. Once the funnel cloud touches the ground, it is then a tornado.
The tornado spins violently on the ground with a trash and debris around the bottom of the tornado that touches the earth. The violent wind and the debris is the main source of damage to buildings when it is blown over or hit by flying debris.
Tornadoes can devastate unexpectedly and can happen at anytime and in almost any place. Almost all tornadoes happen in the United States when the cool air from Canada, the warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, and thunderstorms are taking place. Mostly happening in the Rocky mountains and western states.
Tornadoes usually take the appearance of cone shaped funnels, with debris at the bottom, being the color of dirt and mud. However, tornadoes form in many different shapes, sizes and colors. Tornadoes that form in a dry climate area are almost invisible. The spinning wind is unseen with only some debris around the bottom of the cyclone. Condensation funnels are gray to white with little or no debris around the bottom. When tornadoes travel over water they look blue or sometimes even a glowing white. There are many more circumstances and differences in color and shape of tornadoes.
The average size for a tornadoes destruction path measures about 500 feet across and can travel usually for about 5 miles. On average tornadoes travel southwest to northeast in direction, although some have been reported to travel different directions without warning. The speed of a tornado can get up to 70 miles per hour, but the average rate is 30 mph.
Sufficient evidence will show that tornadoes have a calm, clear center with extremely low pressure. It shares characteristics of the eye of a tropical cyclone. Lightning strikes in the center of the tornado showing how clear and visible the center is. Tornadoes rotate normally in a counterclockwise direction. Tornadoes rotating in a clockwise direction are called anticyclonic tornadoes and make up only 1% all tornadoes.
Once a tornado is formed it is matured. It can last from just a few minutes to up to a hour in time. This is when it does the most damage and can take the lives of anything being in it’s way as well as destroy all homes an agriculture around. Tornados are the most violent storms in the world.
