Research

Tornadoes

Imagine a large rotating column of air. It doesnt sound like such a big deal,
right? Now imagine it with a gigantic size, spinning for hours and destroying
things violently in its path. These rotating air columns are called tornadoes.
Tornadoes are capable of massive and violent destruction. They are capable of
destroying entire cities. They can kill unbelievable amounts of people and let
them homeless and injured.
Tornadoes usually come from great thunderstorms that happen in a certain
areas. Most of the tornadoes are classified as weak or strong tornadoes, and
only less than the 5% are labeled to be violent ones.
Tornadoes are not always predictable on time but scientists are still working on
a way to make the predictions quite faster.
What is a tornado?
A tornado is a violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to
the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of massive destruction
with wind speeds of up to 300 mph. They can destroy large buildings, uproot
trees and hurl 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 in the USA.

How do tornadoes form?

Most tornadoes form from thunderstorms. You need warm, moist air and cool,
dry air. When these two air masses meet, they create instability in the
atmosphere. A change in wind direction and an increase in wind speed with
increasing height create an invisible, horizontal spinning effect in the lower
atmosphere. Rising air within the updraft tilts the rotating air from horizontal
to vertical. An area of rotation, 2-6 miles wide, now extends through much of
the storm. Most strong and violent tornadoes form within this area of strong
rotation.

What is a funnel cloud?

A funnel cloud is a rotating cone-shaped column of air extending downward
from the base of a thunderstorm, but not touching the ground. When it
reaches the ground it is called a tornado.

When are tornadoes most likely to occur?

Tornadoes can happen at any time of the year and at any time of the day.
Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. when a
thunderstorm is taking place.

What is a waterspout?
A waterspout is a column of cloud-filled wind rotating over a body of water.
Despite its name, a waterspout is not filled with water from the ocean or lake.
A waterspout descends from a cumulus cloud. It does not "spout" from the
water. The water inside a waterspout is formed by condensation in the
cloud. There are two major types of waterspouts: tornadic and fair-weather.
Tornadic waterspouts get their start as true tornadoes. Influenced by winds
associated with severe thunderstorms, air rises and rotates on a vertical axis.
Tornadic waterspouts are the most powerful and destructive type of
waterspout.
Fair-weather waterspouts, however, are much more common. Fair-weather
waterspouts are rarely dangerous. The clouds from which they descend are not
fast-moving, so fair-weather waterspouts are often static. Fair-weather
waterspouts are associated with developing storm systems, but not storms
themselves.

Know the Facts

Tornadoes can occur at any time of the year.

No terrain is safe from tornadoes. March 24, 2014, in Michoacan, a

tornado left more than 250 houses damaged. Around the 17:00 hrs. the
tornado began to uproot trees, lift cars, and cause damage.

69% of all tornadoes are labeled "weak tornadoes" meaning they have a
lifetime of 1-10+ minutes and winds less than 110 mph.

29% of all tornadoes are labeled "strong tornadoes" meaning they last
20 minutes or longer and winds reach 110-205 mph.

2% of all tornadoes are labeled "violent tornadoes" and can last over an
hour.

Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity

SCALE WIND SPEED

POSSIBLE DAMAGE

Enhanced,
Operational
Fujita Scale

F0

40-72 mph

Light damage: Branches broken off

trees; minor roof damage

EFO
65-85 mph

F1

73-112 mph

Moderate damage: Trees snapped;

mobile home pushed off foundations;
roofs damaged

EF1
86-110 mph

F2

Considerable damage: Mobile homes

EF2
113-157 mph demolished; trees uprooted; strong built
111-135 mph
homes unroofed

F3

Severe damage: Trains overturned; cars

EF3
158-206 mph lifted off the ground; strong built homes
136-165 mph
have outside walls blown away

F4

Devastating damage: Houses leveled

207-260 mph leaving piles of debris; cars thrown 300
yards or more in the air

F5

Incredible damage: Strongly built homes

EF5
261-318 mph completely blown away; automobileover 200 mph
sized missiles generated

EF4
166-200 mph

Using Doppler Radar to Predict Tornadoes

Doppler radar (the same technology that will land you a speeding ticket on the
highway) uses light and sound waves to determine wind direction, looking for
intensifying rotationa clue that a tornado is about to form. Radar is mounted
on about one hundred fifty 90-feet towers set up around the country to detect
tornadoes. 50 miles from the radar site is not a bad range for detecting a
larger, classic Midwestern tornado situation. But tornadoes developing outside
that range might not be detected.
To address this limitation, a new, and more sensitive, radar network, WSR88D
(Weather Surveillance Radar 1988 Dopplers), was put into use in 1998, and it
now covers virtually all the United States. It excels in detecting severe weather
events since it allows time for early notification of damaging winds, and it
significantly increases tornado warning time, because tornadoes can be
predicted before actually reaching the ground.
However, because the radar is tilted up slightly, it is not able to detect small
tornadoes that occur close to the ground. In fact, if a diminutive tornado
occurs in a sparsely populated area, the only evidence of its existence may be
the trail of destruction it leaves behind.
To aid in detecting tornadoes as they are forming, five satellites orbiting
22,000 miles over the Earth take snapshots of cloud formations every few
minutes. Just as a doctor reads an X-ray, trained meteorologists analyze the
images for cloud structures known to be associated with tornadoes.
Sometimes, a few puffs of clouds in the right place can make all the difference.
Once suspicious thunderstorms have been identified, radar keeps a close watch
for rotation deep inside them, and local weather spotters are alerted. If either
the radar or the spotters indicate a strong threat of a tornado, a warning is
issued. Unfortunately, those warnings rarely give those in the tornado's path
more than 10 or 20 minutes' notice of the impending event.
Despite knowing how tornadoes form, it remains virtually impossible to predict
when one will develop. To predict a tornado at a specific spot and time, we
would need sensors not only on the ground but also extending to the upper
atmosphere a mile or two above the Earth, placed every 10 miles. That would
just cost too much money," says the Storm Prediction Center's forecaster
Stephen Corfidi. Then there are days when all of the ingredients for a tornado
are present, but nothing happens. "If we issued a watch for every one of those
situations, we'd be crying wolf so much that everyone would stop believing,"
says Corfidi. The question is, which one is worth blowing the siren over?"

Tornado Cases around the US

OKLAHOMA, 1999. Seventy-four tornadoes were spawned on May 3,

1999 including a F5 tornado which struck the suburbs of Oklahoma
City. This tornado tracked along a 38-mile path for nearly an hour and a
half from Chickasha through south Oklahoma City and the suburbs of
Bridge Creek, Newcastle, Moore, Midwest City and Del City. The
outbreak caused 46 deaths, 800 injuries, nearly 8000 homes damaged
or destroyed and over $1.5 billion in damages. The distance between the
maximum winds on each side of the tornado (over 110 m/s) was over
1600 m.

NEBRASKA, 2004. On May 22, a large tornado made a direct hit on the
small Nebraska town of Hallam (population 276). The storm damaged
about 80% of the buildings there. The area was under a state of
emergency and national guard troops were on site to assist. The town
was leveled but luckily there was only one fatality reported, it could have
been a lot worse given the extent of the damage. The National Weather
Service did a survey and determined that the F4 tornado was 2.5 miles
across at its widest point. This likely makes it the widest tornado ever
recorded.

What is the diameter of a tornado?

The diameter of a tornado can vary from 300 feet to 1 mile (90 meters to 1.6
kilometers).

To what physics branch tornadoes belong to?

Since tornadoes are related to combinations of different air temperatures,
tornadoes, aside of belonging to Meteorology, they are also related to

Thermodynamics.

http://www.animalpolitico.com/2014/03/tornado-azotamichoacan-deja-danos-en-250-casas-videos/#axzz2ww043VPS
http://www.wjla.com/blogs/weather/2013/05/remembering-themay-3-1999-kansas-oklahoma-tornado-outbreak-18719.html
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-tornado.htm

http://www.stormchaser.ca/tornadoes/2004_05_22_hallam/2004_0
5_22_hallam.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/tornado.aspx