tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a spinning column of air. This does not sound threatening until you hear all the details. Inside a tunnel wind speeds can move up to 40 to 300 miles per hour. The winds produce a vacuum in the funnel that can suck up everything in it's path. Tornadoes are also called twisters or cyclones.

It was believed that the Greek God Aeolus kept the wind in a cave with a huge rock blocking the entrance. He would open the cave at his whim which would produce storms, but we known that the rotation of the earth makes wind. These patterns are studied throughout the world. Tornadoes are controlled by these wind patterns.

There are tornadoes happening all over the world, but the United States has more tornadoes because the weather patterns are right for producing tornadoes.

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Tornado

Tornadoes form when westerly cool air meets moist air from the south. The area where cool air and warm air meet is called a capping inversion. When the warm air breaks through this area it forms clouds. The water droplets that condense from the warm air collect dust particles and form clouds. These clouds gradually become thunderheads. The water droplets collect together and make rain that falls to earth. Tornadoes do not occur unless a thunderstorm happens first.

Cloud Formation

Tornado damage