Tornadoes are the smallest and strongest storms on earth. Tornadoes are giant vacuums, sucking up everything they cross. Unlike hurricanes, which just blow houses over, tornadoes blow houses up. In a tornado winds spin at an outstanding 400 m.p.h. This is much faster than a hurricane. Tornadoes can travel at speeds of up to 70 m.p.h. In diameter a twister can be up to 2,000 feet wide. They strike mostly in the spring. In 1896, as an example of how strong tornadoes are, one slammed a wooden plank through a sheet of iron! Even though they are strong, it doesn't mean that they can't be gentle. One tornado picked up a locomotive, a train, and set it back down on the track. Only one thing was wrong, the locomotive was facing the wrong direction! Another example of how gentle a tornado can be is one carried a crate of eggs 500 yards and didn't crack a single shell!

There are a series of states in North America called tornado alley. The states in tornado alley are Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. If you are wondering if their is a way to judge how strong a tornado is ,here is the answer. The Fujita scale rates the strenght of a tornado in six strengths: a F1 is a kind of weak tornado that knocks over some trees and pulls shingles off roofs. A F2 is one that plucks trees out of the ground just like daisies and rips roofs off homes. A F3 is a tornado that blows down walls and flips over cars. A F4 is one that totally devastates houses and throws cars around. If a F5 is ever close to your town ,there is only one thing to do, run like mad to a safe place because a F5 can blow homes away and heave cars an amazing 300 feet or maybe even farther than that.