Tornadoes

How many tornadoes happen in a year?

1,000 tornadoes or more happen every year. Some can cause great damage as well as many injuries and even death.

What is a mesocyclone?

A large mass of rotating air. Also known as a supercell thunderstorm.

When does a tornado occur?

A tornado usually happens at the rear of a thunderstorm, taking its strength from colliding warm and cold fronts.

What causes Tornadoes?

Cold fronts and warm fronts come together in a violent storm called a super cell that spins off tornadoes

What happens before a tornado?

Large hail storms usually happen before a tornado.

What is Tornado Alley?

Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas make up Tornado Alley. These tornadoes happen regularly in the spring and summer in these states.

What is the Fujita Scale?

The Fujita Scale measures the intesity of a tornado. It is divided into levels ranging from F0 to F6. F6 is the strongest and the rarest tornado.

The Birth of a Tornado

Thunderstorms act as Earth's cooling agent by drawing hot moist air from the ground.When temperatures are different between the ground and atmosphere, the air rises quickly, condenses, and forms thunderheads. The heated updraft collides with cold air and creates turbulent winds. These winds are forced into an upward spin, starting the formation of a tornado.

Where tornadoes happen?

Tornadoes happen more in the midwest, but can really happen anywhere. Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and even Texas are some of the more common places tornadoes have occurred. See diagram below.

What are waterspouts?

Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over a body of water.

How fast are tornadoes?

Wind speeds can reach 480km per hour, most tornadoes never get winds higher than 320 km per hour.