The recent activity in what is known as "Tornado Alley" has brought many to wonder at the destructive force of tornadoes. So far, 100 homes and 40 businesses have been destroyed in Oklahoma, with upwards of 130 homes damaged. Damage is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Amazing fire tornado power
Tornadoes are birthed and fed by a combination of hot air rising and cold air falling, often during the early stages of rapidly developing thunderstorms. But no matter how powerful a tornado may be, has an inevitable end. Tornadoes enter a dissipating stage when cold air wraps around the rotating system, cutting off the supply of warm air.
As with anything that inspires so much awe and fear in the human heart, there are many myths surrounding tornadoes, and knowing the facts about these myths can save your life if you are ever faced with being in the path of a twister.
Amazing tornado power
Earth's weather can produce various kinds of windstorm which include waterspouts, dust devils and tornadoes. Although they have the common features of a column of rotating air, they are actually formed through different processes. Dust devils and small whirlwinds are caused by severe local heating of the earth's surface that makes the air rise rapidly. The interaction of air current high up, produce tornadoes and they are always accompanied by intense thunderstorms. force of tornadoes
tornado powerThough the US records the highest number of tornadoes it is Netherlands which is most prone to tornadoes. Late winter or early spring is the prime season in the US for the tornadoes. It is a time when there is instable climate in the country.
The birth of tornadoes takes place within thunderstorms. Most of them are produced in the supercell thunderstorms but hurricanes and squall lines can also cause tornadoes.
tornado
It is not yet known clearly about how tornadoes are actually formed. We conjecture winds from different directions results in the total thunderstorm rotating. Within it, the cold and warm air currents counteract and form an air column that spins, the mesocyclone ; this at times may result in a wall cloud that is a sure sign of an upcoming tornado.
This mesocyclone spins down the updraft of the cloud thus turning it into a funnel cloud. By the time it touches the ground, it turns into a tornado. It takes up the color of whatever debris it is sucking in. Depending on the landform on which it is moving tornadoes can be either invisible or partly visible.
Amazing
The tornadoes move along with the source thunderstorm. The course of destruction rages from 30 feet to over half a mile. The tornadoes can travel anywhere from some yards to hundreds of miles Speeding at a rate as high as 300 miles an hour, with the updraft speed moving up to even a 180 miles an hour. Sometimes tornadoes last for a few seconds and sometimes for more than an hour; but in an average tornadoes last for about 15 minutes.
Amazing The destructive force of tornadoes
However, not all tornadoes are as destructive as the ones wreaking havoc this Spring. Approximately 69% of all tornadoes are weak ones, with winds not exceeding 110 mph and contributing to less than 5% of tornado-related deaths. The most violent tornadoes account for only 2% of all tornadoes, but contribute to 70% of all tornado deaths with the lifetime of the storm lasting over 1 hour.