10 Interesting Tornado Facts

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider sense, to name any closed low pressure circulation. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. This is 10 Interesting Tornado Facts

1. A tornado always rotates either clockwise or counterclockwise. A large amount of dust is thus raised due to these cyclonic winds. A tornado is a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of 400 km/h or more. Damage paths can be in excess of 1.6 km wide and 80 km long.

tornado always rotates

2. There is no specific size of a tornado. Tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes and can occur anywhere in the United States at any time of the year. In the southern states, peak tornado season is March through May, while peak months in the northern states are during the summer.

size of a tornado

3. Because a tornado is part of a severe thunderstorm, and thunderstorms occur all over the Earth, tornadoes are not limited to any specific geographic location. Tornadoes have been documented on every continent, except Antarctica (even there, a tornado occurrence is not impossible).

specific geographic location

4. In terms of absolute tornado counts, the United States leads the list, with an average of over 1,000 tornadoes recorded each year. A distant second is Canada, with around 100per year. Other locations that experience frequent tornado occurrences include northern Europe, western Asia, Bangladesh, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Britain has more tornadoes, relative to its land area, than any other country. Most British tornadoes are relatively weak.

tornado in USA

5. The deadliest tornado in recorded history occurred in Manikganj District, Bangladesh on April26, 1989. It killed around 1,300 people, injured over 12,000 and left more than 80,000 people homeless.

tornado in bangladesh

6. The term, tornado family, refers to many tornadoes. This happens when a storm creates more than one tornado. Such an occurrence can cause the creation of many tornadoes simultaneously in a particular area.

tornadofamily

7. One cannot say a tornado is of a particular color. Their colors depend upon the environment where it occurs. When the surrounding areas are dry, a tornado may appear partly invisible. The color of the tornado also depends upon the time of the day. It may appear dark to the observer if the sun is behind the tornado.

Color_Tornado

8. These twisters mainly occur when the warm air from the ground level rushes upwards and meets the cool dry air. This causes the warm air to cool down which further causes the moisture to condense and this results in a thundercloud that grows in height. The winds at different levels cause the twister to get its distinctive funnel shape.

thunderstorm

9. People who have witnessed this strong force have also reported loud sounds that occur with the tornado. Experts opine these sounds are related to the present atmospheric conditions of the surrounding areas. These sounds range from the sound of a gushing waterfall to the sound of a jet engine. These sounds are audible in close proximity of the tornado.

Tornado_infrasound_sources

10. There are many types of tornadoes defined by their intensity and other such other factors. For example, a multiple vortex tornado has many columns of air. This is seen rotating around a single center. Or the satellite tornado is a much weaker form of the main tornado. This tornado facts is seen around the larger tornado.

tornado_chart