Tornadoes

4 Pages 920 Words

By: Anonymous


Tornadoes, a horrifying, destructive natural disaster ripping apart the nation one twister at a time................. The world's most violent cyclones; unpredictable columns of wind rotating at speeds exceeding 300miles per hour forming from specific atmospheric conditions. These conditions are a southerly flow of warm, moist air and a high-level westerly flow of cool, dry air. This combination produces an unstable atmosphere capable of strong updrafts and heavy precipitation. Tornadoes can develop on any type of terrain like mountains, valleys, deserts and swamps. They are common in spring and summer, but regardless of the time, if the conditions are right, a tornado will result. The cyclone forms when the air in the updraft of a severe thunderstorm begins to rotate owing to the formation of a low-pressure center. If the rotation reaches the ground, the funnel cloud sucks up air like a vacuum cleaner known to physicists as the conservation of angular momentum. The phenomenon allows the funnel cloud of a tornado to form a tight circle in which wind blows speeds greater than 500km/h. From the time they begin to the time they decipitate, they usually travel 10km, however, and some have been known to travel around 200-300km before they disappear! The ground speed is between 50-100km/h, usually slow enough for a vehicle to outrun it. The result of the friction of the high winds and contact with the ground makes it very noisy and has been compared to freight trains or jet planes. The funnel is a mile in diameter and looks like a rope consisting of water vapor, dust and debris. The size, shape and color can change rapidly over the lifetime of a twister depending on what type of debris is picked up. The path of a tornado is easily identifiable because of the debris and dirt that has been removed from the surface, leaving a trail behind. They virtually remove and destroy everything in its path and the objects that are picke...