Tornado

A Tornado in a City

A tornado, or twister, are whirling masses of rising warm air, set spinning by high winds. Wherever they strike, they leave a trail of destruction. Air pressure at the center is so low, the air rushes into the funnel at enormous speed, sucking up people, cars, and even whole trains. Is a violent rotating column of air which is in contact with both the Earth's surface and a cumulonimbus cloud. Tornadoes can cause hurricane-force winds. Tornadoes also can cause gale-force winds. Tornadoes can be spawned from Supercell, Derecho, Hurricane, Windstorm, Rainstorm, Hailstorm, or Squall Line. They are waterspouts if they are touching the ocean. They can be dust devils (weaker tornadoes). Tornadoes usually last less than 10 minutes, traveling 3 to 6 miles before vanishing. In other cases, other tornadoes can last several hours, crossing

distances over 93 miles. The strongest and deadliest tornado ever recorded was in Bangladesh in 1989. Meteorologists have two general scales to use to rate the intensity of a tornado: Fujita Scale and Enhanced Fujita Scale. There's also another Scale, more commonly used in Europe: the TORRO scale, devided in 12 categories.

Fujita Scale
F0	40 - 72 mph (64 - 116 km/h)
F1	73 - 112 mph (117 - 180 km/h)
F2	113 - 157 mph (181 - 253 km/h)
F3	158 - 206 mph (254 - 332 km/h)
F4	207 - 260 mph (333 - 418 km/h)
F5	261 - 318 mph (419 - 512 km/h)
F6	319 - 379 mph (513 - 609 km/h)

Enhanced Fujita
EF0	65 - 85 mph ( 105 - 137 km/h)
EF1	86 - 110 mph (138 - 178 km/h)
EF2	111 - 135 mph (179 - 218 km/h)
EF3	136 - 165 mph (219 - 266 km/h)
EF4	166 - 200 mph (267 - 322 km/h)
EF5	200+ mph (322+ km/h)

Funnel

The tornado is not really visible, but the powerful low pressure caused by strong winds and rapid rotation, normally causing water vapor in mid air to condense into droplets because of adiabatic cooling. The results shows the formation of condensation funnel cloud.

Rotation

Tornadoes usually rotate counterclockwise. (Cyclonically) This is caused by cold dry air moving one direction meeting the warm moist air moving the opposite direction, creating instability in the atmosphere.

Types

• Rope: They're very long and thin and often their shape bends a lot when it displaces. It could be as flexible as a modern curl-up guarden hose. These are usually tornadoes of F0 and F1 strength but there have been also very violent rope tornadoes.
• Landspout: A nearly straight shape which is a bit see-through. In general they belong to the weaker class but they could be strong. They form from different clouds than supercells.
• Stovepipe: Stovepipe tornadoes are pretty thick and have a most equal width from top to base. They could often be of F2 strength.
• Cone: A cone looks like the cookie underneath a traditional ice-cream. it's pretty wide at the top but pointy at the bottom. It's actually the most known shape of tornado.
• Wedge: Tornadoes that are at least one mile wide and have the shape of the top of the kitchen tube to poor liquids. They look very wide compared to their height. These indicate very strong tornadoes, although other shapes could also be the most intense.
• Multi-Vortex: A tornado with multiple visible funnels. Severe, violent large wedge tornadoes also have their own, small, satellite tornado(es), which could be just as strong as their 'mother'.
• Dust Devil: A mini weak dusty tornado
• Waterspout: A tornado on the water surface (ocean)

Gallery

TORRO SCALE
T0	39 - 54 mph (61 - 86 km/h)
T1	55-72 mph (87-115 km/h)
T2	73 - 92 mph (116 - 147 km/h)
T3	93 - 114 mph (148 - 184 km/h)
T4	115- 136 mph (185 - 220 km/h)
T5	137 - 160 mph (221- 259 km/h)
T6	161 - 186 mph (260 - 299 km/h)
T7	187 - 212 mph (300 - 342 km/h)
T8	213 - 240 mph (343 - 385 km/h)
T9	241 - 269 mph (386 - 432 km/h)
T10	270 - 299 mph (433 - 482 km/h)
T11	>300 mph (>483 km/h)

Springfield, MA Tornado 2011

2013 Moore F5 Tornado