The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of up to mph. They can destroy large buildings, uproot trees and hurl vehicles hundreds of yards. They can also drive straw into trees. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide to 50 miles long. In an average year, tornadoes are reported nationwide. How do tornadoes form? Most tornadoes form from thunderstorms. They have to come up with questions they think they can answer by taking certain measurements.
What are the wind speeds in a tornado? We're not really sure what the highest wind speed might be inside a tornado, since strong and violent tornadoes destroy weather instruments. We really only have measurements of the winds inside weaker tornadoes. How fast do tornadoes move? We don't have detailed statistics about this.
Movement can range from almost stationary to more than 60 mph. A typical tornado travels at around 10—20 miles per hour. How long is a tornado usually on the ground? Detailed statistics about the time a tornado is on the ground are not available. This time can range from an instant to several hours. The average is about five minutes. The movie Twister was based upon work NSSL did in the mids using a gallon drum outfitted with various meteorological sensors.
NSSL tried for several years to put it in the path of an oncoming tornado, but had minimal success. It is possible that the technology could exist someday; however there are significant challenges with observations such as these. Read more about Twister science Has every state had a tornado? Yes, although some states have many more tornadoes than others. Are there tornadoes in the Arctic Circle? We are not aware of any tornadoes occurring in the Arctic Circle.
Tornadoes need moisture and warm air to form, which is unusual at that latitude. Plus tornadoes or their evidence have to be observed by someone, and the Arctic Circle has few residents! Do tornadoes really stay away from gullies, rivers and mountains? A gully could actually make a tornado more intense, just as an ice skater spins faster when he or she stands up tall and stretches their arms up straight over their heads.
Every major river east of the Rockies has been crossed by a significant tornado, and high elevations in the Appalachians, Rockies, and Sierra Nevada have all experienced tornadoes. Do tornadoes always come from a wall cloud? A wall cloud is not always present. It is also possible that you cannot see a wall cloud because of your viewing angle or low level clouds.
What does a tornado sound like? People who have been in a tornado say it sounds like a jet engine or a freight train and is very loud.
They said it hurt their ears, but they were more worried about what might happen to them than they were about the pain in their ears. Can tornadoes be stopped? You have to consider that the tornado is part of something bigger: the supercell thunderstorm.
Unless you disrupt the supercell thunderstorm itself, you would likely have another tornado, even if you were able to destroy the first. The thunderstorm's energy is much greater than the tornado. No one has tried to disrupt the tornado because the methods to do so could likely cause even more damage than the tornado. Detonating a nuclear bomb, for example, to disrupt a tornado would be even more deadly and destructive than the tornado itself.
Lesser tactics like deploying huge piles of dry ice or smaller conventional weaponry would be too hard to get into the right place fast enough, and would likely not have enough impact to affect the tornado much anyway.
Thunderstorms, and all of the hazards they produce, are part of a natural earth cycle. Taking actions sufficient to disrupt this cycle could lead to unintended consequences. On average, around 1, tornadoes are reported in the U. The severe weather pattern usually makes its way north, with the majority of tornadoes hitting northern states over the summer.
Damage after the tornado tore through Nashville, as seen from a Metro Nashville Police Department police helicopter on March 3, Metro Nashville Police Department.
Tornadoes can also happen at any time of day or night, but most tornadoes occur between 4 to 9 p. Most tornadoes are found in the Great Plains of the central United States — an ideal environment for the formation of severe thunderstorms.
In this area, known as Tornado Alley, storms are caused when dry cold air moving south from Canada meets warm moist air traveling north from the Gulf of Mexico. Tornadoes can form at any time of year, but most occur in the spring and summer months along with thunderstorms. May and June are usually the peak months for tornadoes. Texas and Florida.
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