On a warm summer day in Texas, a little tornado was playing in the yard. He was twisting and twirling about when his friend Tommy came over. Tommy said to the little tornado, “Hey Tim! Guess what!” Tim the little tornado exclaimed, “What is it Tommy?” A cheeky smile formed across Tommy’s face as he said, “My mother told me how tornadoes are made.” “Oh that is ridiculous”, Tim stated. “Everyone knows that a cloud hand delivers the baby tornado to the mommy tornado.” This made very Tommy angry. “Well go ask your mother! I know I am right! My mother never lies”, and with that Tommy left. Confused by what had just happened, Tim then proceed to continue twisting and twirling in the yard.
Later that night at the dinner table Tim asked his mother, “Mom, …show more content…
“Well son, it all starts when the weather conditions are just right. The Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia explains ‘The formation of a supercell requires relatively warm and moist air at the surface and much colder air higher up.’ Multiple air masses must be present. Do you know what air masses are?” Tim’s face light up, “I sure do dad! It is a giant body of air that is classified by its temperature, humidity, and direction!” “Great! So the earth likes to stay in equilibrium. Scientists have observed that as warm air rises it becomes colder and saturated. This creates clouds. However, sometimes these air masses are thrown out of balance. This happens when a little chunk of the air is either warmer and lighter or colder and heavier than the surrounding air mass. According to the article ‘What We Know and Don’t Know About Tornado Formation’ written by Paul Markowski and Yvette Richardson, ‘If the ambient temperature decreases rapidly enough with height, then the rising air parcels will have a higher temperature and lower density than their surroundings, which will give them positive buoyancy and upward acceleration.’ As you can see here, that if the air becomes colder very