Throughout history, humans have been amazed and intrigued by the various forces of nature, particularly those associated with weather. This fascination can most readily be attributed to the fact that so many different weather patterns exist throughout the world. This diversity in climates results in a wide range of weather conditions; from relatively calm weather to dangerously violent storms. Despite the great variation in weather patterns among the world’s many climates, tornadoes are one weather phenomenon that have been known to occur in almost every climate on Earth. Because a tornado is one of the world’s most deadly forces of nature, it is important for humans to strive to understand what tornadoes are, how they are formed, their potential dangers, and how to better predict the formation of tornadoes so that effective warnings can be issued.

In order to completely understand the dangers of tornadoes, it is important to examine the current explanations for how and why tornadoes form. Tornadoes are most often generated by supercell storms. Supercell storms are particularly large, severe storms that develop in highly unstable environments in which cool, dry air lies above warm, moist air. Supercells typically form in the United States during the Spring as warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico flows north and comes in contact with cooler, dryer layers of air. The Midwestern section of the United States tends to be the location for the majority of the country’s tornadoes. Because of this, the area from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, spanning over one thousand miles wide, is referred to as “tornado alley”.

Although the number of tornadoes reported in the United States each year may seem rather high, in actuality only one percent of all thunderstorms make tornadoes. Of the total number of tornadoes recorded each year, on average, seventy-nine percent