...Tornadoes David Griswold April 20, 2014 Natural Disasters ES117-01-77 DR. Brazell Tornadoes A tornado is one of the few natural disasters that have taken place in the Midwest, but its effects can cause devastation that can be felt worldwide. Tornadoes destroy entire towns. In some cases they will level an entire block, but leave one house standing almost untouched. Their paths can be unpredictable, and cost of the destruction almost immeasurable. A major natural disaster such as this could wipe out people’s way of life and a food supply that helps to feed the world. In many cases flooding accompanies tornadoes. These super cell storms can drop several inches of water in a very short time. Tornadoes can also destroy water towers leaving communities without drinkable water, knock over power lines leaving communities in the dark and tear open gas lines creating a very high risk of fires and explosions. Tornadoes have been somewhat sensationalized in media. There have been books written about tornado events such as The Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman, the story of her cousin’s families bout with the June 3, 1980 Grand Island, Nebraska tornadoes, to movies such as the made for TV movie of the same name and The Wizard of Oz, not to mention the Blockbuster Twister. Although these movies are entertaining, they are far from accurate. “A storm chasers dream come true is to get close enough to a mile-wide tornado to shoot unique video of nature's extreme fury. Maybe even take some...
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...Tornadoes Vermona Pigues Professor Stephen Underwood Fall 2013 PHSC 210-A03 Elements of Earth Science Liberty University November 11, 2013 Introduction The weather is a fascinating subject matter, which has several phenomenon mysteries that humans are exposed to. There are many environmental disasters that happen to occur only in specific geographical areas of the United States. One of these environmental disasters known as tornadoes tends to resonate in certain regions. Tornadoes cause damage, devastation, and sometimes loss of life can occur. The approach to convey is to understand how Tornadoes are formed, and what causes them? What are the elements, and components that make up this phenomenon? What is the process, methods, and/or tools used by scientists to study, and investigate this environmental disaster? The attempt to be made is to give a general overview, and some clarity, with regards to the topic of tornadoes. General Overview The United States has the most tornadoes than anywhere in the world. Tornadoes are very rare and unpredictable. There is an area in the United States that is hit by tornadoes, more than most places due to its weather. This place is known as Tornado Alley, which covers a region from Texas to South Dakota, and Oklahoma. This area has the highest frequency of tornadoes in the world. Tornadoes begin formation through a thunderstorm. This is when the warm air flows up from the Gulf of Mexico...
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...Daniel June 23, 2014 2014 PHSC 210-B14 LUO Tom Williams Introduction Tornadoes are a type of windstorm that are common when the weather begins to get warmer. They are one of Mother Nature’s deadliest forces and they leave little time to prepare for their destruction. They are formed from a midaltitude cyclone or associated with a super cell thunderstorm, in the United States during the months April-June. Tornadoes are measured using the Enhances Fujita scale (EF-Scale) and are measured based of the amount of destruction they cause. At this time researchers continue to learn and process new information about tornadoes and work on predicting their occurrence. General Overview Tornadoes, also known’s as twisters or cyclones, are one of natures most destructive forces. Tornadoes are sporadic in occurrence and can also produce violent winds. They are violent windstorms that take the form of a vortex, or a rotating column of air. (Thunderstorm Hazards-tornadoes, 2014) In these columns of are the air pressure can drop drastically making it sometimes as much as 10% lower than immediately outside these vortexes. (Lutgens; Tarbuck, 2014, Pg. 461) The much lower pressure in the center of the air column is drawn down and...
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...Tornadoes There are at least 1000 tornadoes reported each year in the United States. In this paper I will discuss how tornadoes develop, when and where tornadoes are most likely to occur, the different levels of tornadoes and how they are measured, and some tornado safety tips. Usually tornadoes will form from thunderstorms. For a thunderstorm to spawn a tornado the storm must contain rotation. For this rotation to develop within a thunderstorm there must be warm, moist air and cool, dry air that meet which form the rotation. From this rotation a cone-shaped column of air coming from the thunderstorm is formed, which is known as a funnel cloud. But, when the funnel cloud touches the ground it becomes a tornado. Tornadoes are very unpredictable and could happen at any time of the day or anytime of year. For southern states, like us, tornado season is not only at its peak from March to May, but also in the fall. For the nothern states tornadoes usually occur during the summer. However, in the north and south of the United States the most likely time for a tornado to happen is between three o'clock and nine o'clock p.m. More than half of the nation's tornadoes occur in the central part of the United States, this area is known as the Great Plains. The Great Plains is made up of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and South and North Dakota. This area of the United States is also known as Tornado Alley. This area of flat land combines all of the elements needed to form...
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...Tornado Tips and Safety Tornadoes cause major destruction across the nation. Some areas may seem to attract tornadoes more so than others but it doesn’t mean a tornado can’t strike an area just because of the geographical location. There is not a typical or specified season for Tornadoes to occur; however, if weather conditions are conducive, a tornado can possibly form. Tornadoes extend from severe thunderstorms and usually develop from the trailing end of a storm. It is possible and not uncommon for the sun to be visible or skies to be partially clear during a tornado. Some tornadoes are easily seen and detected, while others strike quickly with little or no warning. This is why it is so important to know what to do in case of a tornado occurs in your area. Tornados destruction depends on what categories they may fall into. The categories for tornados fall in categories between F0- F5. F0 means Gale Tornado Category between 40 - 72 mph--Light damage which could cause some damage to chimneys, breaks branches off trees, pushes over shallow-rooted trees, and damages sign boards. Or a tornado can be classified all the way to an F5 which means Incredible Tornado Category between 261 - 318 mph-Incredible damage which could cause strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried a considerable distance and disintegrated, automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters, and trees debarked. If strong winds and hail and debris start moving it may be...
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...A taste of two cities I have lived in two places throughout my entire life. I was born in Chicago, Illinois. My family and I moved to Dallas, Texas when I was seven years old. Dallas, Texas and Chicago, Illinois are close to one thousand miles apart. Their similarities in the weather, food, and schools can make you feel at home, although their differences can feel almost foreign. For example, both Dallas, Texas and Chicago, Illinois are in an area called “Tornado Alley.” Every spring and summer, violent thunderstorms roll through “Tornado Alley” leaving damage for miles. Dallas, Texas and Chicago, Illinois are both in the top 20 states with the most tornadoes per ten thousand square miles. Tornadoes occur in this area more than any other place...
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...Hurricanes versus Tornadoes Hurricanes and tornadoes are considered to be natural storms that develop do to the atmosphere change, however, each type of storm is a disaster and devastation claiming many lives among family and friends each year. One storm comes from in the water, the second type is from the air. Aside from where they come from, each type of storm is devastation to several individuals from enormous amounts of damage each can cause to someone’s lifestyle or homestead. Knowing the differences and similarities of both need to be understood better among everyone. Determining factors whether a severe storm is either a hurricane or tornado include their types of formulation, types of severe weather they create, and types of damage. A difference among a hurricane or tornado would be where and how their formulation develops. Hurricanes are one severe storm that forms over water. Meaning, hurricanes are formed off seas. In order for a hurricane to form, the temperature of the water must be warm in order for a storm to formulate. Whereas, a tornado is another severe storm that the formulation is completely different. Tornadoes are formulated over land. Tornadoes develope, by connection of high and low pressure systems. Therefore, with saying high and low pressure connecting, for example would be, warm air coming from the West and the cold air coming from the East would be connecting. Thus, hurricanes and tornadoes have different ways...
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...Thesis: Hurricanes and tornadoes are both dangerous systems that have potential to cause destruction I. Background A. Hurricanes 1. Different names B. Tornadoes 1. Tornado alley 2. Tornado drills II. Similarities A. Hurricanes 1. Wind 2. Categorized 3. Rain B. Tornadoes 1. Wind 2. Categorized 3. Rain III. Differences A. Tornadoes 1. Form on water 2. Named 3. Predicted early B. Hurricanes 1. Form on land 2. Predicted last minute IV. Differences A. Hurricanes 1. Can last for days B. Tornadoes 1. Last for couple minutes 2. Alerts Hurricanes vs Tornadoes Hurricanes and tornadoes are both dangerous systems that have potential to cause destruction. Many people confuse hurricanes and tornadoes and sometimes even think they are the same thing with different names. However, that is not true. They both share similar characteristics, but are completely different. Hurricanes are also known as cyclones, typhoons or tropical storms depending on where the storm started to form. Tropical storms that form in the Atlantic Ocean or Northeast Pacific, near the united states are called hurricanes. Those that form in the Northwest Pacific, near Japan are called typhoons and those that form in the South Pacific or Indian Oceans are called cyclones. Tornadoes form under certain weather conditions, when cold air and warm air meets which is normally in the fall and spring...
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...Abstract Fire whirls and tornadoes are separate atmospheric phenomena that look similar but occur under different conditions. Fire whirls require calm air surrounding a large fire where the rising heat of the fire creates a convection cell which pulls fuel, fire and oxygen into a vertical vortex. Tornadoes often occur on the trailing edge of thunderstorms and are created when warm wet air rises over cool dry air creating a strong low pressure system which sucks air and debris from the ground level up into the storm cloud. These phenomena have different life cycles, and since they have different causes, they are not the same atmospheric phenomena despite their similar appearance. However, a fire tornado is possible when a large enough fire...
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...Tornadoes are one of the most violent and destructive natural occurring disasters known to man kind. They are one of the most powerful weather phenomena on land and can destroy an entire town in just minutes. They rank right along side hurricanes when it comes to destroying homes and ending lives each year. Statistically, tornadoes are the second ranked weather related cause for fatalities, heat comes in first. Tornadoes have been observed on all continents except Antarctica but are most common in the United States. (Glickman) In the United States alone there is an average total of around 1,300 touchdowns and 60 fatalities caused by tornadoes every year. A tornado is a rotating column of air, in contact with the surface, pendant from a cumuliform...
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...“Wind” is an interesting text that explains the affects and behaviors of tornadoes. The author tries to explain what they look like and how it affects people’s lives through three different ways. While the speaker uses climatologist’s jargon to explain tornadoes, the comparisons and first-hand stories make the passage easier to understand. Climatologists use certain terminology to explain their observations. The speaker uses words like “funicular”, “pendant mammate”, “thermal instability”, and “cyclonic vorticity” to explain a tornado’s appearance and behavior. This jargon allows an accurate description that also makes the passage seem more credible. The jargon is a little hard to understand but because it is climatologist’s jargon it sounds...
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...Did you know that tornadoes and twisters are the most powerful storm, well they are. In source one in paragraph one “Tornadoes move air from one part of the atmosphere to another by forming a vortex, a large, spinning mass of air that pulls things into its center. The vortex forms a funnel-shaped cloud that extends from the sky to the ground.” The causes of tornadoes and twisters are when cold air and warm air meet. In source one paragraph 2.” When the warm air may get trapped under the cold air. The warm air has a low pressure and tries to rise as the cold air sinks. The interaction between the warm and cold air causes the air to spin, resulting in a tornado.” Another cause of these storms are when “spinning mass of air that pulls things...
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...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...
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...Tornadoes kill and injure in Arkansas, Texas Several raging storms, as well as tornadoes kill and injure several in Arkansas and Texas on Sunday. Two people living in separate mobile homes were killed in Nashville, Arkansas, when more than one tornado was reported as striking the town, according to reports on KSLA-TV (www.ksla.com). At least one person was killed by the storms in Eastland County, Texas, and 20 or more others were injured in Van, Texas due to the storms and tornadoes in these areas, and several others were missing, according to reports from KLSA-TV (www.klsa.com). Dozens of people were taken to hospitals after being injured in the storms. In the Dallas area, authorities are going door to door to look for possible injured or missing...
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...Tornadoes in Tornado Alley Introduction: Information on tornadoes: Tornadoes are one of the many natural disasters that occur and create challenges for people around the world. As the most deadly atmospheric storms of all time, tornadoes are narrow tunnels of air that rotate viciously at speeds up to 300 miles per hour and cause havoc to everything around them by destroying buildings and much more. Such as forests, lakes, habitats, and homes. Moreover, they are formed from extremely violent thunderstorms (see figure 1). Tornadoes form when cool air and warm air travel to the same area and create an instability in the atmosphere. That instability causes the air to rise and spin quickly to form a funnel like shape, which is the tornado. Some...
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