Tornadoes Nature's Phenomenon Term Paper

Tornadoes: Nature's Phenomenon

What is a Tornado?

A tornado is "a violent, destructive, whirling wind accompanied by a funnel-shaped cloud that progresses in a narrow path over the land" (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2012).

Tornadoes can develop in mere seconds and destroy everything in their path

Sometimes, a tornado will happen so quickly that there is little or no sign before it starts (Federal Emergency Management Association, 2012). A tornado can have the strongest winds on earth, up to 300 MPH, and can cause "fantastic destruction and great loss of life, mainly from flying debris and collapsing structures" (Snow, 2012).

How and What of Tornadoes

How, What

The National Severe Storms Laboratory studies tornadoes and says that tornadoes come from thunderstorms. Before the thunderstorm, the wind changes direction, becomes faster and becomes higher. Then it becomes an invisible spinning wind going horizontally in the lower atmosphere. While the thunderstorm is happening, air rises inside it and tilts the spinning air sideways so it is spins vertically. Then the spinning air becomes 2 -- 6 miles wide and stretches through a lot of the thunderstorm, and is where a tornado usually comes from. The area where the thunderstorm develops is usually free of rain although it is in a thunderstorm.Then in moments, a strong tornado can start and "touch down" on the ground (NSSL-NOAA, 1992).

B. Size and Shape

The National Severe Storms Laboratory says that there are many shapes and sizes of tornadoes. It shows three sizes and shapes. There are weak tornadoes that are 69% of all the tornadoes, cause less than 5% of all tornado deaths, last 1-10+ minutes and have less than 110 MPH winds. There are strong tornadoes that are 29% of all tornadoes, cause almost 30% of all tornado deaths, can last 20 minutes or more, and have 110-205 MPH winds. There are violent tornadoes, that are only 2% of all tornadoes, cause 70% of all tornado deaths, can last more than 1 hour, and have winds more than 205 MPH (NSSL-NOAA, 1992). The National Severe Storms Laboratory did not really talk about different shapes of tornadoes but the Tornado Project does. The Tornado Project says that "you can get an infinite variety of possible tornado shapes" because: the tornado's shape might keep changing from a skinny rope, to a wider spinning mass of air, back to a weaker tornado; sometimes we do not see.....