Tornado Research Paper

The weather condition I decided to focus on is tornados partly because they terrify me, and I wanted to learn as much as possible to see if it would lessen my fear of them. It did not. Tornados are the most violent weather systems, and most of them have a very short life span. Tornados are rotating column of air in contact with the ground that are usually produced by a severe thunder storm. Often funnel shaped tornados come in all shapes and sizes. Funnel clouds form in response to the steep air pressure rise directed from the tornados outer most edge toward the center. Humid air pressure swells and cools as it is drawn inward towards the center of the system. Cooling of air to below its dew point causes water vapor to condense into cloud

Tornado growth in a supercell begins with an interaction between the updraft and the larger-scale horizontal wind. Within tornadic supercell, the horizontal wind exhibits strong vertical shear in both speed and direction, that is, wind strengths and veers with altitude, from south or southeast at the surface to southwest or west aloft. Tornado development requires a special mixture of atmospheric conditions and terrain, so tornados are most frequent in spring over the central United States. Threats of tornados are extremely high winds a powerful updraft, lesser vortices and an abrupt drop in air

A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water. They are connected to a towering cumuliform cloud or a cumulonimbus cloud. It is a non-supercell tornado over water. A dust devil is a strong, will-formed and relatively long lived whirlwind ranging from small to large. The primary vertical motion is upward, dust devil are usually harmless but can on rare occasions grow large enough to pose a threat to both people and property. Wiki A fire whirl is a whirlwind induced by fire and often made up of flame or ash. Fire whirls may occur with intense rising heat and turbulent wind conditions combine to form whirling eddies of air. These eddies can contract into a tornado structures that suck in burning debris and combustible gases. A steam devil is a small weak whirlwind over water or sometimes wet land that has a drawn fog into the vortex making it