Tornadoes: Mother Nature’s Most Kept Secret.

On May 20th, 2013 a EF 5 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma and surrounding towns, with a path as wide as 1.3 miles wide (2.1 km) and had a wind speed, estimated at its peak, of 210 miles per hour (340 km/h). Killing 24 people, and injuring 377, this was one of the United States worst tornadoes in the past few years, along side the Joplin, Missouri tornado, in 2011. One of Mother Nature’s most dangerous and still very mysterious phenomenons averages about 1,200 reported each year, resulting in 80 deaths and injuring 1500. With very little known about them, especially whether or not they will form is one of the questions that plague meteorologist to this very day. What causes tornadoes, how does the tilt and gravity of the earth affect the winds to produce a tornado, and what will the future hold about our understanding of tornadoes?

Tornadoes, also called twisters or cyclones, are a localized, violently destructive windstorm occurring over land, and characterized by a long, funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground and made visible by condensation and debris. They come in many different shapes and sizes, but are typical in a funnel formation, where the narrow end makes contact with the earth. Most don’t reach winds over 110 miles per hour (177 km/h) or have a path wider than 250 feet (76m), and most only travel a few miles on ground before dissipating. Although, some can reach winds as high as 300 miles per hour (483 km/h) or higher, have a path that can be as wide as two miles (3.2 km) or more, and can travel for dozens of miles on the ground before dissipating.

The types of tornadoes include landspout, multiple vortex tornado, and waterspout. Landspouts are a kind of tornado not associated with the mesocyclone of a thunderstorm...

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...he tornado. The warning time for a tornado is 13 minutes, from the time it is spotted to the time it hits any populated area. The average is 13 minutes, but that doesn’t always mean that there is a time to warn people before a tornado hits.

Around 1,200 tornadoes hit the United States, most inside “tornado alley”, and during the main “tornado season” during spring and summer. As Earth’s tilt decides where the Sun will be, and what once was undisturbed air, now changed by gravity, can all lead to the production of a tornado. Mother Nature’s most dangerous and mysterious pheromones still unknown and still being researched. What else can cause the formation of tornadoes, beside Earth’s tilt and gravity? Meteorologist are still looking for the answer. Constantly learning more and more about tornadoes, maybe one day there will be a smaller death toll from tornadoes.