Oklahoma Tornadoes and Their Destructive Ways

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Oklahoma Tornadoes and Their Destructive Ways What makes tornadoes and their destruction interesting to people? Is it the variety in formations, the miles one can travel, the random paths it takes, the changes tornadoes can make on climate and the formation of the land or is it because tornadoes often leave behind a path of destruction and deaths? In this paper, I will discuss what tornadoes are and how they form, what different forms of tornadoes there are, what tornado watches and warning are and give examples of tornadoes in Oklahoma and what destruction they caused, also while providing information about the Doppler radar. The questions often asked is; what are tornadoes and how do they form? Tornadoes are “violent windstorms that take the form of a rotating column of air or vortex that extends downward from a cumulonimbus cloud” as Tarbuck and Lutgens (2012) explain. Tornadoes form from wind shears. Wind shears form from warm air that is found at ground level; when it’s raised, the updraft meets a down draft of cooler air that is moved in the opposite direction of the warm air. When both are pushed towards the Earth, this creates wind shear. A spinning tube of air, created from wind shear; tilts upward into a vertical position, as the updraft sucks up moisture from the ground and into the sky. As the warm air cools high in the sky; this produces condensation. The condensation then produces thunderclouds, which rise to 30,000+ feet. The spinning formations of air are then trapped and lifted into the thundercloud. This begins as swirling motion and as continued (if the winds remained viable), a supercell will form. Mesocyclones as they are known are a rotating cloud. If these rotating clouds run into humid air it will spi... ... middle of paper ... ...ieved from http://onlineathens.com/national-news/2012-04-16/could-better-tornado-warnings-cause-complacency National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office. (2009). Using and Understanding Doppler Weather Radar. Retrieved from http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/?n=using-radar National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=tornadodata-county Rebman, R. C. (2011). How do tornadoes form? New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. Severe Weather and Watches. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/watchvswarn.html TORNADOES. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/preparedness/tornado_large/fslide1.php Tornado reduces Oklahoma town to rubble. (2014). The History Channel website. Retrieved 2:40, April 8, 2014, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tornado-reduces-oklahoma-town-to-rubble

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