Tornadoes are devastating atmospheric events that affect the ecology and the lives of people in their paths. Tornadoes are defined as “a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud” (Glossary of Meterology, 2011). The Tri-state tornado was the most deadly tornado in the United States. It stayed on the ground for a total of 219 miles through areas of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killed a total of 695 people, and an estimated $16.5 million in damages (National Weather Service, 2011). Luckily, the tornado’s path was largely rural farmland with scattered small towns between them.
Figure 1. Path of the Tri-State Tornado.
The beginnings of such a storm started around 1:00 p.m. northwest of Ellington, Missouri on March 18, 1925. It moved northeast towards the towns of Annapolis and Leadanna before hitting two school houses. Before the tornado even reached Illinois it had claimed 11 lives (National Weather Service, 2011). The tornado then crossed into Gorham, a city that was entirely demolished, and continued along its path clocking the fastest speed at 73 mph. Murphysboro was one of, if not the most, devastated cities during the path. The Tornado killed 234 people, which is the record for a single community (National Weather Service, 2011). The total death toll for Illinois was at least 613 people. The next town, Griffin, Indiana, was entirely demolished. The last town to actually be hit by the tornado was Princeton. About 10 miles northeast of Princeton was where the Tornado receded back into the cloud (National Weather Service, 2011).
While there was no...
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...rieved March 3, 2011, from USA Immigration Services: http://www.geographic.org/climate/c.html
National Weather Service. (2011, March 3). Tri-State Tornado Web Site. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from NOAA: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pah/?n=1925tor
NOAA. (2011, March 3). Enhanced Fujita Scale. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from NOAA: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/
NOAA. (2007, December 14). History of Tornado Forecasting. Retrieved March 4, 2011, from NOAA: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/magazine/tornado_forecasting/welcome.html#knowledge
USA Today. (2005, December 28). 1925 Tri-state tornado was worst in U.S. history. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/tri-state-tornado.htm
USA Today. (2000, May 4). Tornado chase 2000. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/tornado/2000/chase/chat/wclimoqna.htm
The history-making documentary footage made available by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has been subjected to careful analysis. As noted by Grazulis (1993; pp. 879-880), the tornado in question was part of an outbreak in Kansas on that day, including a violent killer tornado near Clyde, Kansas, and a "barn shifting" F1 tornado in Rooks county. It seems that shifting human structures was a common feature of tornadoes on that
In the article by Jeff Piotrowski and the article on the Joplin Tornado: Evil Swirling Darkness, explains that the Joplin tornado took out the city of Joplin, Missouri. The tornado came into the town of Joplin on May 22, 2011 and was about a mile wide. Fires were attacking the city and homes from broken gas lines, and many people were buried alive in their houses. The fire department was gone and no one could find any police to help. Neighbors helped neighbors, pulling each other out of the ruble. Over 125 people had died all from being trapped and suffocated, to be cut open by sharp objects that fell. In the end many people had died and were injured during the tragic tornado that came through and left Joplin in horror and terror.
I have chosen the scene when the tornado actually hits during this scene there are two main characters Dexter and famous storm chaser Dr. Norman Gage. Dexter is eleven years old and loves to study the weather he says when he grows up he wants to be a storm chaser just like Dr. Norman Gage. The other main character is Dr. Norman Gage he has his own T.V. series showing him chase storms but in the scene he makes a terrible mistake of getting out of his car and trying to get some good footage of the tornado and gets swept away. Dexter’s mom and dad allowed him to go storm chasing while they left the town.
On May 11, 1953 in the town of Lorena Mclennan County in Central Texas this deadly disaster strikes and damage very thing in its path. This intense spinning of a tornado is partly the result of the updrafts and downdrafts in the thunderstorm interacting with the windshirt.
Xenia, Ohio was home to the worst damage caused by the tornado outbreak of 1974. As school children in Xenia, Ohio waited for their ride home and workers watched the clock tick slowly towards quitting time, a monstrous tornado whipped wildly towards their small town. In just minutes, the small peaceful city of Xenia became ground zero for the nation's worst tornado outbreak.
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.
B. Relevance: Illinois rests on the boundary of what tornado researchers call tornado alley. This is the area of the country that receives the most tornadoes every year. According to a 1995 brochure distributed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Illinois averages 27 tornadoes a year. Also, nearly 5 people die every year in Illinois as a result of tornadoes [ AID]. In fact, according to Tornado Project Online!, a website hosted by a company that gathers tornado information for tornado re searchers, the deadliest tornado in U.S. recorded history occurred in Murphysboro, Illinois. In 1925 a violent tornado killed 234 people in this Southern Illinois town.
Solanki, Parul (2013, January 29). Hurricane Katrina: Facts and Information. Buzzle.com. Retrieved from www.buzzle.com/articles/hurricane-katrina-facts-and -information.html
On May 22nd, 2011 a massive tornado hit Joplin, Missouri killing 162 people and injuring 1150. With wind speeds of 322km/h, the tornado made a total cost of over $2 billion for the city. 8000 structures were destroyed, 2000 of which were homes. Many people were left homeless. The tornado held an incredible EF5 rating on the Fujita scale, measured from the amount of destruction. The tragic event lasted 38 minutes, from 5:34 pm to 6:12pm. Cool wind from the Rockies in Canada and warm wind from the gulf of Mexico formed into a supercell thunderstorm creating a tornado in Kansas. The tornado rapidly moved into Joplin and continued on its 35 km path.
Isaac Storm On Friday evening, September 7, 1900, many of the 37,000 residents of Galveston, Texas, were settling down to dinner, few if any of them concerned about the steady 15 mph northerly wind rattling their windows. Within 48 hours, at least 8,000 of the townspeople would be dead, victims of the single worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Relatively few people are aware that the deadliest natural disaster in the United States was the hurricane that struck Galveston Island on September 8, 1900. One of the best resources that can be found to help fully understand the significance of this storm is Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson.
A tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 at around 5:40 pm. With a population around 50,559, it killed 161 people and injured approximately 1,100 people. The cost was an estimated $2.8 billion in damage. The American taxpayers had to give about $500 million in recovery money. This made it the deadliest tornado since 1950, which was when modern recordkeeping began. Since it was an EF5 tornado, it destroyed everything in its path. The city was ruined with only piles of debris left. It was a half-mile wide when it hit Joplin and grew to three-quarters of a mile wide. It destroyed nearly 7,000 homes in Joplin and damaged hundreds more. It covered over 1,800 acres of land. The warnings that the Joplin residents received were through three different ways. The tornado warning that was sent out for Joplin’s county was from Jasper County Emergency Operations Center (JCEOC) and they claim that the first siren went off at 5:11 pm. Two other warnings for the Joplin residents was they saw the tornado heading their direction, and the media coverage which was all local electronic media switched to wall-to-wall coverage seeing live footage of the tornado.
The National Weather Service is constantly trying to provide us with data and other information about when and where hurricanes are forming. It has been said that the only way
The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a great amount of damage. However, there is one hurricane that happened in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, a category 5 on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. An estimated 1836 people died because of the hurricane and the flooding that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially began forming over the Bahamas on August 23rd, as a tropical depression....
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest and most unpredictable villains mankind will ever face. There is no rhyme or reason, no rhythm to it’s madness. Tornados are one of the most terrifying natural events that occur, destroying homes and ending lives every year. April 29th, 1995, a calm, muggy, spring night I may never forget. Jason, a buddy I grew up with, just agreed to travel across state with me so we could visit a friend in Lubbock. Jason and I were admiring the beautiful blue bonnets, which traveled for miles like little blue birds flying close to the ground. The warm breeze brushed across the tips of the blue bonnets and allowed them to dance under the perfectly clear blue sky. In the distance, however, we could see darkness. A rumbling sky was quickly approaching.
A tornado requires some basic ingredients to come together. First, energy in the form of warm, moist air must exist to feed thunder storms. Second, there must be a top layer of hot, dry air called a cap. This air acts like a lid on a simmering pot, holding in the warm air that’s accumulating in the atmosphere below until the storm’s ready to burst. Last, there has to be rotating winds speeding in oppositedirections at two different levels in the atmosphere, a phenomenon called wind shear, can cause the storms to rotate. Tornado alley is perfectly situated to meet these requirements. (1)