Tornadoes

By: Jacqueline, Liz, Richard, And Kyle

Basic Information

• A tornado is a damaging swirling column of air coming down from a thunderstorm to the ground or a severe wind storm.

• Most tornadoes strike in the midsection of the United States and Canada. But every state in the United States has had at least 1 tornado. More tornadoes pass through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi then anywhere in the entire world.

More Basic Information

• Tornadoes start inside storm clouds called cumulonimbus, which are made up of warm, moist air. If the updraft and the downdraft in the storm come together and begin to spin, a funnel shaped cloud forms inside the cumulonimbus thunderhead and sometimes tilts into a funnel that reaches down toward the ground. As the funnel cloud spins faster and faster, it sucks more and more warm air and becomes larger and louder and more powerful. If it touches the ground, a tornado is formed.

• Tornadoes involve lighting, thunder, rain, hail, and high winds.

Safety

• If your home has a basement, go into it at once. If your house doesn’t have a basement go in to a bathroom or an interior closet far from the outside walls. Crouch down low, cover your head with your hands, and stay away from windows and outside walls.

• Stay alert for high winds. An National Weather Service warning indicates that a hazardous event is occurring or is coming in about 30 minutes to an hour.

Prediction

• Meteorologists sample a wide network of weather stations and use satellite pictures to map out the places of the large air masses circling the Earth. Since air masses interact in a mostly predictable way, meteorologists are able to predict weather patterns with some degree of accuracy.

The most dangerous tornado ever

• The crazy tornado of March 18, 1925 injured 2,027 people and killed 689 people. This tornado moved in a mostly straight line from Missouri to Indiana. It was a Tri-state tornado and went through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Because it occurred a long time before the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings and watches, the tornado caught people by surprise, without time to find shelter. it’s area of destruction was 164 square miles and it cost $17,000,000. It’s path was 219 miles, it’s speed got as high as 73 miles, and it’s width was 1 mile.

Pictures and videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qCoLdpRIQ&feature=player_detailpage

bibliography

• http://weatherwizkids.com• Do Tornadoes Really Twist? By Melvin and Gilda

Berger• Tornadoes! By Gail Gibbons • http://www.askkids.com/fr?q=Tornad&desturi=http%3A%2F%2Fsd71.bc.ca%2Fsd71%2Fschool%2Fcourtmid%2F_2006_student_web

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• http://www.ussartf.org/predicting_weather.htm