Interesting Facts about a Tornado

Tornadoes, popularly known as twisters, are one of nature’s phenomena that occur due to various reasons. These tornadoes are one of the most destructive of storms. Many of these tornadoes take place mainly in the United States of America although they can occur anywhere across the globe. Frightful and terrifying, the tornadoes are fierce columns of air that rotate at a high speed. This is what causes destruction to whatever comes in the way of a tornado. Here are many more interesting facts about a tornado.

Interesting Facts about a Tornado:
A tornado always rotates either clockwise or counterclockwise. A large amount of dust is thus raised due to these cyclonic winds.

A tornado can occur anytime of the year. However, reports reveal, many of them occur in the month of May.

There is no specific size of a tornado. They can occur in any size!

The wind speed of a tornado is recorded between 40 mph to 110 mph. These rotating tornadoes can travel many kilometers that cause severe destruction to mankind.

One cannot say a tornado is of a particular color. Their colors depend upon the environment where it occurs. When the surrounding areas are dry, a tornado may appear partly invisible. The color of the tornado also depends upon the time of the day. It may appear dark to the observer if the sun is behind the tornado.

These funnel shaped twisters can move in any direction, however on an average, it is said they move from southwest to the northwest direction.

People who have witnessed this strong force have also reported loud sounds that occur with the tornado. Experts opine these sounds are related to the present atmospheric conditions of the surrounding areas. These sounds range from the sound of a gushing waterfall to the sound of a jet engine. These sounds are audible in close proximity of the tornado.

These twisters mainly occur when the warm air from the ground level rushes upwards and meets the cool dry air. This causes the warm air to cool down which further causes the moisture to condense and this results in a thundercloud that grows in height. The winds at different levels cause the twister to get its distinctive funnel shape.

Tornadoes are known to cause massive destruction wherever they occur. They have the force to uproot trees, damage houses to the extent of ripping off the rooftops, overturn vehicles causing loss of property and life as well.

These funnel shaped tornadoes mainly occur in areas of Southern Canada, Southern Africa, regions of eastern and south central Asia. These also occur in some areas of northwestern Europe and southeastern regions of Australia and New Zealand.

The term, tornado family, refers to many tornadoes. This happens when a storm creates more than one tornado. Such an occurrence can cause the creation of many tornadoes simultaneously in a particular area.

There are many types of tornadoes defined by their intensity and other such other factors. For example, a multiple vortex tornado has many columns of air. This is seen rotating around a single center. Or the satellite tornado is a much weaker form of the main tornado. This tornado is seen around the larger tornado.