What is a tornado?

A tornado is a powerful column of wind that spirals around a center with a low atmospheric pressure. This column of violently rotating air is usually in contact with a cumulonimbus cloud and, in rare cases, with a cumulus cloud and the earth's surface.

Tornadoes can come in different sizes but can be seen as a visible condensation funnel with a narrow end that touches the earth and is usually encircled by a cloud of debris that the force of the tornado brings along with it.

The word "tornado" comes from a Latin word "tornare" which means "to thunder". It was later developed by the Spanish into "tornar" which means "to turn or twist". Other terms commonly used today for tornadoes include cyclones and twisters.

The winds inside a tornado spiral inward and going up with speeds between 40 mph to 110 mph on average. This spiraling column of air spins with such speed and power that it creates ab in ternal vacuum that can suck up anything that the tornado passes over.

Characteristics of a tornado

Sizes of tornadoes can be from 250 feet across to as big as spanning 1.6 miles across. Smaller tornadoes usually dissipate after traveling shorter distances than the biggest ones, which takes a long time to dissipate and can wreck havoc to a greater area.

Tornadoes in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counterclockwise and move on an eastward direction while they rotate clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and also are preceded by hailstorms.

Types of tornadoes

There are different types of tornadoes that can develop in an area. There is the multiple vortex tornado which refers to two or more columns of spinning air that rotate around a common center. Such tornadoes can occur in almost any type of air circulation and can always be observed in the most intense of tornadoes.

A satellite tornado is a weaker type of tornado that forms near a larger and stronger tornado that is contained within a single mesocyclone, a vortex of air that spans approximately two to ten km in diameter that rises and rotates around a vertical axis. Satellite tornadoes usually appear to orbit around a larger tornado which can make them look like one large multi-vortex tornado. However, a satellite tornado has its own distinct funnel much smaller than the larger tornado that it accompanies.

A waterspout is simply a tornado that develops over water. They can either be tornadoes that develop over water and approach land or vice versa. The most severe of waterspouts are known as tornadic waterspouts which form over water similar to mesocyclonic tornadoes. They usually form after a severe thunderstorm and are considered as dangerous.