TORNADO

TORNADO

    Tornado is a dangerous violent, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or in rare cases, cumulus cloud base. They are often referred to as a twister or hurricane. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but usually in the form of condensation funnel. Various types of tornadoes include landspout, multiple vortex tornado, and waterspout. 

    Waterspouts characterized by spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds are great. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water.  This column spiral air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator, and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, and steam devil.

     Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. However, most of the tornadoes in the world occur in the Tornado Alley in the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. They also occasionally occur in south-central and eastern Asia, the Philippines, South east Asia, like Malaysia, northern and east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand.

    Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity of data, such as hook echoes, as well as by the efforts of storm spotters.The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km / h), stretch more than two miles (3.2 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (over 100 km).