Tornados and Hurricanes

Long ago, I lived in tornado prone places like Kansas, Texas, South Carolina, and Nebraska. Each of the communities we lived in had an air raid siren which sounded when tornados were sighted moving into the areas. Once the siren was sounded everyone was suppose to seek shelter in their basement.

 

Tornados are very unpredictable and in each place they touch down they leave destruction. These two photos are from Moore, Oklahoma after a tornado passed through.

Tornados are small but violent cyclones. They occur most often from April to June in North America. Hundreds of tornados are reported in the United States every year. Most often these tornados occur in the South and the Midwest.

Tornados form and move along a cold front. When the warm air alongside the front is pushed quickly upward it may begin to twist and thus a funnel cloud forms. Funnel clouds are attract to Cumulonimbus Clouds.

Tornados skip rapidly around. In places where they touch the earth they can destroy the entire neighborhood. Winds inside a tornado can reach 500 kilometers an hour.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are much like tornados except they occur over tropical seas. A hurricane has no fronts like a tornado. It is a mass of swirling clouds, rain, and winds that may reach 240 kilometers per hour. In the western Pacific Ocean hurricanes are known a typhoons, in Australia, willy willys, and in the Indian Ocean Cyclones.

 

In the United States hurricanes affect the weather form in the late summer or early fall. They often move inland over the Gulf or Atlantic coasts. Once a hurricane moves inland it soon dissipates because it no longer has an energy source--the heat and moisture of the tropical seas.

Hurricane Fact Sheet

Author: Gayle Olson


A hurricane is a large whirling storm that usually measures 200
to 500 miles (320 to 800 km) across.

On the average each year, six Atlantic hurricanes occur.

Sustained winds of 100-150 mph (160-240 km/h) occur with a
typical hurricane. Some winds may exceed 200 mph (320 km/h).

The eye of the hurricane averages 14-25 miles (22-40 km) across.
The eye is quite calm as compared to the winds in the eye wall.

The winds of the hurricane spin in a counterclockwise direction
in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern
Hemisphere.

In the North Atlantic hurricane season is from June 1 to
November 30. Over the Western Pacific, the typical cyclone
season is never quite over.

If the heat released by an average hurricane in one day could be
converted to electricity, it could supply the United States'
electrical needs for about six months.

The heat energy released in a single day can equal the energy
released by the fusion of four hundred 20-megaton hydrogen bombs.

As it travels across the ocean, a hurricane may pick up as much
as two billion tons of water each day through evaporation and
sea spray.

Some two million metric tons of air are circulated in, up and
out of the hurricane each second.

Related Internet resources:

http://scienceforfamilies.allinfo-about.com/features/hurricanes.html 

About the author:
Author and Internet Content Developer since 1995.
 

Many storms form along fronts where air is rising rapidly. We have looked at hurricanes and tornados which can be very violent and destructive storms. Sometimes a thunderstorm occurs. Thunderstorms are accompanied by cumulonimbus clouds and lightning.

 

Lightning is a flash of light in the sky. It occurs when electricity travels between two clouds, from one part of a cloud to another, or from a cloud to the earth's surface. The release of electricity heats the air. Air expands rapidly when it is heated and produces a loud noise called thunder.