Tornadoes are one of the most feared weather events on Earth. These quick-forming and normally short-lived cyclones tend to emerge from strongly rotating thunderstorms known as supercells. Driven by a long-lasting tower of rising air, these storms can unleash some of the fastest surface winds on Earth. Rising as much as 16.1 kilometers (10 miles)…
Tornadoes Don’t Form Like Meteorologists Thought They Did
Picture a tornado forming. Does the funnel cloud in your mind’s eye reach down from the sky like a malicious, spindly finger? If so, that mental picture may be all wrong. New research suggests that tornadoes form not from the clouds down, but from the ground up. In a new study presented yesterday (Dec. 13)…
Surprise! Tornadoes form from the ground up
Call Dorothy—the formation of tornadoes has been knocked on its head. New measurements from tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas suggest these storms’ swirling winds first develop near the ground. That’s contrary to the long-accepted theory that tornado winds are born several kilometers up in clouds and only later touch down on Earth’s surface. Researchers analyzed…