The destructive force of tornadoes

2001/05/11 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Klima

The era of tornadoes in America begins! Tornadoes are powerful wind swirls that descend from a cloud of kumulonimbo and are more destructive than other atmospheric phenomena. They look very special, come down like a chimney and turn at a vertiginous speed around their axis. The chimney can be seen by dust particles taken from the ground and water drops that condense in the center and rotate in the southern hemisphere clockwise, while in the northern hemisphere rotates in the reverse direction. However, sometimes tornadoes turn in the opposite direction.

Tornadoes, in contact with the earth, can have a width of almost a kilometer below the few meters and travel many kilometers, crushing everything they find on the road.

They occur in low pressure areas with strong winds. The wind speed in the chimney can exceed 480 km/h, sometimes a speed of 800 km/h has been measured. Damage caused by tornado is due to wind speed and low intermediate pressure.

Temperate latitudes are more frequent, especially in early spring and are relatively frequent in some places in the United States. However, they also appear in nearby places such as the east of the Iberian Peninsula or the Balearic Islands.