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Tornadoes: The Most Deadly Natural Occurrence Text Only Page 1
| CONTENTS | PAGE |
|---|---|
| Contents. What is a Tornado? Figure 1, A Tour Of A Tornado. | 1 |
| Story Of A Tornado. Figure 2, The Beginning Of A Tornado. | 2 |
| Table 1, The Fujita Scale. | 3 |
| Tornado Facts. | 4 |
| Eyewitnesses. | 5 |
| The Oakfield Tornado. | 6 |
| Tornado Photos. See The Damage A Tornado Can Do. | 7 |
| How To Save Your Life. | 8 |
WHAT IS A TORNADO?
Tornado - comes from the Spanish Words, "TRONADO", meaning thunderstorm and "TORNAR" meaning to turn.
A tornado is a powerful, twisting wind storm, no wonder some people call them TWISTERS. The winds of a tornado are the most violent winds that occur on this Earth. They whirl around the centre, the EYE of the storm, at over 192 miles an hour (320 kilometres an hour). Most tornadoes measure several metres wide but the size of tornadoes vary. However, when they touch down tornadoes cause death and destruction.
Tornadoes are actually very small, very violent, cyclones. That is why some people mix up these slightly different weather systems.
A tornado is a rotating funnel cloud that extents to the ground from a mass of dark clouds. Some funnels do not reach the earth, but some do hit the surface of the earth, then withdraw back into the dark clouds above. They then dip down again and strike the earth. In the United States, most funnel clouds tend to travel toward the Northeast. While the tornado wanders across the countryside, the winds whirl around inside in an anti-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere.
Most tornadoes last less than 1 hour., These storms usually travel about 18 miles at a speed of between 9 to 24 miles per hour. Though some do last several hours and measures 1.4 miles in diamter. There are exceptions to this, some tornadoes, can move at a speed of 60 miles per hour, and may travel up to 180 miles. These storms are especially destructive.
Tornadoes happen all over the world, but are most common is the U.S.A. Most of these tornadoes occur in the spring and early summer. This is known as the Tornado Season. No one
