Tornado

:For other uses of Tornado, see Tornado (disambiguation).

Tornado characteristics

No two tornadoes look exactly alike. Nor have any two tornadoes behaved exactly the same. However, there are incidents of tornadoes repeatedly hitting the same town several years in a row. The best example of this is the town of Codell, Kansas which was hit three years in a row, each time on May 20. But, forecasting the exact position or time a tornado will strike is nearly impossible.

Related Topics:
Codell, Kansas - May 20

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Not every thunderstorm, supercell, squall line, or hurricane will produce a tornado. Luckily, it takes exactly the right combination of atmospheric variables (wind, temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.) to spawn even a weak tornado. On the other hand, roughly 1,000 tornadoes a year are reported in the contiguous U.S.

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Of all tornadoes formed in the U.S., F0 and F1 tornadoes account for a large percentage of occurrences. On the other end of the scale, the massively destructive F-5 tornado accounts for fewer than 1% of all tornadoes in the U.S.

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Even though no two tornadoes are exactly alike, they are defined by the same general characteristics. According to the Meteorological Glossary, a tornado is defined as "A violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud." Tornadoes can be produced by supercellular thunderstorms, squall-line thunderstorms, and thunderstorms found in the outer bands of a hurricane. The exact definition of a tornado is still being debated in the meteorological community today.

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