A Waterspout is literally a tornado over water. It may look like a waterfall rising from the water surface as condensed water vapour is pulled into the updraft. Waterspouts are very rarely as powerful as tornadoes, but wind speeds of over 400km/h (250mph) can make them a severe hazard to nearby boats.
Tornadoes concentrate more destructive energy in a smaller area than any other weather phenomenon. The highest winds on Earth are found inside the strongest tornadoes – some surpassing 300 miles per hour. But because tornadoes are so violent, it is very difficult for scientists to comprehend their inner workings. Only recently have meteorologists come to a good understanding of how and why tornadoes form.
Tornadoes most often form within powerful rotating thunderstorms called supercells. Vast amounts of energy are released when the water vapor in rising air condenses to form thunderstorm clouds. Some of this energy is converted into vigorous vertical winds that move both upward (updrafts) and downward (downdrafts). When conditions are right, the updrafts of a rotating supercell can narrow into a powerful vortex, forming a tornado. This happens because, like water in a bathtub drain, the upward moving air begins to spiral as it meets resistance from downdrafts. As this spiral narrows, the energy it contains is concentrated into an ever smaller area, which results in the uniquely powerful winds found inside tornadoes.
The strength of tornadoes is ranked along the Fujita scale according to their destructive capacity. The scale ranges from F0 to F5, based on damage, rather than funnel size. The intensity of a tornado is independent of its actual size – a small funnel can be either weak or strong, and the same is true for a large funnel. However, by examining the damage a storm has caused, engineers and scientists can determine the actual wind speed, a key factor in the Fujita scale.
Tornadoes are most likely to occur in an area referred to as ? Tornado Alley,? located in the central United States between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. This is the perfect landscape for tornados to form because the land is relatively flat, warm, humid air rises from the Gulf of Mexico, and cold, drier air descends from Canada. Tornadoes do, however, form in other areas and have been reported in all 50 states. They can even form over warm bodies of water, where they are known as waterspouts.
Although they were commonly misunderstood and classified as hurricanes until the 19th century, records of tornadoes can be traced all the way back to the 1600s. Prior to the development of warning systems, radio and television, tornadoes were extremely deadly events. The worst single tornado on record occurred on March 18, 1925 across the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana causing widespread destruction and killing 695 people. Due to the advancement of warning systems, better building structures, and increased public knowledge and awareness, we do not experience nearly as many deaths or as much destruction due to tornado activity.
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