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Home Tips > Tips By Category > Tips you can implement daily Tornadoes form in storms all around the world, and though they have been recorded in all 50 states, they form most famously in a broad area of the American Midwest and South known as Tornado Alley. Although, in pure number of incidences, the United States experiences more tornadoes than any other country, the United Kingdom is the most tornado-prone country relative to land area. Some common, related slang terms are: twister, whirlwind, wedge, funnel, gustnado, landspout, willy-willy, or rope. Cyclone is also another term for a tornado.
Tornadoes develop from thunderstorms, most frequently supercell thunderstorms, though they also occur within squall lines and hurricanes. They are believed to be produced when cool air overrides a layer of warm air, forcing the warm air to rise rapidly, though tornadoes over water (waterspouts) frequently are observed forming in the absence of convection or apparent strong surface temperature differences.
Exactly how tornadoes form is complex and not fully understood. When thunderstorms develop, an increase in wind speed and/or a large change in direction with height ("wind shear") produces a horizontal, spinning area of air. The strong updrafts within the thunderstorm can draw this area of rotation up from horizontal to vertical. Towards the end of this area of rotation (the mesocyclone) is often a lower area of rain-free cloud and can be seen as a rotating "wall cloud". If the rotation intensifies, funnel clouds can develop within this area and form tornadoes when they reach the ground. Why the rotation can intensify and form tornadoes is not understood.
Tornadoes normally rotate in a cyclonic direction as the warm air thunderstorms usually form in sweeps north and jet streams come from the west, creating a situation in which the storms rotate. In the northern hemisphere, this rotation is counterclockwise, and in the southern hemisphere, clockwise. The tornadoes usually rotate the same way. Sometimes opposite direction swirls develop under a thunderstorm. And about 1 in 100 tornadoes rotate in an anticyclonic direction.
Tornado damage to man-made structures is the result of high wind velocity and the associated windblown debris. Tornado winds have been measured well in excess of 300 mph (480 km/h). Tornado season in North America is generally March through October, although tornadoes can occur at any time of year. They tend to occur in the afternoons and evenings: over 80 percent of all tornadoes strike between noon and midnight.
Tornadoes do cause millions of dollars in damage, both economic and physical, displacement, and many injuries every year.
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