How does a tornado form?

Answer 1

It is mostly described as a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and...a thunderstorm.

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air which is in contact with both a cumulonimbus (or, in rare cases, cumulus) cloud base and the surface of the earth. Tornadoes can come in many shapes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, with the narrow end touching the earth. Often, a cloud of debris encircles the lower portion of the funnel.


The cycle begins when a strong thunderstorm develops a rotating mesocyclone a few miles up in the atmosphere, becoming a supercell. As rainfall in the storm increases, it drags with it an area of quickly descending air known as the rear flank downdraft (RFD). This downdraft accelerates as it approaches the ground, and drags the rotating mesocyclone towards the ground with it.

As the mesocyclone approaches the ground, a visible condensation funnel appears to descend from the base of the storm, often from a rotating wall cloud

Answer 2

The most damaging tornadoes form in "supercells", large rotating towering storm centers. The standard explanation, "warm moist Gulf air meets cold Canadian air and dry air from the Rockies", although generally true, is an oversimplification. Many thunderstorms form under those conditions: where a cold front meets warm moist air near a "dryline" - a sharp change in humitity. But not all thunderstorms produce tornadoes, even when the large-scale environment is extremely favorable for tornadic thunderstorms. Monitoring these storms with Doppler Radar helps forecasters to know whether the storm cells have a strong circulating winds. Supercells often also have damaging hail.

Answer 3

I've heard a slightly different explanation than the 'supercell' one that others have given. Granted that many tornados are spawned by storms, I've also read that they are caused by 'temperature inversions', where a layer of cold air rides up on top of a layer of hot air. The cold air wants to sink and the hot air wants to rise, but they are in each others' way. There need not be a storm going on.

Then what happens is that there is a 'discontinuity' of some sort, the air masses start to 'slip' past each other. The hot air begins to spiral up and the cold air starts to spiral down. When it gets down to ground level, the hot air is being sucked up in the center of the tornado and the cold air is being sprayed out and around the edges and it suck up dirt and becomes visible and causes damage, etc.

Even if you could find some way to interrupt the discontinuity (hit it with an atom bomb, to stop the air masses slipping past one another momentarily, for example-- they actually considered doing this, back in the fifties, but the fallout would be worse than the damage a tornado would cause) the hot air and the cold air would still remain in the temperature inversion, and the risk of another discontinuity with the potential to cause another tornado would remain.

How would you cause a discontinuity? It might not be a bad idea to start a tornado and let it exhaust its energy away from populated areas. Short of sending up rockets, I can't think of a way. But it could save a lot of lives, if you can figure it out.

Answer 4

Tornados are formed generally in conditions of supercelled thunderstorms. What essentially happens is horizontal rotating air at the surface is drawn upward during a thunderstorm via a updraft. Once this rotating air is drawn upward, the rotating column becomes vertical and picks up speed. The ability to visibly see a tornado is caused by the dust, rain and clouds that get sucked into the tornado.

Answer 5

a tornado forms when a cold front and a warm front "collide" with each other. that's why tornados are most common during the spring. and in the middle-ish states get hit the most cause the cold front from Canada and warm front from down south meet there cause, it being, the middle. When I say middle states, I'm talking about Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Missouri, places like that. And just being in the middle doesn't mean that's the only reason. it also hits the middle states the hardest cause they are flat states. meaning not that many hills.

Answer 6

There are a lot of variables that are included on the formation of a tornado. Unstable weather, high and low systems, etc. There is a full explanation of what causes them on:

www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral

Answer 7

When cold and warm air come together

Answer 8

The first thing you need is a trailer park...

Answer 9

most tomatoes form on vines.

Answer 10

the change in pressure