how do tornados start?

Answer 1

How do tornadoes form? The classic answer -- "warm moist Gulf air meets cold Canadian air and dry air from the Rockies" -- is a gross oversimplification. Many thunderstorms form under those conditions (near warm fronts, cold fronts and drylines respectively), which never even come close to producing tornadoes. Even when the large-scale environment is extremely favorable for tornadic thunderstorms, as in an SPC "High Risk" outlook, not every thunderstorm spawns a tornado. The truth is that we don't fully understand. The most destructive and deadly tornadoes occur from supercells -- which are rotating thunderstorms with a well-defined radar circulation called a mesocyclone. [Supercells can also produce damaging hail, severe non-tornadic winds, unusually frequent lightning, and flash floods.] Tornado formation is believed to be dictated mainly by things which happen on the storm scale, in and around the mesocyclone. Recent theories and results from the VORTEX program suggest that once a mesocyclone is underway, tornado development is related to the temperature differences across the edge of downdraft air wrapping around the mesocyclone (the occlusion downdraft). Mathematical modelling studies of tornado formation also indicate that it can happen without such temperature patterns; and in fact, very little temperature variation was observed near some of the most destructive tornadoes in history on 3 May 1999.

Answer 2

This is kind of long, but...
Tornadoes usually (but not always) come from supercell thunderstorms, but only 25% of supercells produce tornadoes, and meteorologists don't know why.
Anyway, when you have strong vertical wind shear (or, abrupt changes of wind speed and direction as you increase height in the atmosphere), the lower atmosphere spins horizontally, (imagine a log rolling across the ground). The updraft of a thunderstorm can draw this horizontal tube of spinning air upward, so now the tube is still spinning, but its now bent upwards like an upside-down letter "u". Finally the upside-down "u" shape gets split into two by the downdraft, one vertically rotating column spinning clockwise, and one spinning counterclockwise. This is what we call a mesocyclone (or meso-anticyclone for the clockwise rotating one), and is an important part of tornado formation. The one with the clockwise rotating updraft moves to the left of the mean flow (left-mover) and usually dies out. The one with the counterclockwise flow moves to the right of the mean flow (right-mover) and is where we would see potential tornado formation.
The updraft must persist while a rear flank downdraft (RFD) forms. As the RFD brings the rotation towards the ground, the precipitation associated with the now rotating RFD shows up on radar imagery as a hook echo.
As warm moist air is 'sucked' up by the rotating mesocyclone, the air saturates and forms a wall cloud beneath which is where the tornado will 'descend' from. Once the RFD reaches the ground, a funnel cloud will form and finally, the condensing of the air makes the tornado visible. It's hard to imagine all of this without an image to look at.

Answer 3

For a tornado to start, two air masses must meet, a lower one containing warm, humid air and a higher one containing cool, dry air.

During thunderstorms, unstable humid warm air moves upward and is stopped by a thin layer of cool dry air. This thin layer act like a cap on the warm air below it causing pressure and energy to build as more humid sir rises.

When the cap gives way under the pressure of rising warm air, it releases a huge amount of energy in the form of an upward moving air mass. Air currents move in from all sides to replace the rising warm air and some times form a tornado. Usually, this does not happen. Wind at high altitudes plays an important role in determining whether a tornado develops. Depending on conditions, these winds can intensify the sudden upward air flow and create the vortex of wind that is a tornado.

Tornadoes can happen anywhere in the world. However, due to certain conditions, the Midwestern United States is where they happen most frequently.

In this region, the two major air masses necessary to start a tornado meet: dry cool polar air from Canada and humid warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. An average tornado lasts only 10 minutes and travels up to 10 to 12 kilometers.

Answer 4

A key then a red start button!

Answer 5

starts with a HUGE and Strong wind

Answer 6

hot and cold air that meet traveling in different directions.

Answer 7

a combination of dirt, air, & big wind.

Answer 8

dood.. u just press a button.. satelites kick ***

Answer 9

from a super-cell