WEATHER
ADOE S
THE HIGHEST WINDSPEEDS on Earth occur
in tornadoes. Winds whip round in a twisting
Spiral forms in the water
funnel of air at maybe 500 km/h ( 3 1 0 mph) , far
of the upper bottle higher than the windspeed inside a hurricane,
although we cannot know exactly as
meteorological instruments do not survive in the
TORNADO IN A BOTTLE strongest tornadoes. Tornadoes are small,
To see how a tornado works,
take two plastic bottles with extremely powerful whirlwinds that form very
screw tops and glue the tops suddenly an� often occur in groups. They are
together. Make a small hole
through both tops with a nail.
most common and most violent in the United
Fill one bottle about three States,, where more than 500 spring up
quarters full with water, and
screw the double top on.
year. A tornado may measure anyth���
Screw the empty bottle on to a few metres to more than 1 00 rilet:IM ?
the top of the full bottle. across and can travel. for more
its path, including buildin��/:tr��-
Turn the two bottles upside
down, and give the water a ( 1 25 miles) . As it goes, it cari !;jsq\-.,.,,�p
slight swirl to set it off. It will
form a spiral in the middle,
just like a tornado. and then drop them when �$. r��:fai
TORNADO FORMATION
Tornadoes form when a long
funnel of quickly rising warm
air stretches up from the
ground, often to a
thundercloud. They may
happen when the ground gets
very hot and a bubble of air starts rising.
In North America, they form when cold, dry air
from the Rocky Mountains flows east on top of warm, Pressure in
wet air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico. If the centre of
the tornado is
the updraught of air is set spinning by strong winds, the hundreds of
updraught can become a tornado. millibars lower than
normal atmosphere.
Buildings can explode
as air inside bursts out
towards the area of
low pressure.
STRANGE RAIN
As a tornado loses energy and
TORRO SCALE disintegrates, things that it has
T ornadoes develop so suddenly that it is picked up come crashing down.
This could be the cause of strange
impossible to forecast the exact time and "rain", such as frogs, falling. When
location of a tornado strike. When weather a tornado passes over water, it can
conditions that encourage tornadoes develop, suck up small fish and frogs as well
general warnings are broadcast and then as the water. These can be carried
updated with more specific alerts as storms are a long way before being dropped.
1� Find out
identified. The Torro tornado intensity scale
classifies the speed and destructive power of a
SEA MONSTERS
If a tornado forms over sea, it is known as
moving tornado on a scale from 0 to 1 2 . For
example, Torro force 1 is described as mild:
more �
a waterspout. When it touches the surface small trees will be uprooted and chimney pots AIR PRESSURE P. 250
of the ocean, water is sucked up inside removed. Torro force 1 2 is described as a WIND STRENGTH P. 256
the spinning wind. Waterspouts seem to HuRRICANES r. 258
super tornado: even steel-reinforced buildings CLOUDS P.260
rise up out of the sea like enormous dark
grey serpen ts. They are probably the basis
will be seriously damaged. RAIN P.264
of legends about sea monsters.
259
