Glossary of tornado terms

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The following is a glossary of tornado terms. It includes scientific as well as selected informal terminology.

Contents

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Atmosphere

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Tornado rating classifications
F0
EF0
F1
EF1
F2
EF2
F3
EF3
F4
EF4
F5
EF5
WeakStrongViolent
Significant
Intense
  • Tail – (slang) A colloquial term for a tornado; most commonly used in the Southern U.S.
  • Tail cloud
  • Temperature
  • Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) –
  • Thermal
  • Thermodynamics
  • Thunderstorm (tstm)
  • The Thunderstorm Project
  • Thunderstorm spectrum
  • Tilted updraft
  • Tornado (tor)
  • Tornado Alley – A colloquial term referring to regions where tornadoes are perceived as striking more frequently than other areas. It may also be referred to as a tornado belt, especially when describing smaller areas.
  • Tornado climatology – The study of geographical and temporal distribution of tornadoes and causes thereof.
  • Tornado couplet – A primary cyclonic tornado and secondary anticyclonic tornado pair.
  • Tornado Debris Project (TDP)
  • Tornado debris signature (TDS) – A more formal term for a debris ball.
  • Tornado emergency – Enhanced wording used by the U.S. National Weather Service in a tornado warning or severe weather statement when a large, intense tornado is expected to impact a highly populated area (traverse a large city or dense suburbs).
  • Tornado family – A series of tornadoes spawned by successive (low-level) mesocyclones of the same supercell thunderstorm in a process known as cyclic tornadogenesis. Multiple such supercells occurring on the same day in a common region results in a corridor outbreak of tornadoes.
  • Tornado fog
  • Tornado Force scale (TF scale)
  • Tornado Intercept Project (TIP)
  • Tornado outbreak
  • Tornado outbreak sequence
  • Tornado preparedness
  • The Tornado Project (TP) – A concerted research effort from the 1970s-1990s by Thomas P. Grazulis that compiled tornado information for risk assessment. TP published exhaustive accounts, tabulations, and analysis of all known significant tornadoes in the US from 1680 to 1995, which comprises one of three tornado databases.
  • Tornado pulse
  • Tornado rating – A subjective integer value assigned to a tornado differentiating its intensity (or path length or width), typically as a proxy inferred by damage analysis.
  • Tornado roar
  • Tornado scale
  • Tornado season
  • Tornado stages
  • Tornado Symposium
  • Tornado vortex signature (or tornadic vortex signature) (TVS)
  • Tornado watch (TOA or WT) – A forecast that atmospheric conditions within a designated area are favorable for significant tornado activity over the next 1–6 hours (colloquially referred to as red box).
  • Tornado warning (TOR) – A tornado is occurring or is imminent as one is sighted or is suggested by radar.
  • Tornadocyclone – The parent circulation of a tornado. This may refer to a low-level mesocyclone.
  • Tornadogenesis – The process leading to tornado formation.
  • Tornadolysis – The process leading to tornado decay and death.
  • TORRO (TORnado and storm Research Organisation)
  • TORRO scale – A tornado rating scale developed by Terence Meaden of TORRO classifying tornadoes in the UK from T0-T10 based on intensity.
  • TOTO (TOtable Tornado Observatory)
  • Transverse rolls
  • Trigger – (slang)
  • Tropical cyclone (TC)
  • Trough
  • Tube – (slang) A storm chaser term for a tornado.
  • Turbulence
  • Twister – (slang) A colloquial term for a tornado. Also, a major theatrical film about storm chasing released in 1996.
  • TWISTEX (Tactical Weather-Instrumented Sampling in/near Tornadoes EXperiment)

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See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tornado</span> Violently rotating column of air in contact with both the Earths surface and a cumulonimbus cloud

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology to name a weather system with a low-pressure area in the center around which, from an observer looking down toward the surface of the Earth, winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust beneath it. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 180 kilometers per hour, are about 80 meters across, and travel several kilometers before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 480 kilometers per hour (300 mph), are more than 3 kilometers (2 mi) in diameter, and stay on the ground for more than 100 km (62 mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclone</span> Large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low pressure

In meteorology, a cyclone is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above. Cyclones are characterized by inward-spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure. The largest low-pressure systems are polar vortices and extratropical cyclones of the largest scale. Warm-core cyclones such as tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones also lie within the synoptic scale. Mesocyclones, tornadoes, and dust devils lie within the smaller mesoscale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thunderstorm</span> Storm characterized by lightning and thunder

A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thundershowers. Thunderstorms occur in a type of cloud known as a cumulonimbus. They are usually accompanied by strong winds and often produce heavy rain and sometimes snow, sleet, or hail, but some thunderstorms produce little precipitation or no precipitation at all. Thunderstorms may line up in a series or become a rainband, known as a squall line. Strong or severe thunderstorms include some of the most dangerous weather phenomena, including large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. Some of the most persistent severe thunderstorms, known as supercells, rotate as do cyclones. While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow through the layer of the troposphere that they occupy, vertical wind shear sometimes causes a deviation in their course at a right angle to the wind shear direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supercell</span> Thunderstorm that is characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone

A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms, supercells are the overall least common and have the potential to be the most severe. Supercells are often isolated from other thunderstorms, and can dominate the local weather up to 32 kilometres (20 mi) away. They tend to last 2–4 hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesocyclone</span> Region of rotation within a powerful thunderstorm

A mesocyclone is a meso-gamma mesoscale region of rotation (vortex), typically around 2 to 6 mi in diameter, most often noticed on radar within thunderstorms. In the northern hemisphere it is usually located in the right rear flank of a supercell, or often on the eastern, or leading, flank of a high-precipitation variety of supercell. The area overlaid by a mesocyclone’s circulation may be several miles (km) wide, but substantially larger than any tornado that may develop within it, and it is within mesocyclones that intense tornadoes form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squall</span> Short, sharp increase in wind speed

A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the increase of the sustained winds over that time interval, as there may be higher gusts during a squall event. They usually occur in a region of strong sinking air or cooling in the mid-atmosphere. These force strong localized upward motions at the leading edge of the region of cooling, which then enhances local downward motions just in its wake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squall line</span> Line of thunderstorms along or ahead of a cold front

A squall line, or more accurately a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS), is a line of thunderstorms, often forming along or ahead of a cold front. In the early 20th century, the term was used as a synonym for cold front. Linear thunderstorm structures often contain heavy precipitation, hail, frequent lightning, strong straight-line winds, and occasionally tornadoes or waterspouts. Particularly strong straight-line winds can occur where the linear structure forms into the shape of a bow echo. Tornadoes can occur along waves within a line echo wave pattern (LEWP), where mesoscale low-pressure areas are present. Some bow echoes can grow to become derechos as they move swiftly across a large area. On the back edge of the rainband associated with mature squall lines, a wake low can be present, on very rare occasions associated with a heat burst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wall cloud</span> Cloud formation occurring at the base of a thunderstorm

A wall cloud is a large, localized, persistent, and often abrupt lowering of cloud that develops beneath the surrounding base of a cumulonimbus cloud and from which tornadoes sometimes form. It is typically beneath the rain-free base (RFB) portion of a thunderstorm, and indicates the area of the strongest updraft within a storm. Rotating wall clouds are an indication of a mesocyclone in a thunderstorm; most strong tornadoes form from these. Many wall clouds do rotate; however, some do not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hook echo</span> Weather radar signature indicating tornadic circulation in a supercell thunderstorm

A hook echo is a pendant or hook-shaped weather radar signature as part of some supercell thunderstorms. It is found in the lower portions of a storm as air and precipitation flow into a mesocyclone, resulting in a curved feature of reflectivity. The echo is produced by rain, hail, or even debris being wrapped around the supercell. It is one of the classic hallmarks of tornado-producing supercells. The National Weather Service may consider the presence of a hook echo coinciding with a tornado vortex signature as sufficient to justify issuing a tornado warning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclogenesis</span> The development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere

Cyclogenesis is the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere. Cyclogenesis is an umbrella term for at least three different processes, all of which result in the development of some sort of cyclone, and at any size from the microscale to the synoptic scale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anticyclonic storm</span> Type of storm

An anticyclonic storm is a storm with a high-pressure center, in which winds flow in the direction opposite to that of the flow above a region of low pressure. Unlike a cyclonic storm, anticyclonic storms are typically associated with fair weather and stable atmospheric conditions. On other planets or in rare cases on Earth, anticyclones can contribute to inclement weather. Examples include Hartmut, which brought a blizzard to the British Isles in 2018, Jupiter, and Neptune's persistent anticyclonic storms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funnel cloud</span> Funnel-shaped cloud not touching the ground

A funnel cloud is a funnel-shaped cloud of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud but not reaching the ground or a water surface. A funnel cloud is usually visible as a cone-shaped or needle like protuberance from the main cloud base. Funnel clouds form most frequently in association with supercell thunderstorms, and are often, but not always, a visual precursor to tornadoes. Funnel clouds are visual phenomena, but these are not the vortex of wind itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustnado</span> Ground vortex formed from a downburst of a thunderstorm

A gustnado is a brief, shallow surface-based vortex which forms within the downburst emanating from a thunderstorm. The name is a portmanteau by elision of "gust front tornado", as gustnadoes form due to non-tornadic straight-line wind features in the downdraft (outflow), specifically within the gust front of strong thunderstorms. Gustnadoes tend to be noticed when the vortices loft sufficient debris or form condensation cloud to be visible although it is the wind that makes the gustnado, similarly to tornadoes. As these eddies very rarely connect from the surface to the cloud base, they are very rarely considered as tornadoes. The gustnado has little in common with tornadoes structurally or dynamically in regard to vertical development, intensity, longevity, or formative process—as classic tornadoes are associated with mesocyclones within the inflow (updraft) of the storm, not the outflow.

This is a list of meteorology topics. The terms relate to meteorology, the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesoscale convective system</span> Complex of thunderstorms organized on a larger scale

A mesoscale convective system (MCS) is a complex of thunderstorms that becomes organized on a scale larger than the individual thunderstorms but smaller than extratropical cyclones, and normally persists for several hours or more. A mesoscale convective system's overall cloud and precipitation pattern may be round or linear in shape, and include weather systems such as tropical cyclones, squall lines, lake-effect snow events, polar lows, and mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs), and generally forms near weather fronts. The type that forms during the warm season over land has been noted across North and South America, Europe, and Asia, with a maximum in activity noted during the late afternoon and evening hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landspout</span> Tornado not originating from a mesocyclone

Landspout is a term created by atmospheric scientist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985 for a tornado not associated with a mesocyclone. The Glossary of Meteorology defines a landspout:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tornadogenesis</span> Process by which a tornado forms

Tornadogenesis is the process by which a tornado forms. There are many types of tornadoes and these vary in methods of formation. Despite ongoing scientific study and high-profile research projects such as VORTEX, tornadogenesis is a volatile process and the intricacies of many of the mechanisms of tornado formation are still poorly understood.

Convective storm detection is the meteorological observation, and short-term prediction, of deep moist convection (DMC). DMC describes atmospheric conditions producing single or clusters of large vertical extension clouds ranging from cumulus congestus to cumulonimbus, the latter producing thunderstorms associated with lightning and thunder. Those two types of clouds can produce severe weather at the surface and aloft.

A mesovortex is a small-scale rotational feature found in a convective storm, such as a quasi-linear convective system, a supercell, or the eyewall of a tropical cyclone. Mesovortices range in diameter from tens of miles to a mile or less and can be immensely intense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of meteorology</span> List of definitions of terms and concepts commonly used in meteorology

This glossary of meteorology is a list of terms and concepts relevant to meteorology and atmospheric science, their sub-disciplines, and related fields.

References