Glossary of tornado terms

Last updated

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

Contents

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

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)

U

V

W

Z

See also

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.