A tornado is a rapidly 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. The windstorm 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 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 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), are more than two miles (3 km) in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles.
A tornado warning is an alert issued by national weather forecasting agencies to warn the public that severe thunderstorms with tornadoes are imminent or occurring. It can be issued after a tornado, funnel cloud and rotation in the clouds has been spotted by the public, storm chasers, emergency management or law enforcement.
Tetsuya Theodore "Ted" Fujita was a prominent Japanese-American severe storms researcher. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although he is probably best known for creating the Fujita scale of tornado intensity and damage., he also discovered downbursts and microbursts, and was an instrumental figure in advancing modern understanding of many severe weather phenomena and how they affect people and communities, especially through his work exploring the relationship between wind speed and damage.
Red Tornado is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Bill Kurtis is an American television journalist, producer, narrator, and news anchor. He was also the host of a number of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. Previously, he anchored The CBS Morning News, and was the longtime anchor at WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned and -operated TV station in Chicago. Kurtis is currently the scorekeeper/announcer for National Public Radio (NPR)'s news comedy/quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, as well as serving as the host of Through the Decades, a documentary-style news magazine seen on CBS/Weigel Broadcasting's digital multicast network, Decades syndicated subchannel.
Tornado Alley is a colloquial term for the area of the United States where tornadoes are most frequent.
Storm Stories was a non-fiction television series that aired on The Weather Channel (TWC) and Zone Reality. It was hosted and narrated by meteorologist and storm tracker Jim Cantore. Storm Stories showcased various types of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Each episode featured a famous severe storm, and survivors of it sharing their experiences. The program also featured footage of the storm if it is available, but typically a re-enactment was used instead. The video of the storm was often shown while the survivors offer their accounts of it. Often, TWC would air a special week dedicated to one specific type of storm.
The Evansville tornado of November 2005 was an F3 tornado that formed early in the morning of November 6, 2005, outside of Evansville, Indiana, United States. It was the first of several tornado events that November. The tornado resulted in 25 confirmed fatalities across the region, making it the deadliest and most destructive November tornado in Indiana's history. The Evansville tornado was part of a small outbreak that produced 8 tornadoes.
This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2006. Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States, Bangladesh, and Eastern India, but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions. Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather, including strong thunderstorms, strong winds, and hail.
The 1899 New Richmond Tornado was an estimated F5 tornado which formed on the early evening of Monday, June 12, 1899 and tore a 45-mile long path of destruction through St. Croix, Polk and Barron counties in west-central Wisconsin, leaving 117 people dead, twice as many injured and hundreds homeless. The worst devastation wrought by the tornado was at the city of New Richmond, Wisconsin, which took a direct hit from the storm. Over half the town was left in ruins by the tornado, which also caused lesser damage to several other communities in the area. More than $300,000 (USD) in damage was reported. Today, it ranks as the ninth deadliest tornado in United States history, as well as the deadliest ever recorded in Wisconsin.
The Fargo tornado was a violent and deadly tornado that struck Fargo, North Dakota, on Thursday, June 20, 1957. The tornado was part of a larger system of storms that resulted in five separate tornadoes in the immediate region. The third and most destructive, referred to individually as the Fargo tornado, struck the north Fargo area in the early evening, causing major devastation. Damage was extensive and included 100 blocks of Fargo. Approximately 329 homes were destroyed and some of them were completely swept off their foundations - a classic example of F5 damage. An additional 1,035 homes were damaged. The worst residential damage occurred in the Golden Ridge Subdivision, much of which was swept away and scattered across a nearby farm field. Fifteen farm homes were destroyed and 25 damaged. Four churches and three schools were damaged. Fifteen businesses were destroyed and 30 suffered major damage. These were mainly small local shops. Two hundred automobiles were destroyed and 300 damaged.
"Tempest" is the twenty-first episode and season finale of the first season of the WB original series Smallville. The episode originally aired on May 21, 2002; Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote the script, and Greg Beeman directed. In the episode's narrative, Lex attempts to forge his own destiny away from LuthorCorp; Whitney leaves Smallville for the Marines; Roger Nixon discovers Clark's secret and attempts to expose him to the world; and Lana is pulled into a tornado.
Storm Chasers is an American documentary reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2007, on the Discovery Channel. Produced by Original Media, the program follows several teams of storm chasers as they attempt to intercept tornadoes in Tornado Alley in the United States. The show was canceled at the end of its 5th season by Discovery Communications on January 21, 2012.
Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe! is a 2008 Japanese Animated Film produced by OLM's Team Kamei division, based on the Tamagotchi digital pet franchise jointly created by Bandai and WiZ. It is directed by Jōji Shimura and written by Aya Matsui, released into Japanese theaters on December 20, 2008, and on DVD on June 26, 2009. It was later released in France on February 17, 2010.
Timothy Michael Samaras was an American engineer and storm chaser best known for his field research on tornadoes and time on the Discovery Channel show, Storm Chasers.
The El Reno tornado was a very large EF3 tornado that occurred over rural areas of Central Oklahoma during the early evening of Friday, May 31, 2013. The widest tornado in recorded history, it was part of a larger weather system that produced dozens of tornadoes over the preceding days. The tornado initially touched down at 6:03 p.m. Central Daylight Time (2303 UTC) about 8.3 miles (13.4 km) west-southwest of El Reno, rapidly growing in size and becoming more violent as it tracked through central portions of Canadian County. Remaining over mostly open terrain, the tornado did not impact many structures; however, measurements from mobile weather radars revealed extreme winds up to 301 mph (484 km/h) within the vortex; these are the second-highest observed wind speeds on Earth, with only the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado having recorded slightly higher wind speeds. As it crossed U.S. Highway 81, it had grown to a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km). Turning northeastward, the tornado soon weakened. Upon crossing Interstate 40, the tornado dissipated around 6:43 p.m. CDT (2343 UTC), after tracking for 16.2 miles (26.1 km), it avoided affecting the more densely populated areas near and within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
Into the Storm is a 2014 American found footage disaster film directed by Steven Quale, written by John Swetnam, starring Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies. The film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on August 8, 2014. It is a meteorological disaster film about a rash of tornadoes striking the fictional town of Silverton, Oklahoma.
"The Erinsborough Tornado" is a storyline from the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, which began on 29 August 2014 when a large storm hit the fictional suburb of Erinsborough and later developed into a tornado. The storyline was one of the dramatic events of Neighbours in 2014 and saw many characters' fates left in question, including long standing characters Paul Robinson and Lou Carpenter. The storyline was conceived following the success of 2013's wedding explosion and was shot in June 2014. Several wind and rain machines were used to create the storm and tornado effects. A promotional trailer for the storyline was released on 15 August 2014.
Night of the Twisters is a young adult realistic fiction novel by Ivy Ruckman that was released in 1984 by publisher Harper & Row. The book is a semi-fictionalized account of the 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak, which produced seven tornadoes in and around Grand Island, Nebraska, on the evening of June 3, 1980, killing five people and injuring 134. It is told from the point of view of its 12-year-old protagonist Danny Hatch, who – after his home and neighborhood are destroyed by one of the tornadoes – begins a search for his parents as the event takes place.
The tornado outbreak of March 3, 2019, was a significant severe weather event affecting the Southeastern United States. Over the course of 6 hours, a total of 39 tornadoes touched down across portions of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. The strongest of these was an EF4 tornado that devastated rural communities from Beauregard, Alabama to Talbotton, Georgia, killing 23 people and injuring 97 others. Its death toll represented more than twice the number of tornado deaths in the United States in 2018, and it was the deadliest single tornado in the country since the 2013 Moore EF5 tornado. An EF3 tornado destroyed residences to the east of Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida, and was only the second tornado of that strength in the county since 1945. Several other strong tornadoes occurred across the region throughout the evening of March 3 and caused significant damage. A large number of EF0 and EF1 tornadoes also touched down.
