Tornado myths
Encyclopedia
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, 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. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
es, sensationalism
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
by news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
and the presentation of incorrect information in popular entertainment. Common myths cover various aspects of the tornado, and include ideas about tornado safety, the minimization of tornado damage, and false assumptions about the size, shape, power, and path of the tornado itself.
It is thought by some people that taking shelter under highway overpass
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
es or in the southwest corner of the building provides extra protection from a tornado, but both of these likely increase the danger of injury or death. Some still believe that opening windows ahead of a tornado will reduce the damage from the storm, but this is not true. Some people also believe that escaping in a vehicle is the safest method of avoiding a tornado, but this can increase the danger in many situations. Other myths are that tornadoes can skip houses, always travel in a predictable direction, always extend visibly from the ground to the cloud, and increase in intensity with increasing width; all of these have some basis in fact, but they are certainly not always true. Finally, some people believe that tornadoes only occur in North America, do not occur in winter, are attracted to mobile home parks, or that some areas are protected from tornadoes by rivers, mountains, valleys, tall buildings or other geographical or man-made features; the truth is that tornadoes can occur almost anywhere at any time if the conditions are right. Some geographic areas are just more prone to these conditions than others.
Source
Tornadoes are subject to a great deal of speculation and misinformation. Some tornado myths are remaining bits of folklore which are still passed down by word of mouth. The idea that the southwest corner of a structure is the safest place in a tornado was first published in the 1800s, and is still quoted today despite being thoroughly debunked in the 1960s and 70s. Many tornado myths are actively spread by mediaNews media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
outlets. News reporters unfamiliar with the science behind tornadoes tend to repeat "common wisdom" which has since been proven incorrect. One notable instance of mass media spreading a tornado myth was after the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, where TIME magazine ran a caption on a picture suggesting that highway overpasses were safer tornado shelters than houses. The spread of some myths can even be attributed to sensationalism
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
in the media or in popular tornado-themed movies such as The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
and Twister
Twister
-Entertainment:* Twister , a comedy film starring Suzy Amis and Crispin Glover* Twister , a disaster film starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton** Twister...Ride it Out, a ride in Universal Studios Florida based on the film...
.
Safest location in a building
John Park Finley
John Park Finley was an American meteorologist and Army Signal Service officer who was the first person to study tornadoes intensively...
, a pioneer in the field of tornado research. While it was a revolutionary book containing many breakthrough ideas, it contained a few ideas which have since been proven false. One of these was the idea that the northeast or east part of a structure was the least safe, and should be avoided when seeking shelter from a tornado. This advice was unrefuted and heeded by many until the 1960s.
This myth was derived from two misconceptions: First, that tornadoes always travel in a northeasterly direction, and second, that debris from a structure will be carried away in the direction of the tornado's propagation, leaving anyone taking shelter on the side of the structure facing the tornado's approach unharmed. The seriousness of these misconceptions began to be revealed in the 1960s and 1970s, when surveys of major tornado damage in residential areas showed that the section of a house in the direction of the tornado's approach is actually the least safe. Additionally, many tornadoes have traveled in directions other than northeasterly, including the Jarrell Tornado (F5 on the Fujita scale
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
), which moved south-southwesterly. Because determining a tornado's direction of approach can take time away from seeking shelter, official advice is to seek shelter in an interior room on the lowest floor of a building, under a staircase, I-beam
I-beam
-beams, also known as H-beams, W-beams , rolled steel joist , or double-T are beams with an - or H-shaped cross-section. The horizontal elements of the "" are flanges, while the vertical element is the web...
, or sturdy piece of furniture if possible.
Opening windows to reduce tornado damage
One of the oldest pieces of tornado folklore is the idea that tornadoes do most of their damage due to the lower atmospheric pressureAtmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted into a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of Earth . In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point...
at the center of a tornado, which causes the house to explode outward. As the theory goes, opening windows helps to equalize the pressure.
The source of this myth is from the appearance of some destroyed structures after violent tornadoes. When one wall receives the extreme pressure of tornado winds, it will likely collapse inward. This then leads to a considerable outward pressure on the three remaining walls, which fall outwards as the roof falls down, creating the impression of a house which has exploded. Indeed, damage surveys of "exploded" houses usually show at least one wall which has blown inward. Additionally, if the roof is lifted before any walls fail, the walls can fall in any direction. If they fall outward, this structure can also appear to have exploded.
In even the most violent tornadoes, there is only a pressure drop of about 10%, which is about 1.4 pound per square inches (9.7 kPa). Not only can this difference be equalized in most structures in approximately three seconds, but if a significant pressure differential manages to form, the windows will break first, equalizing the pressure. Additionally, as the windows are the most fragile parts of a house, in a significant tornado flying debris will likely break enough windows to equalize any pressure difference fairly quickly. Regardless of any pressure drop, the direct effects of a tornado's winds are enough to cause damage to a house in all but the weakest tornadoes.
Current advice is that opening windows in advance of a tornado wastes time that could be spent seeking shelter. Also, being near windows is very dangerous during a severe weather event, possibly exposing people to flying glass.
Using highway overpasses as shelter
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
for shelter from a tornado occurred in Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...
on April 10, 1979. A man stuck in a traffic jam as the tornado approached left his vehicle and lay flat on an embankment beneath an overpass, surviving a violent tornado with only minor injuries. In 1991, a highly publicized event occurred in which a television crew and several others survived the passage of a tornado near El Dorado, Kansas
El Dorado, Kansas
El Dorado is a city situated along the Walnut River in the central part of Butler County, located in south-central Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 13,021. It is the county seat and most populous city of Butler County...
by huddling underneath an overpass, bracing themselves against steel girders. The sensational footage taken by the television crew was broadcast across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. This and other media coverage helped to fuel the myth that the underside of bridges or overpasses are good shelters when a tornado strikes.
However, in the El Dorado tornado, several unique factors came together to protect the film crew and others seeking shelter under the bridge. The tornado did not pass directly over the filmed bridge, but instead tracked slightly south of the area, exposing the people to winds less damaging than those in the tornado core. The overpass had an unusual design which included a hollow crawlspace at the top of the embankment, which was large enough to allow people to crawl inside and hold the exposed girders against the wind. This design also allowed for added protection against high-speed debris.
These cases led to a false belief among many that highway overpasses were good shelter from a tornado. The belief was so strong among some that, in at least one case during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, an individual left her well-built home and drove several miles to seek shelter under an overpass, in the mistaken belief that she was safer there than inside her house. During the outbreak, a violent tornado directly struck three highway overpasses, and at each one there was a fatality. All of the individuals received significant injuries from tornadic debris, and several were swept into the tornado itself. By contrast, the same tornado struck approximately 2,000 homes in Moore, Oklahoma
Moore, Oklahoma
Moore is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma and is part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. The population was 55,081 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh largest city in the state of Oklahoma....
, completely destroying many, yet resulting in only 3 fatalities.
From scientific lessons learned, especially in the wake of the 1999 Oklahoma outbreak, meteorologists insist that overpasses are insufficient shelter from tornado winds and debris, and may be the worst place to be during a violent tornado. The embankment under an overpass is higher than the surrounding terrain, and the wind speed increases with height. Additionally, the overpass design may create a "wind-tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
" effect under the span, further increasing the wind speed. Many overpasses are completely exposed underneath and most lack hanging girders or a crawlspace-like area to provide sufficient protection from debris, which can travel at high speeds even in weak tornadoes. People stopping underneath overpasses block the flow of traffic, putting others in danger.
Escaping a tornado in a vehicle
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
) provides a reasonable degree of protection from all but the most violent tornadoes. Underground or above-ground tornado shelters, as well as extremely strong structures such as bank vault
Bank vault
A bank vault is a secure space where money, valuables, records, and documents can be stored. It is intended to protect their contents from theft, unauthorized use, fire, natural disasters, and other threats, just like a safe...
s, offer almost complete protection. Cars, on the other hand, can be heavily damaged by even weak tornadoes, and in violent tornadoes they can be thrown large distances, even into buildings. High-profile vehicles such as bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es and tractor trailers are even more vulnerable to high winds.
There are many reasons to avoid cars when a tornado is imminent. Severe thunderstorms which produce tornadoes can produce flooding rains, hail, and strong winds far from the tornado-producing area, all of which can make driving difficult or even impossible. Some tornadoes move faster than cars, even when the road is clear and flat. Any of these situations can leave drivers stranded in the path of the tornado far from substantial shelter. When coupled with driver panic, they may also result in dangerous but preventable accidents. This situation would be magnified greatly if all the residents of a warned area left in their vehicles, which would cause traffic jams and accidents as the tornado approached. Numerous victims of the deadly Wichita Falls, Texas tornado
Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak
The 1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak was a tornado event that occurred on April 10, 1979 near the Red River Valley. It's most noted for the F4 tornado that hit Wichita Falls, Texas and is commonly referred to as "Terrible Tuesday" by many meteorologists...
on April 10, 1979 died in their vehicles in such a situation.
If a person spots a nearby tornado while driving, the official National Weather Service directive has been for the individual to abandon the car and seek shelter in a ditch or culvert, or substantial shelter if nearby. Far-away, highly-visible tornadoes, however, can be successfully fled from at right angles (90-degrees) from its direction of apparent movement. Despite dangers inherent with operating a vehicle during a tornado, given sufficient advanced warning, mobile home residents have been instructed by the National Weather Service to drive to the nearest secure shelter during a warning.
Tornadoes "skipping" houses
Several different phenomena have lent credence to the idea that tornadoes "skip". Tornadoes vary in intensity along their path, sometimes significantly. If a tornado were causing damage, then weakened to the point where it could cause no damage, followed by a re-intensification, it would appear as if it "skipped" a section. Occasionally with violent tornadoes, a small suction vortexMultiple vortex tornado
A multiple-vortex tornado is a tornado that contains several vortices rotating around, inside of, and as part of the main vortex. These multiple vortices are somewhat similar to eyewall mesovortices found in intense tropical cyclones...
will completely destroy a structure next to another building which appears almost unscathed and apparently "skipped".
It is true that a house that is between two destroyed homes can be "untouched", but this is not the result of a tornado "skipping" as was previously thought. After the 1974 tornado Super Outbreak
Super Outbreak
The Super Outbreak is the second largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the tornado outbreak of April 25–28, 2011...
, Dr. Ted Fujita studied many films of tornadoes from that day. Included in his review was damage and tornado film footage of F4 and F5 tornadoes. Fujita concluded that multiple vortices, highly volatile tornadic satellites which orbit the parent tornado at high speeds, are responsible for making tornadoes appear to "skip houses".
Weaker tornadoes, and at times even stronger tornadoes, can occasionally "lift", meaning their circulation has ceased to affect the ground. The result is an erratic and discontinuous linear damage path, leading to the term skipping tornado
Skipping tornado
A skipping tornado is a vaguely defined term which refers to a tornado which has a discontinuous damage path. This may be due to several factors:#The tornado actually lifting from the surface...
. These discontinuities tend to occur over areas larger than the small neighborhoods where the "house-skipping" effect is observed, except possibly at the time of the birth and organization of the tornado.
Association of size with intensity
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
/EF4
Enhanced Fujita Scale
The Enhanced Fujita Scale rates the strength of tornadoes in the United States based on the damage they cause.Implemented in place of the Fujita scale introduced in 1971 by Ted Fujita, it began operational use on February 1, 2007. The scale has the same basic design as the original Fujita scale:...
or higher) had a maximum width of 300 feet (91.4 m). Also, tornadoes typically change shape during the course of their lifespan, further complicating any attempt to classify how dangerous a tornado is as it is occurring.
Appearing to reach the ground
It is commonly and mistakenly thought that if the condensation funnel of a tornado does not reach the ground, then the tornado can not cause substantial damage. This is another deadly myth. A tornado appears to be on the ground only when its condensation funnel descends to the surface, but this is misleading. The circular, violent surface winds, and not the condensation funnel, is what both defines the tornado and causes the tornado's damage. Spotters should keep sight of swirling debris directly under any visible funnel or rotating wall cloud, even if such structures appear to not descend entirely to the ground. Additionally, tornadoes can be wrapped in rainRain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
, and thus may not be visible at all.
Direction of travel
It has been thought in the past that tornadoes moved almost exclusively in a northeasterly direction. This is false, and a potentially deadly myth which can lead to a false sense of security, especially for unaware spotters or chasers. Although the majority of tornadoes move northeast, tornadoes can arrive from any direction. A deadly F5 tornado that hit the city of Jarrell, TexasJarrell, Texas
Jarrell is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States and is located about 12 miles north of Georgetown, Texas or about 38 miles north of Austin. and 1,448 according to a 2008 Census Bureau estimate.. The total population is 984 according to the 2010 census.-History:Founded in 1909 by real...
in 1997 moved to the southwest - directly opposite of commonly expected storm motion. Additionally, tornadoes can shift without notice due to storm motion changes or effects on the tornado itself from factors such as its rear flank downdraft
Rear flank downdraft
The rear flank downdraft or RFD is a region of dry air wrapping around the back of a mesocyclone in a supercell thunderstorm. These areas of descending air are thought to be essential in the production of many supercellular tornadoes...
.
Geographical scope
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The majority of tornadoes do occur in the United States; however, tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and other areas apart from the United States and Canada experience tornadoes on a regular basis.
Near rivers, valleys, mountains or other terrain features
There are many misconceptions involving the effect of terrain features—bodies of water, mountains, valleys, and others—on tornado formation and behavior. Most of these beliefs stem from the idea that tornadoes cannot cross or form near these terrain features. While most modes of tornadogenesisTornadogenesis
Tornadogenesis is the process by which a tornado forms. There are many types of tornadoes, and each type of tornado can have several different methods of formation. Scientific study is ongoing, as some aspects of tornado formation remain a mystery....
are poorly understood, no terrain feature can prevent the occurrence of a tornado.
Small bodies of water such as lakes and rivers are insignificant obstacles to tornadoes. Violent tornadoes have formed over rivers and lakes—including the 1878 Wallingford tornado and the 1899 New Richmond tornado—as well as crossing over them after forming elsewhere. More than a dozen tornadoes have crossed the Mississippi River in recorded history. Regarding mountains, tornadoes have been observed on terrain as high as 12000 feet (3,657.6 m) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
, and have been known to pass up a 3000 feet (914.4 m) ridge unaffected.
These myths have been debunked in the past. The devastating Tri-State Tornado
Tri-State Tornado
The Tri-State Tornado of Wednesday, March 18, 1925, was the deadliest tornado in U.S. history. With 695 confirmed fatalities, the tornado killed more than twice as many as the second deadliest, the 1840 Great Natchez Tornado...
crossed two major rivers along a record 219 miles (352.4 km) or longer path. In 1944, a violent tornado cut a continuous path at least 60 miles (96.6 km) through heavily forested and mountainous territory in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, killing at least 100 people. A hill known as Burnett's Mound on the southwest end of Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
was purported to protect the city from tornadoes, according to an old legend. In 1966, an F5 tornado passed directly over the hill through downtown, killing 18 people and causing $100 million (1966 USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
) in damage. During the Super Outbreak
Super Outbreak
The Super Outbreak is the second largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the tornado outbreak of April 25–28, 2011...
, violent tornadoes crossed dozens of rivers, including the Ohio
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
, as well as crossing over mountains and ridges hundreds of feet high.
Attraction to mobile homes and/or trailer parks
The idea that manufactured housingManufactured housing
Manufactured housing is a type of prefabricated housing that is largely assembled in factories and then transported to sites of use...
units, or mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
s, attract tornadoes has been around for decades. This may appear to be true at first from looking at tornado fatality statistics: from 2000–2008, 539 people were killed by tornadoes in the US, with more than half (282) of those deaths in mobile homes. Only around 6.8% of homes in the US are "manufactured/mobile homes".
However, it is highly unlikely that single-story structures such as mobile homes can have a substantial effect on tornado development or evolution. More people are killed in trailer parks because mobile homes are less able to withstand high winds than permanent structures. Winds which can demolish or roll a mobile home may only cause roof damage to a typical one- or two-family permanent residence. Another likely contributing factor to the continued propagation of this myth is confirmation bias
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.David Perkins, a geneticist, coined the term "myside bias" referring to a preference for "my" side of an issue...
: whenever a new instance of a tornado hitting a mobile home park occurs, media outlets report on it more extensively, ignoring damage to the surrounding area which may not have produced as many casualties.
Downtown areas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
, St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
—have been struck by violent tornadoes (F4
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
or stronger).
Tornadoes may seem rare in downtown areas because downtown areas cover such a small geographical area. Considering the size of a central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
is very small compared to the city limits, tornadoes will strike outside of the downtown area more often.
The misconception, like most, has a small basis in truth. Research has been done in a few metropolitan areas suggesting that the urban heat island
Urban heat island
An urban heat island is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas. The phenomenon was first investigated and described by Luke Howard in the 1810s, although he was not the one to name the phenomenon. The temperature difference usually is larger at night...
effect may discourage the formation of weak tornadoes in city centers, due to turbulent warm air disrupting their formation. This does not apply to significant tornadoes, however, and it is possible that the presence of tall buildings may actually intensify storms which move into downtown areas.
During winter
Because they generally require warm weather to form, tornadoes are uncommon in winter in the mid-latitudes. However, they can form, and tornadoes have even been known to travel over snow-covered surfaces. Deadly tornadoes are no exception: from 2000 to 2008, 135 of the 539 US tornado deaths occurred during meteorological winter (December through February). Tornadoes in winter may be more dangerous, since they tend to move faster than tornadoes at other times of the year.See also
- List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
- Tornado recordsTornado recordsThis article lists various tornado records. The most extreme tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State Tornado, which roared through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It was likely an F5, though tornadoes were not ranked on any scale in that era...
- Shape of tornadoes
- Size of tornadoes
- List of tornadoes striking downtown areas
- Tornadoes of
- List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes
External links
- Tornado Myths and Facts National Climatic Data CenterNational Climatic Data CenterThe United States National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina is the world's largest active archive of weather data. The center became established in late 1951, with the move into the new facility occurring in early 1952....
- Tornado Myths (Tornado Pictures Website)
- Tornado Myths and Tornado Reality
- LaPorte, Texas Emergency Management (PDF)