A tornado is a violently rotating column of air touching the ground, usually attached to the base of a thunderstorm.  They are most common in the Great Plains/Midwest area and in the spring/summer months.  This is due to the flat topography of the area.  Tornadoes can move in any direction.  Different types include rope tornadoes, cone tornadoes, wedge tornadoes, multi-vortex and satellite tornadoes, waterspouts, and land spouts.

tornadoes

Tornadoes have different classifications.

EF0-winds 65-85 mph : shallow rooted trees are pushed over

EF1-winds 86-110 mph : mobile homes are overturned or damaged

EF2-winds 111-135 mph : roof damage, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped

EF3-winds 136-165 mph : severe damage to homes, first floor walls may fall

EF4-winds 166-200 mph : homes and cars swept away

EF5-winds over 200 mph : incredible damage and high death tolls

- Wind speeds are affected by instability.

-a tornado watch means conditions are right for a tornado to form; a tornado warning means a tornado has been spotted

- Formation: 1.) a large thunderstorm forms 2.) changes in wind direction and speed cause horizontal swirling 3.) the funnel of swirling air sucks up warm air from the ground 4.) the funnel stretches towards the ground and eventually touches down, becoming a tornado

It is most dangerous to be in a mobile home, in a car, out outdoors during a tornado.  if possible, seek shelter in a basement or stairwell.

Storms

They consist of cumulonimbus clouds and can be in the developing, mature, or dissipating stage.  Hail can form depending on the size and severity of the storm.  Lightning is caused by negative charges being discharged from a cloud and comes in a few different types.

Thunderstorms are a violent, short-lived weather disturbance often including thunder, lightning, or hail.  There are around 2000 thunderstorms in progress at all times.

-Types of lightning include cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, and cloud to air.

-Thunder is caused by lightning passing through the air.

-Thunderstorms are most common in the southeastern US in spring & summer months.

-Thunderstorms happen when hot, moist air rises quickly to cooler parts of the atmosphere. There, the air cools, and clouds and rain form. Lightning, which is a form of electricity, develops inside the clouds. As the lightning heats the air, it causes it to expand.

-Weaker thunderstorms travel with, or slightly to the left of the average wind in the cloud layer but stronger thunderstorms can move almost at right-angles to the flow. -Stages: Towering cumulus- clouds are piled and fluffy. Mature cumulus- clouds have hit the tropopause and have taken on anvil shape.  Dissipating- storm no longer has supply of moist air and begins to dissipate.

The best place to seek shelter in a sever thunderstorm is inside of a building.  Avoid trees and water.

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The most dangerous places to be in a thunderstorm are on a golf course, a boat, or near a tree.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are a tropical storm that have reached a constant wind speed of 74 mph or higher.  

- Formation : tropical disturbance - warm air from the ocean condenses into clouds and begins to form a circulating pattern; tropical depression - wind speeds 23-39 mph; tropical storm - winds between 40-73 mph; hurricane - wind greater than 74 mph

- Parts : the calm eye in the center, the eye wall where the winds and rains are the strongest, and the rain bands which spin out from the center and give the storm its size

- There are no hurricanes currently.

- A storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tides

- Hurricanes most often occur June-November and on the southeast/mid-atlantic coasts

- Hurricanes are classified as Category 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.  This is based on wind speeds and severity.

- Hurricanes travel east to west.