When two tornadoes collide, they can either merge into a single, larger tornado or one tornado can absorb the other. The interaction between the two tornadoes can be complex and unpredictable, resulting in changes in direction, intensity, and size. The overall impact will depend on various factors such as the size and strength of each tornado.
No. Cyclones can produce tornadoes, but not the other way around. A cyclone is a large scale system that can produce smaller storm cells. A tornado is a small scale vortex that results from such a cell.
The most common sorts of damage include downed trees, damaged roofs, and collapsed sheds and garages. Only a small percent of tornadoes cause catastrophic damage.
Yes. Tornadoes have hit airports. When this happens it often results in heavy damage to airplanes.
Tornadoes, particularly strong ones, can cause a lot of damage which must be repaired. This is expensive, sometimes extremely. The cost of damage from the Joplin, Missouri tornado, for example, is $2.8 billion, more than 20 times the city budget. Businesses and parks can be destroyed or have to close down, which results in lost revenue. This results partly from destroyed infrastructure as tornadoes can take out power lines and, in some cases, bridges and roads.
In short, thunderstorm forms from masses of warm, moist air rising high into the atmosphere, which results in the formation of towering cumulonimbus clouds. Tornadoes are a product of rotating air currents in violent thunderstorms.
In the U.S. hail rarely results in fatalities, while fatalities due to wind and tornadoes are more common. So the SPC probably regards wind and tornadoes as a more serious threat.
The Tornado History Project has a number of good maps for tornadoes in the Unites States from the years 1950-2010 including Alabama. However, in that time period Alabama has had nearly 1700 tornadoes. Trying to view them all at once results in an unreadable map. You may want to try more specific search parameters, such as a specific set of years.
Tornadoes in the U.S. are called tornadoes.
That is difficult to determine. Since individual towns are small targets tornado activity tends to be sporadic. Since records began in 1950 there have been 4 recorded tornadoes in Thornton, all in a period running from the early '80s to the mid '90s This results in a frequency of tornadoes somewhere between once every 4 years and once every 15 years.
When cold air from Canada pushes into warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico the warmer, less dense air gets forced upwards. This often results in thunderstorms. Under the right conditions these storms can produce tornadoes.
The 3 general categories of tornadoes are weak tornadoes (EF0 and EF1), strong tornadoes (EF2 and EF3), and violent tornadoes (EF4 and EF5). These categories are based on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, which rates tornado intensity based on the damage they cause.