I used to live in Tornado Alley... a tornado watch means that the weather conditions mean it is very likely that a tornado will form in an area. A tornado warning means a tornado has touched down nearby.
You could say that a tornado is a kind of very fast spinning wind that sometimes happens during a thunderstorm that can wreck houses.
If you mean the longest lasting tornado, the duration was 3 hours and 29 minutes. This was the infamous Tri-State tornado of 1925. It also holds the record for longest damage path (219 miles), fastest forward speed (73 mph), and highest death toll (695) of any U.S. tornado.
Severe thunderstorms have the potential of producing a tornado with little or no advanced tornado warning.
No. The damage tornadoes do varies widely depending on how strong they are and where they hit. A tornado that stays over open country will cause a lot less damage than one that hits a city. There are six levels of tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which uses damage to rate tornado strength. Here are those categories with typical damage and frequency in the past 20 years in the U.S:EF0: peak winds 65-85 mph. Some roof tiles and siding peeled away. Tree limbs broken with shallow rooted trees uprooted. Account for 62% of tornadoes and 0.5% of tornado deaths.EF1: peak winds 86-110 mph. House roofs severely damaged. Trailers overturned or partially destroyed. Windows broken. Account for 27% of tornadoes and 5% of tornado deaths.EF2: peak winds 111-135 mph. Roofs torn from well-built houses with most walls left standing. Trailers completely destroyed. Large trees snapped and uprooted. Account for 8% of tornadoes and 12% of tornado deaths.EF3: peak winds 136-165 mph. Roofs and walls torn from well-built homes. Large vehicles tossed. Most trees in a forest uprooted. Account for 2.5% of tornadoes and 31% of tornado deaths.EF4: Peak winds 166-200 mph. Well-built houses completely collapse. Trees debarked. Asphalt peeled from roads. Account for 0.5% of tornadoes and 26% of tornado deaths.EF5: peak winds over 200 mph. Well-built houses completely obliterated and swept away, leaving bare foundations. reinforced concrete structures severely damaged. Account for 0.05% of tornadoes and 25% of tornado deaths.
The size of a tornado, or its width is determined by how wide the area of damage is. The rating of a tornado, which is not dependent on size (though there is some correlation) is based on the severity of the damage caused.
This question can be interpreted in a few ways. Tornadoes can occur and cause damage just about anywhere in the world that gets thunderstorms. The area along with a tornado causes damage is called its damage path. The longest damage path (distance that tornado traveled) on record was 219 miles. The widest damage path (how big the actual tornado was) was 2.5 miles.
A hurricane affects a much wider area while a tornado can cause more severe damage in a small area.
No. A hurricane will produce more damage overall because it affects a larger area, though on a localized scale the damage from a tornado is often more severe.
It is possible. There is one record of a weak tornado causing minor damage in the Seattle area.
It depends on the intensity and size of the tornado or hurricane. Generally, hurricanes tend to cause more widespread damage due to their larger size and longer duration. However, intense tornadoes can also cause significant damage in a localized area with extremely high winds.
Yes. A hurricane affects a much larger area than a tornado and so will likely cause more damage overall. Tornado damage is generally more severe than hurricane damage, but it is limited to a small area. There have been far more hurricanes than tornadoes that have caused more than $1 billion in damage.
Damage can range from Minor roof damage and broken tree limbs in a very weak tornado to the complete obliteration of well built structures. For more details see the link below.
a tornado
The Waco tornado was an F5, meaning that houses were completely destroyed with some of the swept clean off their foundations.
Generally the stronger the tornado, the more severe the damage it causes. A large tornado can affect a larger area than a small tornado and therefore cause a greater quantity of damage, though it is not necessarily more severe.
The eye of a tornado is actually a calm area with mostly clear skies. The most damage in a tornado occurs in the surrounding eyewall, where the strongest winds and most violent weather conditions are present.