How Do Air Masses Interact To Form A Tornado

How a Tornado Forms

Thunderstorm-

The first thing that is needed to produce a tornado is a thunderstorm. To create a thunderstorm you need to have iii things, the commencement of which is a mass of unstable air, which is the result of warm moist air in the lower temper and cold dry out air in the upper atmosphere. The 2d matter needed for a thunderstorm to develop is the force, which mixes the warm and cold air causing the instability. This force tin can be wind from mountains, fronts or in air convergence like that found where bodies of water and state come across. The warm air rises from the lower atmosphere causing an updraft, which mixes with the heavier cold air. The tertiary factor that must be present for the creation of a thunderstorm is wet in the atmosphere. This happens when the moisture in the air turns into water droplets and forms clouds. These iii things together make up the cumulus stage or formation of a thunderstorm.

The second phase of a thunderstorms life cycle is the mature thunderstorm stage which is when the wet formed in the clouds is released when information technology becomes to heavy to stay up in the atmosphere and falls to earth in the form rain, snow, sleet or hail. During this stage there is an updraft of the lighter moist warm air from the ground, which keeps the thunderstorm from dissipating. While the warm air is rise there is cold dry air that is causing a down draft causing the heavy water droplets to autumn. This is as well the period when there is thunder and lightning, which is one of the more spectacular aspects of thunderstorm.

These thunderstorms are classified into several categories including single jail cell, multicell cluster, multicell line, and supercell storms. The first of these and the weakest is the single cell storm, which is not as common and does not produce much if whatever harm. The second type of storm I listed is the multicell cluster, which is the well-nigh common type of storm we experience and can concluding several hours due to its power to continually develop. The multicell line storm is stronger than the two previously mentioned types of storms and tin pb to hail as well equally some small tornadoes.

The virtually violent storms are known every bit supercell storms, which are as well the near likely to produce tornadoes. During this blazon of storm at that place is an extremely strong updraft of warm moist Gulf air with temperatures that are usually to a higher place 75 degrees F. This gulf air interacts with the fast moving cooler northern air moving south. The last factor needed to produce the tornado is the jet stream to exist moving at least 150 mph. This sheering activeness of the 3 air masses colliding forms the tornado in the part of the tempest known equally the mesocyclone. If, in this surface area of the tornado, the air current that is rising upward in the mesocyclone starts to change management the chances of a tornado forming are very probable since this is the main force which causes the spinning action of the tornado. This directional change in wind is known as the vertical wind sheer. The more adult and faster these winds rotate the more compact they become. Every bit they get very compact they will spin faster and faster similar a effigy skater, who holds her arms close to her body to increase her rotation speed. Well-nigh tornadoes spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, although they can too reverse these past spinning anticyclonically. Because of this tendency to spin in dissimilar directions and relatively small size of a tornado most believe that the coriolos touch has very little to exercise with the directional spin of a tornado. Although these super cell storms with or without producing tornados are extremely subversive they are the least mutual of all of the storms.

The final stage of a thunderstorm is the dissipation stage. When the cold air causing the downwards draft which pushes the moisture out of the clouds starts to become more ascendant than the warm air carrying the moisture up the tempest will begin to dissipate.

Although it is not known why in one storm there is a tornado and in another similar tempest there isn�t ane by studying patterns in the conditions nosotros are becoming ameliorate able to predict the likelihood of a tornado being produced from a severe weather tempest.

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Fujita Calibration

Source: https://people.uwec.edu/jolhm/eh/barnier/tornado.htm