Tornadoes As The Most Iconic Symbols Of Nature

Tornadoes are one of the better recognizable natural hazards. They can be both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. They can be extremely weak or very powerful and can be identified and ranked as anywhere from an EF0-EF5. They occur mostly in an area of the United States called tornado alley and Dixie alley. This research essay will explore how tornadoes are formed, the Enhanced Fujitsu scale, which used to identify the intensity, tornado and Dixie alley, and two famous tornadoes.

Twisters originate from a storm known called a supercell. Supercell thunderstorms form when warm and moist is able to break through an overlying layer. This air moves upwards through cool and dry air. The updraft of the Northern Hemisphere is tilted northeast and rotates counterclockwise. Warm air falls into the stratosphere and spreads to the side in the anvil. The anvil is the highest part of a cumulonimbus cloud. Tornadoes tend to form within large masses of rotating air. An updraft with a radius between one and three miles may begin rotating at speeds of around 50 miles per hour. The masses of rotating air are known as mesocyclones. Mesocyclones are the middle part of the storm. Around the northeast portion of the storm, rain escapes the updraft into the middle dry air, this cools the storm and causes it to sink. The rotation of the supercell pulls rain and cool air to the southwest area of the storm. While closer to the ground, hot air and air that was cooled by rain meet in a turbulent boundary. This boundary is known as the gust front. The gust front is where the wall cloud and tornado tend to form and touchdown Mesocyclones tend to die of a lot of rain that cuts off its updraft close to the earth’s surface from the extremely cold air that flows out of the middle of the downdraft of the storm. However, if the supercell is persistent enough, a new mesocyclone a few miles from the dying one will form to the southeast. It will form along the gust front and another tornado can occur. Supercells can form over oceans and other bodies of water. If the tornado comes down over the water, these are known as waterspouts. The Enhanced Fujita scale is a tool used to analyze and verify the intensity of a tornado.

The Fujita scale was created by Dr. T. Theodore Fujita. He was a meteorologist at the University of Chicago. His primary goals in developing the Fujita scale were to rank and put tornadoes into a category based on a tornado’s intensity, size, and estimated wind speed along with damage caused by the tornado. Ever since its creation, the Fujita scale has become one of the most well-known creations in the weather database. It has recorded every tornado in the U.S. since 1950. In 2007, the Fujita scale was replaced by the Enhanced Fujita scale. However, tornadoes that took place when the EF scale was created were able to be combined with tornadoes that occurred in the Fujita scale for accurate mapping and analysis. The EF scale ranks tornadoes from EF0-EF5.

EF0 are the weakest tornadoes, these tornadoes have estimated wind speeds of 65-85 miles per hour. There will be light damage. For example, there could be damage to chimneys in houses, branches fall off trees, and small trees could be knocked over. From 1950-2016, there have been 58,274 tornadoes, the most common ones being EF0s. An EF1 tornado has an estimated wind speed of 74-112 miles per hour. EF1 tornadoes have moderate damage. This type of damage can include things like surfaces peeled off of roofs, mobile homes being pushed off of foundations or even overturned, and moving vehicles pushed off of the road. EF2 tornadoes have an estimated wind speed of 113-157 miles per hour. These tornadoes can give considerable damage. Roofs being torn off of frame houses, mobile homes being destroyed, and most trees being uprooted are examples of the damage an EF2 tornado can do. EF3 tornadoes can have a wind speed of 158-206 miles per hour. EF3s can give severe damage. Examples of the damage caused by an EF3 tornado would be things like roofs and walls torn off of well-constructed homes, and overturning trains. EF4 tornadoes have an estimated wind speed of 207-260. EF4 tornadoes give devastating damage. Things like well-constructed houses will be leveled, cars will be thrown and large misses will be created are types of damage caused from an EF4. The final type on the EF scale is an EF5 tornado. These tornadoes have an estimated wind speed of 261-318 miles per hour. These tornadoes can give incredible damage to the area where they touchdown. Strong framed houses will be completely levelled and swept away, and car-sized misses will fly through the air. This scale is able to help predict the intensity and damage to an area where a tornado will occur. There are two areas where tornadoes occur mostly in the United States. These areas are known as tornado and Dixie alley.

The term “tornado alley” was used in 1952 by Air Force meteorologists Major Ernest J. Fawbush and Captain C. Robert Miller. They used this term as a title in their research project where they studied severe weather in parts of Oklahoma. Tornado alley primarily includes the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Although sometimes, the states of Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are sometimes included in tornado alley. There is another area where there is a high frequency of tornadoes. This area is in the southeast portion of the United States and includes the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. This area is known as “Dixie Alley.” In these alleys, tornadoes are predicted by seeing how many tornadoes will appear in an area of around 10,000 square miles. In tornado alley, Kansas is the state with the highest odds to get tornadoes at 11 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. While Nebraska and Indiana are the states with the lowest odds to get a tornado at 7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. In Dixie Alley, tornadoes are predicted to occur the most in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama at 10 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. While Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas are areas where tornadoes have the lowest chance to occur at 8 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. From 2007-2016 in the tornado alley, there were 2,885 tornadoes that occurred. All of these tornadoes caused 69 deaths and 1,123 people to be injured. In Dixie alley, the amount of tornadoes compared to tornado alley were around twenty percent lower. Dixie alley had 2,776 tornadoes from 2007 to 2016. However, Dixie alley had a 502 fatalities compared to 69 in tornado alley. They also had 6,604 injuries. These areas are where many iconic tornadoes have occurred.

On April 3-4, 1974, 148 tornadoes touched down in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York. To this date, this outbreak is also the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded. It had 30 EF4/EF5 confirmed tornadoes. The town of Xenia, Ohio was the area most affected by a tornado during this outbreak. This tornado touched down around 4:40 in the afternoon and was an EF5. It caused the deaths of 34 people and over 75 million dollars in property damage. This damage included five out of the eleven schools in Xenia. This tornado remains one of the most iconic tornadoes that occurred in the state of Ohio.

In May 2013, there was a tornado outbreak that occurred in the Great Plains. One of the most well-known tornadoes that occurred in this outbreak took place on May 20, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma, an extremely dangerous EF5 tornado touched down. It had wind speeds of 210 miles per hour and 1.08 miles wide. It was on the ground for around 40 minutes and caused 24 deaths and 212 injuries. The Moore tornado also caused more than 2 billion dollars in damages.

Overall, tornadoes remain one of the most iconic symbols of nature. Their powerful appearance, causable damage, and strong winds can make for an intense experience if one is ever caught in the path of a tornado. The formation of a tornado is also something that is critical to learn as you can be prepared if the clouds begin to show signs of a tornado. The EF scale of rating tornadoes is also capable of helping people be prepared and informed of what kind of tornado will be touching down. Tornadoes occur mostly in the Great Plains in an area known as tornado alley. Two iconic tornadoes that have occurred in this area were the Xenia, Ohio tornado of 1974 and the Moore, Oklahoma tornado of 2013. One should not underestimate the power that these incredible forces of nature have.