User:Gerrycheevers/tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air, regarded to be the windiest phenomenon on the Earth (besides Rush Limbaugh). They are also referred to as twisters, cyclones, or third thing. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes including large funnels, huge cones, gigantic triangles, and big upside-down pyramids. Most such have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour and are 250 feet across or less, although some have been known to reach speeds and proportions great enough to threaten A-list celebrities such as Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. Waterspouts are regarded by some meteorologists to be true tornadoes, while other meteorologists absolutely do not consider them to be tornadoes, thank you very much. Other cyclone-like phenomena that exist in nature include dust devils, fire whirls, whirly-birds, soul-consuming maelstroms, and . The popular board game Twister is based on the intertwined contortions seen among the wreckage in tornado-damaged areas.
Tornadoes have been witnessed on every continent except Antarctica, which is why penguins remain the only true flightless bird. The vast majority of cyclones occur in the "Tornado Alley" region of the midwestern United States. This area is sparsely populated, mostly as a result of being blown away by recurring intense winds. There are many methods of ranking tornado strength; one of the most widely used is the Fujita scale. This scale originated in 1971 when a particularly violent tornado picked up and threw a heavyset Japanese-American man by the name of Hank Fujita. By the time Fujita landed, he had traveled over 2 miles. Miraculously he survived, and meteorologists began ranking cyclone strength in terms of the distance a tornado could toss Hank Fujita. A small storm could achieve a Fujita distance of one mile (an F1), while the strongest recorded twisters are thought to be capable of hurling Fujita over 5 miles (an F5).
Etymology
The word tornado originates from the Spanish word tronada, which (like the vast majority of words in the Spanish language) refers to a dish of meat and cheese wrapped in a corn tortilla. This in turn was taken from the Latin tonare, referring to a gladiator from Roman Empire times who was famous for spinning in circles after victory in battle. While both of these terms are similar to the word for "to turn", etymology experts consider this connection to be wishful thinking, and prefer the tenuous connections to spinning presented earlier in the article (see Etymology section).
History
Before the advent of photography, drawings of dark triangles. Kansas wizard of oz
Definition
Funnel Cloud
Outbreaks
Characteristics
Size and Shape
Appearance
Rotation
Lifecycle
Types
Waterspout
Landspout
Similar circulations
Tasmanian devil