research books about tornadoes

Severe Convective Storms and Tornadoes

Observations and Dynamics

• © 2013
• Howard B. Bluestein 0

School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA

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• Focused, comprehensive reference on recent research on severe convective storms and tornadoes
• It will contain many illustrations of severe storm phenomena from mobile
• Doppler radars, operational Doppler radars, photographs, and numerical simulations

Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)

Part of the book sub series: Environmental Sciences (ENVIRONSCI)

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Extreme Convection vs. Extreme Rainfall: a Global View

Rediscovery of the doldrums in storm-resolving simulations over the tropical Atlantic

An environmental and polarimetric study of the 19 November 2015 supercell and multiple-vortex tornado in Marechal Cândido Rondon, southern Brazil

• Atmospherics
• Severre convective storms
• meteorology
• remote sensing/photogrammetry

Table of contents (7 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Howard B. Bluestein

The basic equations

Ordinary-cell convective storms, mesoscale convective systems, forecasting and future work, back matter.

From the reviews:

Authors and Affiliations

About the author.

I have been funded by the National Science Foundation continuously since 1977 to study various aspects of severe convective storms and tornadoes. My research group pioneered the use of instruments to study tornadoes close up from a ground-based mobile platform. In particular, for the past twenty years we have been using increasingly sophisticated mobile Doppler radars mounted on vans and trucks to determine the fine-scale structure of tornadoes and to document their formation. To a lesser extent, I have also used numerical models to study the behavior of severe convective storms using controlled numerical simulations. I have single-authored the trade book TORNADO ALLEY: MONSTER STORMS OF THE GREAT PLAINS (Oxford Univ. Press) and a two-volume textbook SYNOPTIC-DYNAMIC METEOROLOGY IN MIDLATITUDES (Oxford Univ. Press). I wrote these books while here at the University of Oklahoma and while on various sabbaticals and other leaves at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. I have also authored or co-authored 89 refereed journal articles and seven chapters in books or monographs in addition to ten contributions to encyclopedias and other books; the subject of a majority of these publications is in the area of severe convective storms. A colleague of mine and I have just edited a monograph, to be published by the American Meteorological Society, honoring the career of our late graduate advisor, Fred Sanders, an expert in synoptic and mesoscale meteorology. I have been teaching a graduate-level course on convective storms approximately every other year for approximately 25 years and have made many invited presentations on this topic at scientific meetings and at other institutions

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Severe Convective Storms and Tornadoes

Book Subtitle : Observations and Dynamics

Authors : Howard B. Bluestein

Series Title : Springer Praxis Books

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-05381-8

Publisher : Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

eBook Packages : Earth and Environmental Science , Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-642-05380-1 Published: 14 June 2013

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-642-43445-7 Published: 16 July 2015

eBook ISBN : 978-3-642-05381-8 Published: 03 June 2013

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XXVII, 456

Number of Illustrations : 97 b/w illustrations, 144 illustrations in colour

Additional Information : Jointly published with Praxis Publishing, UK

Topics : Atmospheric Sciences , Meteorology , Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry , Geoecology/Natural Processes

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NSSL NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory

• Research at NSSL

NSSL Research: Tornadoes

Much about tornadoes remains a mystery. They are rare, deadly, and difficult to predict, and they can deal out millions or even billions of dollars in property damage per year. The U.S. typically has more tornadoes than anywhere else in the world, though they can occur almost anywhere. NSSL's tornado research targets ways to better understand how they form, and use that understanding to improve tornado forecasts and warnings to help save lives.

Tornado Research Areas

Tornadogenesis.

One of NSSL’s core missions is to understand severe weather and the hazards that accompany it, such as tornadoes. As such, NSSL routinely participates in field work designed to better understand them. Most recently, the TORUS project set out to use a variety of tools from several organizations in order to study this phenomena, including the use of UAVs. The goal is to study and better observe features near the ground that are thought to play a key role in tornado formation. We continue to study the vast amounts of data collected from projects like this to learn what specific ingredients thunderstorms need to form a tornado, what causes it to die, and why some rotating thunderstorms produce tornadoes and others do not.

Tornado Dynamics

NSSL researchers have created a computer model that simulates a tornado-producing thunderstorm in 3-D. We use this model to study what changes in the environment cause a thunderstorm to produce a tornado, and how the tornado and storm behaves as it encounters different weather conditions.

Most tornadoes come from rotating thunderstorms, called supercells. However, nearly 20% of all tornadoes are associated with lines of strong thunderstorms called “quasi-linear convective systems” (QLCS). QLCS tornadoes frequently occur during the late night and early morning hours when it can be more difficult to stay weather aware of severe hazards. NSSL researchers are looking for ways to detect non-supercell tornadoes more effectively.

Tornado Detection

The national network of weather radars now use dual-polarization technology , and NSSL continues to be a leader and major contributor to its ongoing scientific and engineering development. NSSL researchers discovered dual-polarization radars can detect debris from a tornado, helping forecasters pinpoint its location even at night or if it is wrapped in rain.

NSSL has a research phased array radar that also incorporates dual polarization technology, and can scan the entire sky for severe weather in less than a minute, five times faster than current weather radars. Researchers are hoping to collect more high-resolution data on developing tornadoes both in QLCS's and supercells to look for clues in radar data that a tornado is forming. Phased array radar has strong potential to aid the NWS in the forecast and warning decision process by providing new radar data more quickly.

New Tornado Detection Algorithm

Researchers at NSSL are developing the New Tornado Detection Algorithm, or NTDA, to help NWS forecasters better detect tornadoes and hail. National Weather Service forecasters currently use a Tornado Detection Algorithm which was also developed at NSSL, but as with all technology, it needed an update. The NTDA provides an operations update. It uses machine learning to evaluate storm criteria and calculates the probability of whether a tornado is present with each detection. The NTDA was trained to find tornado probabilities by looking at storm radar data from thousands of storms from 2011–2016. It is then validated against how it performs on data from 2017–2018. The algorithm takes into account multiple storm aspects, including information available from dual-polarization radar, and reviews the statistics related to each evaluated element. All of these factors are then combined by the NTDA to yield a probability of a tornado presence. The NTDA is currently being tested in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed on its performance and how NWS forecasters like the look and feel of the product.

Tornado Warning Decision Support

NSSL continues to work on an automated multi-radar, multi-sensor (MRMS) system that quickly integrates data streams from multiple radars, surface and upper air observations, lightning detection systems, and satellite and forecast models. The MRMS system was developed to produce severe weather and precipitation products for improved decision-making capability within NOAA.

NSSL's On-Demand web-based tool that helps confirm when and where tornadoes may have occurred by mapping circulations detected by radar on Google Earth satellite images. NWS forecasters can quickly review warnings and check their accuracy with this system. Emergency responders and damage surveyors have also used On-Demand to produce high-resolution street maps of affected areas, so they can more effectively begin rescue and recovery efforts and damage assessments.

NSSL and the NOAA National Weather Service collaborate to streamline moving research into practical operations. NSSL has developed severe weather warning applications and decision support systems that will make the forecasters job easier. The result will be improved NWS warning services for the public, increased detection accuracy, and longer lead times.

Tornado Forecasting

NSSL's Warn-on-Forecast project aims to create highly detailed computer weather forecast models that predict what the atmosphere will look like in the future. These models are unique because they will use the latest weather observations and radar scans to continuously re-compute forecasts. We want these forecasts to accurately predict when and where tornadoes will occur in the next hour so forecasters can issue warnings based on that forecast and give people more time to find shelter.

Tornado Preparedness

We are very involved in shaping a “Weather Ready Nation” to improve the public's preparedness for extreme weather. We are looking at ways to improve the forecast and warning system, communicate threats to the public, increase community resilience, and identify gaps in our current understanding of planning, coordination and decision-making in a community.

Tornado Climatology

Tornadoes can happen at any time of day at any time of the year. An NSSL scientist developed the Severe Thunderstorm Climatology to estimate the likelihood of severe weather events such as tornadoes on a given day in the U.S.

Past Tornado Research

2019–2020—torus.

More than 50 researchers and students deploy a wide-ranging suite of instruments to collect data on supercell thunderstorms across the Great Plains during 2019 and 2020. The TORUS project aims at understanding the relationships between severe thunderstorms and tornado formation.

2016–2018—VORTEX-SE

VORTEX-SE is a research program to understand how environmental factors characteristic of the southeastern United States affect the formation, intensity, structure, and path of tornadoes in this region. VORTEX-SE researchers also endeavor to determine the best methods for communicating forecast uncertainty related to these events to the public, and evaluate public response.

2009–2010—VORTEX2

NSSL participates in the VORTEX2 experiment, the largest tornado research project in history, to explore how, when and why tornadoes form. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Science Foundation (NSF) supported more than 100 scientists, students and staff from around the world to collect weather measurements around and under thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes.

1999—VORTEX-99

NSSL and OU conduct VORTEX-99, a small follow-on project to the original VORTEX. VORTEX-99 is operating when an F5 tornado tore through parts of south Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999. During the deadly outbreak, NWS forecasters rely on NSSL's Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) to make timely and accurate tornado warnings.

1995–1996—The First VORTEX Project

The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment (VORTEX) is a two-year project designed to answer a number of ongoing questions about the causes of tornado formation. A new mobile Doppler radar is used and provides revolutionary data on several tornadic storms. You can read more about the history of the VORTEX projects at NSSL and see an interactive, multimedia timeline on the VORTEX @ NSSL page.

1981–1984—Totable Tornado Observatory

NSSL attempts to deploy TOTO, the TOtable Tornado Observatory in the path of an oncoming tornado from 1981-1984. They are unsuccessful.

1976—Joint Doppler Operational Project

NSSL conducts the Joint Doppler Operational Project (JDOP) in 1976 to prove Doppler radar could improve the nation's ability to warn for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. This led to the decision in 1979 by the National Weather Service (NWS), U.S. Air Force's Air Weather Service, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to include Doppler capability in their future operational radars.

1975—Tornado Intercept Project

NSSL's legacy in organized field experiments begins with the Tornado Intercept Project in 1975 led by NSSL's Bob Davies-Jones. NSSL's Don Burgess provided storm intercept crews with live radar information via radio – and the term “nowcaster” was born.

May 24, 1973—Tornado Vortex Signature identified

An NSSL team intercepts a storm being scanned by the NSSL Doppler radar. The team documents the entire life cycle of a tornado on film. Researchers are able to compare the film images with Doppler radar data and discover a pattern that meant the tornado was forming before it appeared on film. They name this pattern the Tornado Vortex Signature (TVS). This important discovery eventually caused NOAA to begin a nationwide deployment of a national network of Doppler radars.

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Find even more resources on tornadoes  in our searchable resource database.

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Each year more than 1,200 tornadoes take place in the United States. These destructive and awe-inspiring events are notoriously difficult to predict. Yet, NOAA and others are deepening our understanding of tornadoes and improving warning times to save lives. The resources in this collection cover the past, present, and future of tornado science and forecasting. Through research and technical advances, we can now better predict and prepare for these once unknowable phenomena.

A ghostly tornado moves across a Benton County, Minnesota, landscape, narrowly missing this rural farmstead on August 24, 2014. (Image credit: Amanda Hill/NOAA Weather in Focus Photo Contest 2015)

Tornadoes usually only last a few minutes. However, some of these rapidly rotating columns of air can potentially last more than an hour and travel dozens of miles. Most of the world’s tornadoes occur in the United States , and they are most common between April and June .

Tornado formation

There are multiple types of tornadoes . Most tornadoes form as a result of supercell thunderstorms. Other tornadoes, which include landspouts and waterspouts, form in different conditions.

Supercell tornadoes

Most tornadoes result from supercell thunderstorms . You can often recognize supercell thunderstorms by their anvil-shaped cumulonimbus clouds . These thunderstorms have a strong, rotating, and persistent updraft that can reach speeds of 100 mph (approximately 161 km/hour). This means there is a strong column of rotating air within the storm.

The rotating updraft in these storms may begin because of wind shear . Wind shear is a change in wind direction or speed with height. So, the wind may be blowing a different direction and speed near the ground than the wind higher up. 

Once the rotating updraft is established, rotation near the surface can start strengthening and organizing, which can lead to a tornado. Most people think of tornadoes as the funnel cloud, or condensation funnel , stretching from sky to land. But a tornado can form and be in touch with the ground even without a visible condensation funnel . 

Non-supercell tornadoes

Though most tornadoes form from supercell thunderstorms, there are other tornado types as well. Strong lines of thunderstorms, referred to as “quasi-linear convective systems,” also called squall lines, can cause tornadoes to form. 

Landspouts and waterspouts are also types of tornadoes. They can form during thunderstorm formation, rather than from a supercell storm that is already rotating strongly. Note that dust devils are different from landspouts, and although dust devils can be damaging, they are not a type of tornado. 

Non-supercell tornadoes are typically weaker than supercell tornadoes, but they can still be dangerous and destructive.

Scientists still have unanswered questions about tornadoes: Why do most supercell thunderstorms not result in a tornado? How exactly do tornadoes form? What are the causes of wind shear that lead to rotation? NOAA scientists are working to learn more about tornado formation and improve forecasting. Read more in the “ Tornado research and advancements in forecasting ” section.

Some of the features that can be found in a supercell storm. Not all storms will display all of the features of a classic supercell. (Image credit: Adapted from National Severe Storm Lab)

Most tornadoes, like the one pictured here, result from supercell thunderstorms. (Image credit: NOAA Weather in Focus Photo Contest 2015 | Scott Peake)

Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water or move from land to water. (Image credit: NOAA)

Landspouts are non-supercell tornadoes that form during thunderstorm formation. (Image credit: National Severe Storms Laboratory)

Dust devil moving across a cleared field. Dust devils are not tornadoes. (Image credit: Dan Kozlowski)

Read more about tornado formation

• JetStream: Thunderstorm hazards — Tornadoes
• National Severe Storms Lab: Severe Weather 101: Tornadoes
• Storm Prediction Center: The Basics about tornadoes

Did you know that a wider tornado is not necessarily more damaging than a narrow one? Explore what makes tornadoes more or less damaging with the SciJinks tornado simulator.

Tornado prediction and detection

Even though meteorologists cannot predict exactly when and where a tornado will occur, they use what they know about tornado formation to make lifesaving predictions. 

Forecasters and storm spotters are trained to recognize thunderstorm features that make tornado formation more likely. Storm spotters are community members that are formally trained to recognize certain conditions and report them to the National Weather Service. Forecasters are trained professionals with degrees focused on meteorology or atmospheric science. They look for conditions that could lead to tornadoes using weather observations and tools like computer models . These models analyze data from multiple sources, including Doppler radar, weather balloons, satellites, and more.

When forecasters detect conditions that have become favorable for severe weather, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center can put out a tornado watch. If a tornado is imminent or ongoing, they put out warnings based on the path of the storm. When a tornado warning is issued in your area, you may:

• Get an emergency alert to your phone.
• Hear tornado sirens blaring in your community. 
• Hear an announcement on local television and radio stations, or if you have one, on your NOAA Weather Radio .

Read more about tornado prediction and detection: 

• National Severe Storms Lab: Severe Weather 101: Tornado detection
• National Severe Storms Lab: Severe Weather 101: Tornado forecasting
• National Weather Service SKYWARN
• Storm Prediction Center: Forecasting tornadoes

National Severe Storms Lab researchers made history in 1973 when they used radar to observe the entire lifecycle of a tornado. Their discovery of the “tornadic vortex signature” led to the beginning of a new era of tornado forecasting and warning. 

Tornado research and advancements in forecasting 

Did you know that before 1950, the U.S. government was banned from mentioning tornadoes in forecasts in the U.S. for fear that it would cause panic ? Tornado research has come a long way since then. NOAA has made great strides and is always working to increase our understanding of tornadoes and improve forecasting and forecast delivery.

Research on tornado formation and dynamics 

There is still a lot for scientists to learn about tornado formation, or tornadogenesis. As recently as 1973 , the National Severe Storms Laboratory’s work led to the landmark discovery that tornadoes could be active in thunderstorms even before they show up on film.

Advancements are ongoing, and the National Severe Storms Lab has several projects aimed at better understanding both supercell and non-supercell tornadoes. They are researching what “ingredients” are needed to form a tornado, what causes a tornado to die, and why some storms produce tornadoes and others don’t.

Improving forecasting and forecast delivery

Research on forecasting makes our society more prepared for tornadoes — whether by increasing the amount of time that people have to prepare for a tornado or by improving their ability to respond to the threat. This includes everything from detection to communicating about watches and warnings.

NOAA’s Warn-on-Forecast research project aims to increase lead time for severe weather warnings, including for tornadoes. Right now, warnings are usually based on detection of a severe hazard that is in progress or quickly approaching. This project is working towards providing warnings before the hazard is imminent.

NOAA is also improving forecast delivery through social science . Social scientists assess how people receive, understand, and act on weather information, like tornado watches and warnings. Where do people hear about warnings when they happen? Do they trust the warning and how do they react? By answering questions like these and understanding societal needs, social scientists can help improve forecasting to save lives and reduce tornado impacts.

Read more about tornado research:

• National Weather Service Heritage: The first tornado forecast rules
• National Weather Service Heritage: The history of tornado forecasting
• National Severe Storms Lab: Research tools
• National Severe Storms Lab: Tornado research
• NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed
• Story map: Inside tornado alley offsite link
• Storm Prediction Center: Tornado research

Tornado impacts and ratings

Tornadoes have significant impacts on human activities and communities. Impacts range from minor damage to the complete destruction of buildings as well as injury and even death. In fact, the damage they inflict is central to how we rate them and estimate their top wind speed. 

Tornado damage

From 1993-2022, an average of 71 people were killed by tornadoes each year. Tornadoes associated with severe storms contribute to billion dollar disasters in the United States. On the National Centers for Environmental Information's website, you can view  preliminary tornado occurrences for the current month or the number of tornadoes and associated fatalities by each year .

The spring of 2011 was one of the deadliest and most destructive tornado seasons on record. Between April and June 2011, tornadoes killed more than 580 people and caused more than $21 billion dollars in economic damages. The high death toll was partly a result of the tornadoes traveling rapidly through heavily populated areas and lack of adequate storm shelters.

If you have received a tornado alert or been impacted by a tornado, fill out the Tornado Tales online survey . The survey collects information about how people respond to watches and warnings. 

Assigning tornadoes ‘ratings’: The Enhanced Fujita Scale

The National Weather Service (NWS) rates tornadoes using the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale) based on estimated wind speeds and associated damage. The EF scale is a set of wind estimates based on damage, not direct measurements of wind speed. 

NWS assesses damage using a set of damage indicators and degrees of damage . They use this assessment to estimate the tornado’s highest wind speed and assign a rating. 

The EF scale is an updated version of the original Fujita Scale, or “F scale.” NWS began using the EF Scale in 2007. The original F scale was developed by Dr. Tetsuya Theodore Fujita offsite link to estimate tornado wind speeds based on damage. A forum of nationally renowned meteorologists and wind engineers created the EF scale to reflect better damage assessment.

Read more about tornado impacts:

• National Weather Service: The EF scale
• National Centers for Environmental Information: Tornado data
• Storm Prediction Center: Tornado damage
• Storm Prediction Center: Historical tornadoes

Be weather-wise: Reducing the risks

Knowing what to do during severe weather is key to reducing your risk should a tornado form. Though we summarize safety advice below, if you live in an area where tornadoes form, we suggest visiting Ready.gov’s Tornado web page .

• Your first line of defense is to be aware of weather forecasts, warnings, and watches.
• It’s best to seek shelter during thunderstorms , whether or not it could produce tornadoes. Remember: When thunder roars, go indoors.
• This may be a specially designed room like a storm shelter or “ safe room .” Or, it may mean identifying the safest locations in a nearby building. 
• The safest location in a building is the most interior room on the lowest floor. Ideally, it should be a sturdy interior room without windows that is below ground, if possible, or at ground level.
• If you live in a mobile home or home without a basement, identify a nearby safe building you can get to quickly.
• If you are stuck outside and cannot reach somewhere indoors, lie flat in a ditch, ravine, or low spot in the ground. 
• No matter where you are, protect your head with your hands and any other protective objects you have handy, such as a coat, book or pillow.

A daycare director in Selma, Alabama, acted quickly when her daycare was in the path of a tornado. She moved the staff and children to interior bathrooms — a decision that saved their lives.

More readiness resources:

• Ready.gov: Tornadoes
• National Weather Service: Prepare! Don’t let tornadoes take you by surprise
• Office of Response and Restoration: How to stay safe when tornadoes threaten

EDUCATION CONNECTION

Tornadoes can be an important topic with which to engage students in meteorological processes. Educators can use the resources in this collection to develop lessons and activities to help students investigate the impacts of natural hazards and other Earth processes on humans. These are some of the topics described in the Next Generation Science Standards offsite link and many state science standards.

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Center News

Tornadoes and social marginalization: upcoming research from the weather ready award program.

This page provides selected print titles on the subject of tornadoes . In order to find more resources related to the topics on this page, use the following Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Windstorms.

The following selected titles are meant to give the researcher an overall understanding of the topic. Each title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog . While these titles are held by the Library, many of them will also be available through your local public or academic library.

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This tornado touched down a few miles east of Rozel, Kansas.

What we know—and what we don't—about the science of tornadoes

Scientists probe the mysteries of violent twisters.

How tornadoes form and how they die is not fully understood, yet scientists probing those mysteries—and aiming to improve warning systems—have pinpointed key risk factors.

A tornado, or twister, is a violently rotating column of air that extends between the Earth's surface and a cloud, usually a cumulonimbus cloud. Most tornadoes last for less than ten minutes, says Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma.

Large tornadoes usually last longer—around 30 minutes, Brooks adds. The most powerful twisters have wind speeds of more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) per hour, which can rip buildings off their foundations. They can be more than two miles (3.2 kilometers) wide, and can spin across the ground for dozens of miles.

The more common tornadoes have wind speeds of less than 110 miles (177 kilometers) per hour, are about 250 feet (76 meters) across, and travel only a few miles before they dissipate.

Tornadoes kill an average of 60 people a year in the U.S., mostly from flying or falling debris, reports NOAA . (See " Interactive: Forces of Nature .") Half of those deaths are caused by the strongest one percent of the most violent storms, says Brooks.

How tornadoes form

The most intense tornadoes emerge from what are called supercell thunderstorms. For such a storm to form, you first "need the ingredients for a regular thunderstorm," says Brooks.

Those ingredients include warm moisture near the surface and relatively cold, dry air above. "The warm air will be buoyant, and like a hot-air balloon it will rise," says Brooks.

Photos of Tornadoes

A supercell requires more: winds that increase in strength and change direction with height. "Then the updraft tends to rotate, and that makes a supercell," explains Brooks.

The supercell churns high in the air and, in about 30 percent of cases, it leads to the formation of a tornado below it. This happens when air descending from the supercell causes rotation near the ground.

Even then, "we still don't know why some thunderstorms create tornadoes while others don't," tornado-chaser Tim Samaras said in early 2013. Samaras was a scientist and National Geographic grantee who was killed by a twister on May 31, 2013, in El Reno, Oklahoma. (Read " The Last Chase " in National Geographic magazine.)

Brooks says scientists believe strong changes in winds in the first kilometer of the atmosphere and high relative humidity are important for the formation of tornadoes. He adds that there also needs to be a downdraft in just the right part of the storm.

Tornado formation also requires a "Goldilocks" situation, in which air must be cold but not too cold. It should be a few degrees more frigid than surrounding air, Brooks says.

He adds, "We don't understand how tornadoes die: Eventually the air gets too cold and it chokes off the inflow of new air into the storm, but we don't know the details."

Where and when twisters strike

Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. They have been most documented in North America, where an estimated 1,200 strike the United States each year, but they frequently appear in many other countries.

The most notoriously affected region in the United States, called " Tornado Alley ," includes the Great Plains states of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, as well as parts of Texas. Large-scale weather patterns tend to converge on that area, making tornadoes more likely.

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Still, the state that receives the highest number of tornadoes per square mile is Florida, according to the American Meteorological Society. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Louisiana also have many tornadoes per square mile.

Tornadoes can happen at any hour of the day and any time of the year, though they are most common in the spring, especially during May and June in North America.

In many countries, including the United States, Canada, and continental Europe, the strength of tornadoes is often measured by the Fujita scale or the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado damages trees but substantial structures are left unharmed; a tornado in the strongest category—F5 or EF5 —blows away buildings.

Since measuring wind speeds inside a twister is extremely difficult, scientists typically rely on damage to estimate velocities.

The difficulties of forecasting

Tornadoes are much harder to forecast than are hurricanes, which are larger storms that last a lot longer. According to NOAA, the average amount of time between a tornado warning and the arrival of a storm is about 13 minutes. (A tornado warning means a twister has been sighted, while a tornado watch means one is possible.)

The National Severe Weather Laboratory's Warn-on-Forecast research project is aiming to improve forecasting, although the work is challenging, says Brooks.

The project uses powerful software to crunch data on temperatures, moisture, and other atmospheric variables. Sometimes the system "makes really good forecasts, and other times it doesn't," says Brooks.

As computers get faster and data improves, accuracy may rise, he suggests. In the meantime, better understanding of the atmosphere will also help with other endeavors, such as planning for wind farms or the placement of solar panels.

Brooks adds, "It's not completely clear that increasing the lead time for tornado [forecasts] is going to benefit the general public, because we're not sure how people are going to respond to that information." Many people ignore current tornado watches, for instance, thinking the threat is unlikely.

But, Brooks says, "there are probably audiences out there that will be able to take good advantage of it, such as emergency managers and vulnerable populations that might take a long time to get prepared."

Predicting the path of a tornado across the landscape can also be challenging. Brooks says tornadoes tend to follow the general movement of the thunderstorm they are associated with, but the route can be erratic.

"It's kind of like walking a dog," he says. "You get down the block, but in the middle the dog goes back and forth."

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How and Why Do Violent Tornadoes Form?

Scientists hope new technology and computing power will help them understand destructive twisters

Carolyn Wilke, Knowable Magazine

One muggy day in July 1986, a news helicopter was recording footage of a festival in Minneapolis when the pilot and photographer glimpsed a tornado over nearby Brooklyn Park. They moved toward it, filming the powerful twister for 25 minutes, mesmerizing viewers watching it live on TV.

Watching as the helicopter hovered within maybe a half-mile of the twister was Robin Tanamachi, who was a kid growing up in Minneapolis at the time. “We were seeing all this really beautiful interior vortex structure,” she says. “I was just absolutely hooked on that, and I know I was not the only one.” Today, Tanamachi is a research meteorologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and one of many researchers delving into twisters’ mysteries, searching for details about their formation that may bolster future forecasts.

Tornadoes can be elusive research subjects. Through chasing storms and using computer simulations, scientists have worked out the basic ingredients needed to spin up a twister, but two crucial questions continue to vex them: Why do some thunderstorms form tornadoes while others don’t? And how exactly do tornadoes get their spin?

Despite the logistically and scientifically challenging nature of the work, scientists are motivated to keep trying: Tornadoes can kill dozens to hundreds of people in the United States every year and cause billions of dollars in damage. Now researchers are chasing the killer storms that spawn tornadoes with cutting-edge technology, flying drones into the storms and harnessing more computing power than ever to simulate them in search of answers.

“Today, we’re simulating the atmosphere with unprecedented spatial resolution. We’re observing storms with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution,” says atmospheric scientist Howie Bluestein of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. “But there’s still a lot of problems and a lot of things that need to be solved.”

Scientists may be turning up new clues to tornado formation by studying what’s happening in the atmosphere around them and on the ground below them, and by comparing what they find in the field with new, higher-resolution models of the thunderstorms that generate them. Even as they chase these new leads, researchers are also trying to understand how climate change may affect when and where tornadoes form.

Chasing answers

Since scientists began studying tornadoes in earnest in the mid-20th century, they’ve put together a pretty good outline of the steps required to generate a twister. Most destructive tornadoes are spawned by supercell thunderstorms—giants that typically have a very tall cloud that widens into an anvil shape at the top. Supercells are characterized by a mile-wide rotating updraft called a mesocyclone that can last for hours. That rotation comes from wind shear, which sets wind nearer to the ground spinning horizontally like a spiraling football. These winds then become vertically oriented within an updraft like a spinning top.

A couple of things need to happen for a supercell to become tornadic: First, the giant mesocyclone at the heart of the storm needs to get air rotating closer to the ground. Then this vortex needs to be stretched upward. Stretching tightens the twister’s footprint, speeding its rotation, similar to what happens when figure skaters pull in their arms during a spin.

The first clues to the physics of tornadoes came from secondhand information and damage reports as scientists tried to figure out what sorts of winds could blow down a barn or pluck a chicken, says Richard Rotunno, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and the author of an overview of the fluid dynamics of tornadoes in the 2013 Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics .

The construction of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s created a grid across the flat Great Plains that allowed enterprising scientists to get out in front of storms and sometimes directly observe tornadoes. A big advance came with the development of Doppler radar for meteorology. By emitting pulses of energy and detecting the reflected signal, the technology captures information about wind and precipitation. Radar allowed the detection of mesocyclones, which became the basis for tornado forecasts and a boon for chasers, who would stop at payphones periodically to call the lab for the latest radar intel.

But radar doesn’t catch all the clues scientists are after—such as the invisible forces in a storm that get winds moving—so they turned to models that simulate the physics of storms, says atmospheric scientist Paul Markowski at Penn State University in University Park. “In a computer simulation, we have all of those forces.”

The first three-dimensional simulations of supercells were created in the 1970s, helping scientists study the structures of updrafts and downdrafts and how precipitation evolves. As models improved over time, they revealed that updrafts can turn rotating areas of air into the massive mesocyclones in supercells. The models also showed how thunderstorms in the Northern Hemisphere can split into a left and a right cell, with the right one more likely to result in severe weather. These models were finally reproducing behavior observed in actual supercells and providing hints to how areas of cooler air, called cold pools, might play into tornado formation by shortening the time it takes for a twister to develop .

These models had relatively coarse resolution, but as computational power increased, simulations started to capture more detail about supercells, and researchers also worked to realistically capture the effects of rain, snow and hail. Still, the resolution was on the order of hundreds of feet—far too large to catch tornadoes, which tend to be closer to 65 feet wide.

Radar also got better and faster, and researchers started taking it into the field on trucks. In 1994, a host of scientists hoping to understand where tornadoes got their rotation began a multiyear campaign named Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment, or VORTEX. They chased storms with all sorts of equipment, including sensor-loaded weather balloons and instrumented cars that took temperature, pressure and wind measurements within supercells. But the scientists felt they needed further observations, leading to VORTEX-2 in 2009. “The big takeaway that we got from VORTEX-2 was that you can’t really tell whether a storm is going to be tornadic or non-tornadic just by how it looks on radar or what the weather balloons in its proximity show you,” Tanamachi says.

Other field campaigns followed, but scientists still haven’t definitively answered why some supercell thunderstorms create tornadoes while others don’t progress beyond a mesocyclone. Now they are looking to new strategies and tools to fill in the rest of the story.

Send in the drones

Despite the drama of a churning twister, the center of a tornado probably isn’t where the answers lie. “Getting something into the tornado—it makes for good television, but it actually doesn’t tell us a whole lot,” Markowski says. “It tells us that it’s windy there and the pressure is low.”

Instead, scientists are using new tools to glean clues from the environment that could help them sift the tornadic supercells from the non-tornadic. “Detailed data on the structure of the atmosphere—its temperature, pressure, wind—below cloud base is largely absent,” Rotunno says. Researchers are starting to fly drones into storms to capture these observations.

Drones can take detailed measurements at higher altitudes than cars. And unlike weather balloons, they can cross boundaries between areas of a storm with different pressure or air density. “The reason we think they’re important is because tornadoes tend to form on these boundaries,” says atmospheric scientist Adam Houston of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Houston and his colleagues have been pairing drone observations with radar and other techniques in the field as part of the TORUS project since 2019. Now Houston’s team is digging through the data, looking for trends across storms for hints about whether these relatively small features influence tornado formation.

Scientists are also gathering information on what’s going on near the ground where the tornado forms. Both modeling and observations have shown that this is where the highest speeds occur . How air interacts with the land surface—features such as hills and forests—may play a role in starting and intensifying twisters, but radar tends to miss at least the first hundred feet just above the ground because of the geometry of the beam. Atmospheric scientist Jana Houser of Ohio State University in Columbus is hoping to learn more about what’s going on in that gap.

Houser’s team chases storms, capturing radar measurements of a tornado’s size and intensity over time. Then they search for links between that data and the topography and roughness of the surface the storm has swept over. They’ve found that, in most cases, changes in terrain affect the air getting sucked into the tornado and change the twister’s strength. This could be an important clue, but it’s proving difficult to puzzle out. “The problem,” Houser says, “is that sometimes the same type of occurrence in one case results in an intensification, and then in the next case, it results in a weakening.”

There may be a limit to how well researchers can understand and predict these storms, Markowski says. “When it comes tornadoes, I think we’re kind of butting up against chaos.” Perturbations that are so small they are essentially unmeasurable are everywhere in the atmosphere and may influence the formation of a tornado. Markowski and other scientists are starting to use machine learning to help better predict how these storms behave.

Finding the twist

Another big question has been swirling around twisters for decades: “We really don’t understand where the rotation that feeds the tornado ultimately comes from,” Houser says. The rotating air in a supercell’s mesocyclone is too high by the time it starts spinning vertically; the storms need additional rotation nearer to the ground to become tornadic. There are at least three hypotheses as to where this near-ground rotation comes from and, in any given twister, there may be multiple mechanisms at play, she says.

One hypothesis is based on how friction slows air moving near the ground. Air at higher altitudes moves faster and tumbles over the slower air and starts rolling like a barrel. The idea is that this rotating air could then be turned upright when it gets sucked into an updraft. Other hypotheses point to downdrafts related to precipitation and cooling air. The difference in density between cool air and neighboring warmer air can generate an air current that prompts spinning. Both observations and models have backed this idea and point to different areas of the storm where this may occur.

During either of these scenarios, there may also be many smaller pockets of swirling air that merge, combining into an area with enough rotation to get a tornado spinning. New support for this theory is emerging through higher-resolution storm simulations.

Most models working at coarser resolutions can’t actually see simulated tornadoes, inferring them instead based on areas of air with a lot of spin. Atmospheric scientist Leigh Orf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has taken advantage of advances in supercomputing to build ten-meter-resolution models that can directly simulate tornadoes . At this scale, turbulence comes alive, Orf says. His models reveal how small areas of rotation could combine to kick off a tornado. “It fully resolves non-tornadic vortices that merge together in ways that are very compelling and I’ve never seen before,” he says.

Models can also provide hints of behavior to look for in the field. Orf’s models have helped him and his colleagues explore a feature they named the streamwise vorticity current , or SVC—a tail of swirling air off to the side of the storm that may amplify air rotation near the ground. Other scientists have now observed this feature in actual tornadic supercells.

Real-world observations don’t yet exist for the rotation mergers, but they may be coming. Plans to revamp the U.S. radar system would employ a new generation of faster radar that can capture features that develop in a flash. “I am very confident that the things I’m seeing in the simulations will eventually be detected in the atmosphere, just like the SVC was,” Orf says.

High stakes

The landscape of tornado research has expanded from the Great Plains into the southeastern United States, driven by deadly storms and increasing tornado activity there. When a rash of tornadoes hit the region in 2011 starting in mid-April, more than 300 people were killed. “It was the largest outbreak on record since the super outbreak of 1974 ,” Tanamachi says. That motivated another campaign in 2015, VORTEX-SE, to study tornadoes there, but the work has proved difficult.

Not only do atmospheric conditions in the Southeast differ from the Great Plains, but it’s also harder to observe twisters there, Tanamachi’s team found. The hilly landscapes block views of storms, mucking up storm-chasing efforts. Instead, researchers have to forecast where a tornado might form and hunker down there. The one time this approach yielded a tornado sighting during VORTEX-SE, the radar was blocked by a stand of trees.

Much of what scientists have learned about tornadoes elsewhere doesn’t apply to the Southeast, because many of the tornadoes that occur there are not seeded by supercells. Instead, they grow from a line of storms called a squall line. “We have no clue how these work,” says atmospheric scientist Johannes Dahl of Texas Tech University in Lubbock. While these tornadoes are typically weaker than those from supercells, they can still cause damage and death.

Despite the challenges, understanding tornadoes in the Southeast remains a priority, especially as tornado activity has kicked up in the region in the last four decades or so. It’s not clear yet if this is due to climate change or something else, such as the climate pattern known as El Niño, Dahl says. Still, researchers have started to see some trends related to climate. A look at 60 years of U.S. tornado data revealed that while the number of tornadoes didn’t change, the number of days on which multiple twisters occur has increased . Climate change appears to be aiding some of the ingredients for tornadoes at the expense of others. But it seems that on a good day for tornadoes, the conditions are very favorable, Houser says.

With increasingly powerful models, a possible upgrade to the U.S. radar system and the help of machine learning, researchers will continue in their quest to unveil the inner workings of tornadoes. “Although research in this area has been going on for decades,” Dahl says, “it always seems like there are surprises.”

Even after 20 years of studying tornadoes, Houser finds herself “giddy, excited” by the prospect of catching a tornado in action—ideally over a field where it isn’t destroying someone’s home. “There’s this weird dichotomy between the beauty that they have and the volatility and intensity and violence that they wreak,” Houser says. “They’re so mysterious.”

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Tornadoes Paperback – April 10, 2001

Join award-winning science writer Seymour Simon in this picture book introduction to tornadoes!

With winds that can reach speeds of three hundred miles an hour and funnel clouds that can measure a mile in diameter, tornadoes leave enormous damage in their wake.

Now Seymour Simon examines these twisting columns of air and destruction. Simon explains how tornadoes are formed, why and when they are most likely to occur, how scientists classify and track them—and what to do if one touches down.

With clear, simple text and stunning full-color photographs, readers will learn all about these amazing natural wonders in this informative picture book!

Perfect for young scientists’ school reports, this book supports the Common Core State Standards.

Check out these other Seymour Simon books about Weather:

• Earthquakes
• Global Warming
• Reading age 6 - 10 years
• Print length 32 pages
• Language English
• Grade level Kindergarten - 4
• Lexile measure 1020L
• Dimensions 10.25 x 0.25 x 10 inches
• Publisher HarperCollins
• Publication date April 10, 2001
• ISBN-10 0064437914
• ISBN-13 978-0064437912
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

From the back cover.

Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children 2000--selected by Natn'l Science Tchrs Assoc. & Child. Bk Cncl.

About the Author

Seymour Simon has been called “the dean of the [children’s science book] field” by the New York Times . He has written more than 300 books for young readers and has received the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award for his lasting contribution to children’s science literature, the Science Books & Films Key Award for Excellence in Science Books, the Empire State Award for excellence in literature for young people, and the Educational Paperback Association Jeremiah Ludington Award. He and his wife, Liz, live in Columbia County in Upstate New York. You can visit him online at www.seymoursimon.com, where students can post on the “Seymour Science Blog” and educators can download a free four-page teacher guide to accompany this book, putting it in context with Common Core objectives. Join the growing legion of @seymoursimon fans on Twitter!

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0064437914
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins (April 10, 2001)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 32 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0064437914
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0064437912
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 6 - 10 years
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1020L
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ Kindergarten - 4
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.25 x 0.25 x 10 inches
• #139 in Atmospheric Sciences (Books)
• #420 in Children's Weather Books (Books)
• #974 in Children's Earth Sciences Books (Books)

About the author

Seymour simon.

Seymour Simon, whom the NY Times called "the dean of [children's science] writers," is the author of more than 250 highly acclaimed science books (many of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association). His free, educational children's app, SCIENCE FUN TO GO, debuted in the Top 10 of all free children's apps in the Amazon App store, and features in app purchase of original Seymour Simon eBooks, as well as a multitude of free content.

Seymour Simon uses his website, SeymourSimon.com, to provide free downloads of a wealth of materials for educators, homeschoolers and parents to use with his books, including 4-page Teacher Guides for all 26 of his Collins/Smithsonian photo essay books. The site provides multiple resources for kids writing book reports or wanting to explore the online Science Dictionary, and also features the Seymour Science blog highlighting current science news. Educators and families are encouraged to sign up to receive the monthly newsletter from SeymourSimon.com to stay abreast of the latest materials that Seymour Simon is introducing to enrich the reading experience.

He taught science and creative writing in elementary and secondary schools and was chair of the science department at a junior high school in the New York City public school system before leaving to become a full-time writer. "I haven't really given up teaching," he says, "and I suppose I never will, not as long as I keep writing and talking to kids around the country and the world."

Seymour Simon is also a creator and the author of a series of 3D books and a series of Glow-in-the-Dark Books for Scholastic Book Clubs, a series of leveled SEEMORE READERS for Chronicle Books, and the EINSTEIN ANDERSON, SCIENCE DETECTIVE series of fiction books. His books encourage children to enjoy the world around them through learning and discovery, and by making science fun. He has introduced tens of millions of children to a staggering array of subjects; one prominent science education specialist described Simon's books as "extraordinary examples of expository prose."

Seymour Simon has been honored with many awards for his work, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award for his lasting contribution to children's science literature; the New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature; the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library for his contribution to children's science literature; The Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction; the Jeremiah Ludington Award for his outstanding contribution to children's nonfiction; the Empire State Award for excellence in literature for young people; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children's Science Books.

In a recent interview Simon was asked if he ever thinks of retiring. "I seem to be working faster and harder than ever. I absolutely don't feel any urge to sit back and look at what I've done. The only things that I'm thinking about are things I'd like to do in the future. I'm planning and doing and continuing to write. It's what I love to do. I remember a story about an anthropologist going to talk to a tribe and he asked them what was their word for "work." Their response was they have no word for work. Everybody does the things that they do in their life. I love that response. I don't differentiate between work and play. Everything I do is something that I enjoy doing - the writing, the research and everything else."

Seymour Simon writes and photographs nature from his hilltop home in Columbia County in upstate New York. You can follow his daily nature walks and see his photographs from the field on Twitter (@seymoursimon) or on his Facebook group page. He also regularly hosts Q&As and sponsors book giveaways on GoodReads.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 78% 13% 5% 1% 3% 78%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 78% 13% 5% 1% 3% 13%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 78% 13% 5% 1% 3% 5%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 78% 13% 5% 1% 3% 1%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 78% 13% 5% 1% 3% 3%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the pictures nice and beautifully illustrated. They say it's a great science book for young readers and educational for all ages. Readers appreciate the information quality, saying the descriptions are nice and easy to understand. However, some feel the book is not an easy read and is simplistic.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the pictures in the book nice, beautifully illustrated, and cute. They say it's perfect for looking at the photos while their dad or someone else reads.

"...This book is perfect for him to look at the photos while his dad or myself read it to him...." Read more

"...by Judy Fradin were easy to understand, had great photos and lots of sidebar facts...." Read more

"...Great text and beautiful pictures ." Read more

"...The photos of the tornadoes are not clear and not at all like the ones my son is used to seeing online. A bit disappointed...." Read more

Customers find the book educational and great for all ages. They say it's a nonfiction book and a resource for kids interested in weather.

"This science weather book was great resource for our young son who was interested in the subject. Great text and beautiful pictures." Read more

"...It also has an ar level so kids can get credit at school. Great for kids like mine , that have a high reading level, but not the focus to read long..." Read more

"My daughter and I love this book! It’s great for little ones who are interested in tornadoes." Read more

"...He thinks it is great fun and we know it is an educational tool for him and his career." Read more

Customers find the book informative, with nice descriptions and sidebar facts. They also appreciate the great photos.

"...It's informative and helpful in soothing her fears. We enjoy this book." Read more

"This book and the book Tornado! by Judy Fradin were easy to understand , had great photos and lots of sidebar facts...." Read more

"...But his information and way of presenting the information is fantastic , even for my preschoolers. (We read to them)." Read more

" Seems to have good information but the photos are extremely fuzzy and outdated (20 years ago.)...." Read more

Customers find the book not easy to read and simplistic.

"...Are you kidding me? Ugh. The page set-up makes it difficult to read or even teach from (no paragraph brakes, spacing, etc), and there are more..." Read more

"This book is very thin and extremely simplistic . I needed a book for college research and this is not it...." Read more

" Not a easy read children’s book but a lot of pics...." Read more

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