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= Tornadoes =

Tornadoes are dark funnel clouds that contains strong rotating winds. These are very dangerous natural disasters. They form during a severe thunderstorm when warm air rushes up to meet the cold air.The tornado's winds can reach up to 317 miles per hour.Tornadoes mostly occur in or by Tornado Alley which is located in the central part of the United States such as: Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Tornadoes also happen all over the world. Spring and Summer are considered the tornado seasons because they occur the strongest in those seasons.

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Tornadoes are measured from many different scales. Some of the common scales are: F-scale, EF- scale, and the TORRO scale. F-scale or Fujita scale is the most common of the tornado scales. The Fujita Scale is based on a scale from 0-5. F0 being the weakest tornado, and F5 being the strongest, fastest, and most dangerous. The EF-scale (Enhanced Fujita) is very similar to the Fujita scale but is more specific. It is also on a scale from 0-5. The TORRO scale is from 0-11. It measures the intensity of the tornado.

Stages of a Tornado:
The stages of a tornado are very simple. It starts out as a severe thunderstorm from a cumulonimbus, then warm, moist air from east and the cool, dry air from the west meet. Then the funnel cloud starts to become faster and closer to the ground, and causes low pressure. This makes it go closer and closer to the ground until it touches the ground to form a tornado. = =

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The Names for a Tornado:
There are many names for a tornado. Some of the several are: twister, cyclone, funnel, whirlwind, wind storm, and storm. There are many more including the word hurricane which is a tornadic storm that forms on the water which is very similar to the the water spout.

Types of Tornadoes:
The main types of a tornado are the multi-vortex tornado, land spout, water spout, super cell, gustnado, dust devil, and fire whirl. All of them are configured by the location of the funnel cloud or storm. =media type="custom" key="5994641" =

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= = = = = = = = A **fire whirl** can be created by a strong forest fire or a volcanic eruption. They are tornadoes made of mostly smoke and fire; fire whirls can reach a speed of about 100 miles per hour. Fire Whirls range from about 200 ft tall to about 10 ft wide. They only last about 3 minutes long, and can uproot a tree's roots that is as tall as 49 ft tall.

A **water spout ** is a funnel shaped cloud formed over a body of water. There winds only reach about 30 miles per hour, and the highest it can get on the EF scale is EF0. The three types of a water spout are: non-tornadic, tornadic, and snow spout. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Most of the waterspouts occur near or in the tropics, but the minute amount are when a snow spout occurs (in the winter). Water spouts do not just occur in bodies of salt water, they are common in the Great Lakes during the summer.

A **multi-vortex tornado** is a cloud with more than one vortices circling inside the main funnel. One of the only times a multi-vortex tornado would be visible would be the beginning of the tornado's formation or when there is a correct amount of each debris and condensation in the air.

A **gustnado** is a short-lived tornado. It is usually very weak, that is usually found in gust fronts. There are visible because of the dust in them.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Links :
Tornadoes!

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