A tornado, or a tornado, is astounding and at the same time horrifies all the eyewitnesses of this incredible natural phenomenon. A giant funnel appeared out of nowhere, absorbing everything in its path - not every day you see something similar.
Although, to admire the tornado, you must have a share of courage and recklessness, because it is extremely dangerous. A tornado remains a poorly understood phenomenon to date, however, researchers believe that at the epicenter of the tornado is a zone of low pressure, which does not allow outside air to fill the inside of the funnel.
We present 10 interesting facts about tornadoes.
10. The form that the tornado takes, as well as its color, smell depends on what it has absorbed
Depending on the conditions in which the formation of the air funnel occurs, tornadoes can have a wide range of colors. Those that arise in a dry environment can be almost transparent and they can be noticed only by garbage swirling at the base.
Condensed tornadoes that practically do not absorb or absorb a meager volume of debris can be gray or white. In the process of moving water droplets along the funnel, the color of the funnel can even acquire a bright blue color.
Slowly moving funnels that absorb a significant amount of debris usually become darker.
A tornado that has visited the Great Plains may turn red due to the reddish hue of the soil, and tornadoes that originate in mountainous areas, incorporating a significant amount of snow flooring, can turn white.
9. The speed of the tornado can reach more than 100 km / h
The speed of movement of a tornado can vary greatly. On average, it reaches from 10-20 to 60-70 km / h. Depending on the peculiarities of external conditions due to the principle of wind distribution in the middle troposphere, a tornado can take 100-120 km in an hour.
8. The destructive energy of a tornado is so great that a fragment of wood untwisted by it can break through a brick wall
The energy of a typical tornado with a funnel radius of 1 km and an average speed of 70 m / s is equal to the energy of an atomic bomb of 20 kilotons of TNT.
The most destructive tornadoes are mainly recorded in the United States. To indicate the strength of tornadoes, a special Fujita – Pearson scale has been created, which includes 7 categories, where zero (the lowest) wind strength is related to hurricane winds on the Beaufort scale.
7. Some people succeeded, having been inside a tornado, managed to stay alive
If a person enters the epicenter of a tornado, then at a wind flow velocity in the funnel exceeding 55 m / s, it will be lifted and dumped in the so-called “dispersion zone”, which is located several kilometers above the ground.
It happens that the speed of gravity multiplies by the speed of downward flows. In this case, the chances of survival, a person who has fallen into the epicenter of a tornado, practically do not remain - the body is flattened by a strong blow.
But it also happens that a tornado, raising a person with a whirlwind, begins to gradually weaken. When the velocity of the ascending flows falls below 55 m / s, and the funnel itself does not “diverge” in the middle, then a person who has got there can land quite gently on the ground. Similar cases in history have been recorded more than once.
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A famous case testifying to the destructive power of a tornado occurred in 1879. The so-called Irving tornado lifted a 75-meter-long steel bridge across the Bolshaya Golubaya River and twisted it several times.
The wreckage of the bridge turned into a dense clump of steel partitions and ropes, bent in the most incredible way. This incident once again proves the presence of hypersonic vortices inside the tornado.
5. Tornadoes can cause rain from fish and frogs
History knows many examples when, instead of drops of water during rain, frogs, fish and other animals rained down on people's heads.
One of these “frog” rains was recorded in 1939 in Trowbridge (UK). A tornado picked up these miserable amphibians from the surrounding marshes and splashed out onto the city.
And in Honduras, similar incidents have occurred systematically since the 19th century. There, instead of rain, not only frogs fall on the ground, but also fish.
4. In 1990, in the Sea of Okhotsk, a cow fell from a sky on a ship, which a tornado lifted somewhere in the air
A similar nuisance occurred with a Japanese fishing vessel. An adult cow really collapsed on him, as a result of which the ship sank. The rescued fishermen later claimed that several cows collapsed on that day.
3. In 1931, a tornado in the United States took off a train weighing 83 tons
The flows of air masses in the tornado funnel are considered one of the most powerful and fastest on Earth. Air in a tornado moves at a speed of up to 1300 km per hour. Thanks to this, the funnel can lift very heavy objects.
For example, in 1931 in a similar way a tornado tore off a train, the mass of which was 83 tons.
2. A method for predicting the occurrence of tornadoes has not yet been found.
Unlike cyclones, it is not currently possible to predict where a tornado will appear. If large cyclonic formations can be easily seen with the help of satellites, then a tornado is absolutely impossible to identify either from space or using radar.
Experts also argue that at the moment it is impossible to predict the appearance of a tornado even because scientists have not learned how to measure temperature in the lower atmosphere.
This is primarily due to the lack of technical capabilities, without which it will not be possible to accumulate statistical data, on the basis of which it would be possible to build more or less accurate forecasts.
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That is why lovers of extreme sensations are better off not risking their lives and health, and not trying to experience on their own skin all the destructive power of the elements.