http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqHED.html
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/
I’m a little confused, (this is a fairly normal state for me so no need for alarm)
by Tornados, Hurricanes and Cyclones, will have to do some researching.
As I understand it a Tornado is only on a very narrow front and has little effect on the weather surrounding it, we have what we call tornados here very occasionally, they are generally over in 1/3 minutes are usually about 100 metres wide and leave total devastation behind them, this is because the wind speed can be many times greater than in a Cyclone or Hurricane.
We have a lot more Cyclones, these are the same as Hurricanes in that; they form as a tropical low pressure system and have a front sometimes a hundred miles wide are normally quite slow traveling but generating deadly wind gusts.
Both have an Eye, or centre which has rapidly spinning air currents, ours in the Southern Hemisphere rotate in the opposite direction to the Northern Hemisphere, within the Eye the winds drop off dramatically, only to pick up as the Eye moves forward.
Cyclones and Hurricanes are far more destructive than Tornados because of the far greater area covered and the longer duration, they also are the product of a weather pattern which is in itself quite destructive, torrential rain which can cause flooding, storm surge, which can cause huge tides that inundate low lying areas near the coast.
This has been a very quick look at a complex subject which started out being for my own interest, it was sparked by a comment on a previous posting, and has held my interest for several hours. the two links provided will let you do some reading of your own should you so desire.
11 comments:
Holy moly Peter. I heard on the news it had hit. Seems like no where ys go are you safe from them.
Got another e-mail asking me if the "Australian bloggers" are okay after that cyclone. I don't think many people here realize how big a country Australia is. They think it's the size of Texas or something.
I know one thing for sure, I don't want to be in any of them. Devastating high winds in any form scare me! And, I can do without torrential rains, thank you!
Yes the tornadoes here are unbelievable in power sometimes. They can get to more than a half mile wide. The F-5's are the strongest and do the most damage.
Good weather lesson there - so they spin in the opposite direction then? Curosity makes me ask which direction does your water spin when the toilet is flushed? Ours is counter clockwise. It seems I have read it is opposite down there. ec
Very informative Peter! Thank you! And thank goodness there was no loss of lives from the cyclone, although the damage done was horrible!
I live in tornado ALLEY! This sounds like SUMMER in the Midwest of the U.S.A. ~ jb///
Clears it up for me. Thanks, Peter.
Ah, Peter, you're like an encyclopedia.
BTW, at least on my computer, your sidebar and the main area are overlapping. It's hard to read the first few words of each line of your post.
All of them scare me! Fortunately I live in an area where we don't get any major storms by those titles, but we do get tailwinds and rains from the hurricanes in southeast US.
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