Such a destructive natural phenomenon as a tornado is one of the most dangerous in the world. The destructive whirlwinds are unstoppable and wreak havoc in their path, lifting entire structures into the air, destroying houses and hurling cars. There is only one way to escape an impending tornado – by getting out of its way or by hiding in a reliable underground shelter.
Interesting facts about a tornado
- Of all the countries in the world, the United States suffers the most from this natural phenomenon. Every year, local residents are hit by 700-800 large tornadoes, or even more.
- In 1990, a cow that fell from the sky sank a small ship in the Sea of Okhotsk. The tornado picked it up somewhere far away, and then, having resolved, released it, and the carcass fell on the fishing boat. The crew was saved (interesting facts about the Sea of Okhotsk).
- A tornado and a whirlwinds are the same thing, just different names.
- The width of the funnel of a tornado directly depends on what surface it goes over. Above water, the funnel usually does not exceed 20-40 meters in width, and on land it can reach 3 kilometers.
- Tornadoes almost always occur during the day, and very rarely at night.
- Unlike tornadoes, whirlwinds, which are both snowy and dusty, are much less dangerous due to their much lower strength.
- The wind speed in the wall of the tornado funnel can reach 1300 km/h. This is many times faster than the speed of any hurricane on Earth (interesting facts about hurricanes).
- Scientists have calculated that an average tornado with a funnel 1 km in diameter contains energy comparable to the energy of an average nuclear bomb.
- Typically, tornadoes do not live long, a few hours at most. The officially registered record is 7 hours 20 minutes.
- There are people who managed to survive after being in the center of a tornado. All of them, in one way or another, were lucky enough to find a reliable shelter in time.
- In 1879, a powerful tornado tore off a steel bridge from its supports and literally tied it in a knot.
- An ordinary piece of wood, being sucked in by a tornado, accelerates to such a breakneck speed that it can break through a wall made of brick.
- In Europe, tornadoes are usually called blood clots (interesting facts about European countries).
- The color of a tornado, the sound it makes, and the smell it spreads depend on what this deadly whirlwind has absorbed.
- In the Northern Hemisphere, due to the influence of the Coriolis force, tornadoes always rotate counterclockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere – clockwise. At the same time, very rare cases of reverse rotation have been recorded.
- Most often, tornadoes form above the water surface, but they can also occur on land.
- A tornado is the fastest wind on our planet.
- Tornadoes can absorb water and its inhabitants, then bring down a rain of fish and frogs. Once, a tornado even brought down a rain of spiders on one of the provinces of Argentina (interesting facts about spiders).
- In the first half of the last century in the United States, a tornado lifted and threw away a locomotive with wagons, the total weight of which reached 83 tons.
- It is impossible to predict the occurrence of a tornado. At least no one has been able to do it yet.
- In the very center of the tornado, the air is calm, as during a calm.
- The Great Red Spot, the most monstrous tornado in the solar system, comparable in size to the Earth, has been raging on Jupiter for more than three centuries (interesting facts about Jupiter).
- Tornadoes never occur in sunny, cloudless weather.
- On average, a tornado moves on land at a speed of about 50 km/h, but in the United States, once a tornado that passed through three states covered 350 kilometers in 3 hours.
- Off the coast of the US state of Florida, tornadoes occur almost every day, but they usually live too short to reach the coast and cause destruction.
- The only countries in Europe where tornadoes never happen are Spain, Portugal and Andorra.
- The most powerful tornadoes are most often composite – consisting of several secondary tornadoes revolving around the main one.
- As a result of strong fires, such a terrifying phenomenon as a fire tornado can occur. The temperature in its center reaches 1000 degrees, and it is impossible to extinguish it until everything that can burn in its zone of action burns down.