Tornadoes, Storm Chasers and Can Someone Please Tell My Mother It's Pronounced Tore-Nad-O and Not Tore-Nod-O.

I'm not sure when my fasination with tornadoes really began. I've always been into weather, sitting there, on a Sunday evening watching the Weather Channel. Especially during tornado and hurricane seasons.

The definition of a tornado is a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. Tornadoes form when rising air within the updraft the rotating air from horizontal to vertical. This is why you will see what is commonly known as a rotating wall cloud. It is a large section of the cloud that rotates counter-clockwise (Northern Hemisphere) and usually produces the tornado. A tornado that does not fully touch the ground is called a "funnel cloud." It is also known as a puppy tail.

The dryline or the line that "seperates" the warm, moist air to east and the warm, dry air from the west is where tornadoes commonly form.

Tornadoes can also produce ahead or the right of the eye of a hurricane if conditions are favorable.

Tornadoes are actually "clear" or "see-thru" in color. It's only until it encounters debris or dust that it will take on that dark nature.

Tornadoes usually occur in the Central Plains but can occur anywhere. The conditions in the plains during the spring/early summer are perfect for the development of tornadoes. Tornadoes also occur in these areas because of the flat dusty lands. Tornadoes can occur anywhere but usually do not last long or are in large in size in a mountainous region.

Tornadoes are rated on a a scale, called the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Dr. Fujita made this scale to catergorize wind speed and damage. The Fujita Scale was updated 02-01-2007 as more data became available.


EF0-65-85 mph winds
EF1-86-110 mph winds
EF2-111-135 mph winds
EF3-136-165 mph winds
EF4-166-200 mph winds
EF5-over 200 mph winds


The damage is catergorized in 28 scales from 0-28. The first scale of damage is small barns, farm outbuildings. The twenty-eigth is a tree-softwood, uprooted fully from the ground.

Storm Chasers

-Storm Chasers is a show on the Discovery Channel. It is about two groups of meteorolgists who chase tornadoes for a living, trying to collect data and get an inside "view" on tornadoes. In the first group which is headed by Dr. Josh Wurman, a research meteorolgist who is studying tornadoes by using a bistatic DOW, abling him to drive right up to a tornado and record on it. This group also includes, the Probe Team, which deploys "probes" which collect valuable data. These probes are deployed within the path of oncoming tornado. The Scout Team, is the team which scouts out the best roads to be able to intercept a tornado. They also carry and deploy probes. Finally, there is the TIV, which stands for Tornado Inercept Vehicle. Sean Casey is the leader of this. His plan is to make an IMAX film, where he is actually inside of a tornado.

I'm excited. =)

Anywhoo. The other group is lead by Reed Timmer. He is also accompained by Joel Taylor and Chris Chittick. They have a very direct approach to chasing tornadoes. They go right for the target and almost always put themselves in danger. They are the producers of TornadoVideos.Net.

And that is my obsession. Hope you laddiies learned some good stuff.

That is my weather lesson for today.

And oh..the whole mom joke is because my mom asked the salesman at the first delership we went to, my mom asked if they had an Tore-Nod-O Red Bunnnis. lol.