Tornado

A tornado near Seymour, Texas.
A tornado near Seymour, Texas.

A tornado is defined by the Glossary of Meteorology as "a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud..."[6]

Condensation funnel

A tornado is not necessarily visible; however, the intense low pressure caused by the fast wind speeds (see Bernoulli's principle) and rapid rotation (due to cyclostrophic balance) usually causes water vapor in the air to condense into a visible condensation funnel.[4] Strictly, the term tornado refers to the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud.

A funnel cloud is a visible condensation funnel with no associated strong winds at the surface. Not all funnel clouds evolve into a tornado. However, many tornadoes are preceded by a funnel cloud as the mesocyclonic rotation descends toward the ground. Most tornadoes produce strong......

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Title: Tornados
Approximate Word Count: 6721
Approximate Pages: 27 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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