Tornados: An Overview of Development

Tornados create havoc and lead to deadly impacts on many areas of the country especially within the south and midwest, east of the Rocky Mountains, especially during the spring and summer months.  Accounting for many deaths, injuries and property destruction, tornados most often present without much warning leaving many to suffer in the rubble of the aftermath.  Understanding the basic development of tornados will provide residents in the south and midwest with a more educated basis for taking shelter during potential tornado producing storms.  

Created through a low pressure disturbance, during a warm thunderstorm setting, tornados often are accompanied by signfiicant amounts of hail.   As a dry line develops during a storm, separating warm, moist air from hot, dry air, dryline thunderstorms will develop rapidly with a signficiant potential for tornado activity.   Within a hail producing thunderstorm, a tornoado will develop when wind speeds quickly change direction, creating an upward motion within a lowering atmosphere.  When this occurs, the area of tornado producing rotation commonly expands from two to six miles in width within the storm.   To the naked eye, dark heavy clouds will appear within an area of lowering cloud cover commonly spiking downward indicating a tornado is developing.