Tornadoes
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31 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 vortex | a whirling mass of air, center of a tornado |
| tornado | a rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down from a storm cloud to touch earth's surface |
| funnel cloud | A cone-shaped cloud |
| tornado alley | Area in the western United States from west Texas to the Dakotas known for its frequency of tornado strikes |
| doppler radar | a type of radar that calculates distance and shows direction of movement |
| fujiti scale | A scale that tells how severe a tornado is based on wind and speed and damage being caused. |
| crouched | Get low on the ground. |
| debris | the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up |
| demolished | torn down or knocked down |
| destructive | Causing lots of damage. |
| flattened | Smashed |
| garments | Items of clothing |
| outbreak | a sudden violent spontaneous occurrence (usually of some undesirable condition) |
| rubble | Broken bricks and stones |
| shelter | A place where you can keep during bad weather such as a tornado. |
| updraft | A strong wind created by rising warm air. |
| uprooted | Torn and pulled out by the roots. |
| waterspout | A small water tornado |
| cyclone | A violent rotating windstorm |
| atmospheric pressure | the pressure exerted by the atmosphere |
| cumulus clouds | puffy white clouds that tend to have flat bottoms |
| cumulonimbus clouds | Are thunderclouds and are likely to generate lightning, hail and fierce convection currents. When the cloud reaches very high levels it is composed of ice crystals which tail off in the upper wind, This is then known as the anvil. |
| Mesocyclones | a large, rotating circulation initiated within a parent cumulonimbus cloud at the mid-troposphere level. Produces heavy rain, large hail, blustery winds, and lighting |
| rotation | Turning around an axis or center point of the tornado. |
| wind shear | A change in wind direction and/or wind speed within a very short distance that can adversely affect maneuverability of an aircraft |
| Meteorologists | Scientists who study how a tornado forms,how it starts and weather forecasting. |
| convergence of air | Air coming from two different direction meets and pushes upwards |
| front | (meteorology) the atmospheric phenomenon created at the boundary between two different air masses |
| anticyclone | High speed winds high above the earth force air into a swirling vortex or whirl |
| angular momentum | As air in a anticyclone moves inward toward the area of low pressure, the the energy of rotation |
| air mass | When cool dry air from the north and warm moist air from the south meet in the middle of the united states it mixes and forms a tornado. |
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