Devastating recent news
The most recent tornado was that of December 11, 2021 in Kentucky; USA. At least four tornadoes hit the state, and one of them was unusually violent and prolonged considering the time of year: when it touched the ground, it travelled about 200 miles!
The worst was for Graves country, in particular the town of Mayfield, where a factory in which more than a hundred people were working at that time collapsed. One of the few people who survived gave a testimony in which he said that their employer had prevented him from leaving the factory, even though there was an alert, and he had told them that whoever tried to leave would be fired.
But what is a tornado?
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air
extending from the base of the thunderstorm down to the ground. Tornadoes are
capable of completely destroying well-made structures, uprooting trees, and
hurling objects through the air like deadly missiles. They can occur at any
time of the day or night and at any time of the year. Although
tornadoes are most common in the Central Plains and the southeastern United States,
they have been reported in all 50 states.
How do tornadoes form?
A tornado forms from a large thunderstorm. Inside thunderclouds, warm, humid air rises, while cool air falls along with rain or hail. These conditions can cause spinning air currents inside the cloud. Although the spinning currents start out horizontal, they can turn vertical and drop down from the cloud becoming a tornado. The winds inside the spinning column of some tornadoes are the fastest of any on Earth. They have been clocked at over 300 miles per hour! For a while it hangs suspended in the sky. Then it extends to the ground. When it touches, it goes even darker as its ferocious whirling winds pick up dust, debris and, if the wind speeds are fast enough, cars, roofs, trees and anything else not well anchored in the ground. It’s hard to measure the winds in a tornado directly. So they are evaluated by the amount of damage they do.
The most devastating tornadoes in history
North America, and particularly the United States, has a fairly significant history of destructive tornadoes, especially in cities like Mississippi, Oklahoma or Moore.
The Tri-State Tornado is still the most violent tornado for which documentation exists. The Tri-State Tornado hit three different states on March 18, 1925. There were 695 victims of its passage. This violent tornado has also made history for its incredible duration; it crossed the Midwest USA starting from south-eastern Missouri, crossed Illinois and finally reached Indiana. The damage and fatalities caused by this tornado meant that it fell into the highest category of the Fujita Scale, category EF5.
The Natchez Tornado struck the town of Natchez in Mississippi on May 7, 1840. It hit the land near the Mississippi River, wreaking havoc on both banks and then headed for Natchez. This very violent tornado killed 137 people in his passage along the river.
On May 27,1898, the central states of the United States saw
the genesis of many tornadoes, including one of extreme violence, which went
down in history the Saint Louis Tornado, the third most destructive in history. Its
passage caused nearly $3 billion in damage. The
tornado touched ground in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the most important cities
in the state, killing 137 people in its long passage over the city. The
tornado in fact travelled 1.6 km, destroying churches, schools, houses and
stations crossing the city in full.
The most recent in the ranking of the 10 most devastating tornadoes is the Joplin Tornado. On May 22, 2011 an EF5 tornado developed just east of the Kansas border, within minutes the tornado intensified, moving east towards the town of Joplin. Here the houses and buildings have been torn from their foundations, 161 people lost their lives. The tornado, at the moment of maximum intensity, reached a diameter of 1 kilometre.
Alessia
F., 4scB
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