how are thunderstorms and tornadoes alike
129007
Thunderstorms are often caused by the same conditions that tornadoes need to form. When there is a temperature inversion, where a mass of hot air is trapped under a mass of cold air, the hot air wants to rise and the cold air wants to sink. When something called a 'discontinuity' or 'catastrophe' occurs, the air masses begin to slip and spiral past one another, with the hot air rising and the cold air sinking. When the whirling air reaches the ground, it sucks up everything in its path.  Thunderstorms often happen when hot and old air masses collide. Friction between the moving air masses causes sparks of static electricity (lightning) and air currents in the clouds sometimes lift ice particles up and down over and over again so that they pick up more droplets of moisture which freeze on them and that is how hailstones grow. When the air masses collide, one can start to ride up over the other one, leading to the temperature inversion mentioned earlier.
194289
clouds some times get charged to positive or negetive. the opposite charge is develped on the earth over which the cloud stands. if the cloud is close enough and the charge is good enough especially when water content in the air is high there will be an electric discharge fron the cloud to the earth. this is lightning and the noise of the discharge is thunder
4851
Actually, scientists understand a lot about tornadoes, but cannot completely predict them because they happen on such a micro-scale compared to other weather phenomenae.  Scientists can predict when conditions are favorable for tornadic activity (like when a tornado warning is issued), but can't predict excatly where one will occur until moments before hand.
269335
i must imagine you are talking about vortices, like tornadoes, and hurricane eye walls, however it is a big misconception that the eye of the hurricane is a column, its eyewall is slanted, so it is bigger at the top than at the bottom, it gives you the illusion of being in a football stadium, that is way too huge.  And tornadoes are slightly like that, but mostly they are column like.  So in response to that Columns do rule, If you want to learn more about them you should become a meteorologist and do research on tornadoes and hurricanes, I am working on research on hurricane Katrina.
628247
I've seen several funnel clouds, those are an awesome and chilling sight. By the time you notice them they're pretty well-formed. Almost all of them last a few seconds and either dissipate or roll back up into the sky. We were actually involved with a real tornado three years ago, It was an F1-F2 that stayed on the ground for almost thirty miles. I heard  the siren go off in the next town, we got the kids and the dogs in the basement. My wife and I kept going outside and looking around for something more threatening than the usual oncoming thunderstorm. After about 10 minutes we heard the freight train coming and headed downstairs. The house shook enough that the dust came down from the rafters. It lasted less than thirty seconds and then a whole lot of rain came down. The tornado missed us by 200 yards. The telephone pole in the corner of my back yard was okay, the one next to it was torn out of the ground and thrown across the road. The one next to that was torn out and thrown a hundred yards. No one in my rural neighborhood was hurt, but they did wind up bulldozing and rebuilding three homes. The home across the street had the front porch torn off and thrown over the roof, exposing a large hole in the roof deck that let in enough rain to collapse most of the ceilings. The path of damage was maybe a half-mile wide. Homes outside that range did not see much damage. I was surprised that the wind was toward the tornado, not away from it. The funnel was enough of a low-pressure point to draw the air towards it at a hundred-and-some miles an hour. The broken trees have repaired themselves, the homes and farms have been rebuilt, The only lasting reminder is a lot of sheets of tin barn roof still wrapped around treetops. We're in Northern Ohio. Moderate tornado damage is at least a yearly event in the area. Huge destructive disastrous storms like they get in the plains are a rarity.
134089
to answer your second question..yes northern hemisphere tornadoes can, although rare, rotate clockwise. Here is a link or two that address both questions.
249478
I live in Missouri...seen 10 + tornadoes in my lifetime in this area.  Tried chasing storms for a while a few years ago...went into Kansas and Oklahoma and seen most of them when I did that.  As a kid, I think I was 8, there was one that traveled about 1/4 mile from my house and we watched it.  Wild stuff....I love storms, the more destructive, the better.  My apologies to those of you who disagree with that statement, but it's just my opinion.  Don't like it?  Sorry 'bout your luck.
511992
I've never heard it been used in weather but some most-known related slang terms to tornadoes are: twister ,whirlwind ,wedge , funnel , gustnado, landspout, willy-willy , or rope.\n\nI hope thats enough.
503307
I've been in a tornado. It is quite an experience alright. This tornado wasn't too wide, maybe 100 yards - and moving across the ground at about 30 mph. It came right at our house and lifted just slightly as it passed overhead. The houses in front of my house were gone, the houses behind my house had their roofs ripped off. My brother was watching the rain hit the picture window, and when it was on top of us, the window was just white from the water - you could see nothing. I was on the front porch when it hit. Just like that the  picture window came crashing thru the house giving my brother 2 huge black eyes. The pressure of the air was pushing the porch door so hard, I couldn't open it. My mom was inside trying to pull the door open - I was pushing. We could only see each other through the glass window in the door. I was hanging on the doorknob for dear life :-) I felt myself get very light and my feet almost came off the porch when the glass in the door broke. Me and my mom grabbed each other through the broken window. I was already blinded by debris and I think that's why I wasn't blinded by the glass. I already had my eyes closed. I was shattered with flying glass - My face and arms had cuts all over. When the door window broke, it 'released' the pressure holding it closed and we were able to open the door. My mom was trying to get my brother and sister down into the basement. The room had about 2 feet of water in it. Everything was floating. The tornado was right overhead. The whole house was shaking. It was a really loud sound. We were just able to get into the basement and stuff came flying into the house. Rocks, wood, etc. It lasted about 3 minutes - and then we came out of the basement just in time to see the houses behind us getting clobbered. I was on the front porch watching it come at us, but was just facinated at the destruction it was causing before it hit. I can laugh now - but no one was laughing when it hit. :-) I'll never forget the look on my brother and sister face when that picture window crashed down on them - I'll never forget the panic look in my mom's face.\nYa wanna hear something ironic? About 8 years later I was drafted into the Viet Nam War, so I enlisted in the Air Force before the Army could get me. I ended up being a weatherman and was assigned to chasing tornados to launch weatherballoons into them along 'Tornado Alley' (nickname for route 66 from Chicago to Oklahoma where the most tornados occur). Funny thing, being a tornado chaser wasn't even close to being in one - not even close.  :-)
175287
http://www.bookfinder4u.com/search/Tornado.html\n\n\nyou should find it there..
81119
A tornado watch is simply stating that the conditions are right for a tornado, but none have been spotted.\n\nA tornado warning is saying that a tornado has been spotted.
317666
Ever heard of May 3rd? The F5 tornado that damaged much of Oklahoma was the most awesome and yet most frightening storm I have ever seen.  Total devastation as far as you could see.
401129
Hey...try living in Arkansas...when we get wind gusts, they get up around 200-400 miles per hour and go round and round...you get to see cows, cars, and churches fly....LOL
166788
From someone with a similar awe for tornadoes, and one who has yet to see a dustdevil (never been to that part of the country), I really have to say the answer is a pretty much consistant no.\n\nTornadoes can be much stronger and longer lived because they form in much more persistant conditions and extend from the ground up into the cloud.  Dustdevils indeed form due to the temperature differences near very strong convection (heating from the sun).  Dustdevils don't last very long and are much shallower.  I've never heard of a dustdevil causing damage either (though I suspect occasionally an exceptionally strong one might cause some minor damage similar to an F0 tornado).  I've seen videos of kids running and playing in them in a hay field before, so methinks you're right not to be worried about them... though I know I would be equally as wary of them coming from back east!\n\nHope I helped,\nShane
276378
Yeah! I love em. I'm a weather freak. I'll stand outside until it starts hailing hard or I'm gonna get struck by lightning. But if they're at night when I'm trying to sleep, and I can't see much, it's not so fun. Especially if hail is hitting your window with 60 mph wind gusts. when I get out on my own, I wanna be a storm spotter
395701
Oh i love that! its like so peacful and the wind is blowing your hair back..... oh i just luv it! but my absolute favorite part of the storm is the thunder and lightning!
127770
tornado begins in a severe thunderstorm called a supercell. A supercell can last longer than a regular thunderstorm. The same property that keeps the storm going also produces most tornadoes. The wind coming into the storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel. The air in the funnel spins faster and faster and creates a very low pressure area which sucks more air (and possibly objects) into it. \n\nThe severe thunderstorms which produce tornadoes form where cold dry polar air meets warm moist tropical air. This is most common in a section of the United States called Tornado Alley. Also, the atmosphere needs to be very unstable. \n\nTornadoes can form any time during the year, but most form in May. But, more severe ones form earlier because the most damge is caused in April. The more north you go, the later the peak tornado season is. This is because it takes longer to warm the northern parts of the plains so tornadoes form later. \n\nMost tornadoes spin cyclonically but a few spin anticyclonically. Because there are records of anticyclonic tornadoes, scientists don't think that the Coriolis Effect causes the rotations.