Do tornados hit hills?
468053
A big misconception is that tornadoes do not strike in mountains and around hills. People also believe that they do not cross water. Also it is a myth that tornadoes do not strike in big cities.\n\nWrong.Wrong.Wrong.\n\nTornadoes can strike anywhere!\n\nBe safe & get all the facts.\n\nBelow are websites that I use with my students when they create tornado safety pamphlets. They have to incorporate common myths about tornadoes.
1106871
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.
256868
Not at all true. Not only can they move west, there are sometimes tornadoes which don't spin counterclockwise.
109227
A tornado is basically like a giant vacuum cleaner.  They are frightening and amazing all at the same time!\n\nEverything you ever wanted to know about them can be found in this excellent resource from NOAA.
1005973
When I was a student pilot, my flight instructor and I were flying from McAllen, TX back to Harlingen,TX. We spotted a small tornado below and to the right of us about five miles. We watched it for several minutes and reported it to the Flight Service Station in the area. It even made the news that night. That was in 1967.
847338
i read in a tornado book that i bought, tornado alley in the U.S. gets the most tornadoes in the whole world.  Conditions are just right for it here.  There is nowhere else that tornadoes are common, but tornadoes can happen anywhere
1097410
No, don't think a tornado is a possibility. But if they tied themselves together and lit their farts, do you think they would take off?  :)
535926
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.
401694
Any of the states in the region of the country referred to as Tornado Alley.\n\nThe site of most tornadoes a year aren't actually in Kansas, but in Texas and, in some years, Oklahoma...
235687
It doesn't.  That's why most boys in Tennessee use a rock hanging from a string to emulate a complete weather station.  If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.  If the rock is wet, it's raining.  If the rock is gone, it's a tornado.
517589
Yes, we have floods, but I can't think of any tornadoes of any significance, ever. We also have earthquakes.
636472
I live in tornado alley and used to live in a mobile home it was just less expensive at the time.  I now own a home but you know I hear of more houses getting hit by tornadoes than trailers.  I guess you just take out insurance and hope for the best.
666917
There's nothing wrong with being interested in tornadoes, especially if they scare you. Learning about them is the way to stop being scared. The trick is to take cover and be safe when they're around. Many of the scientists and chasers who study tornadoes became interested in a similar way.
608754
I love to watch them on tv. I love a thunderstorm near my house. Never been in a tornado or hurricane but they look really scary on tv. I think I would be very scared if I had to go thru a tornado of hurricane. We had a tropical storm one time with winds up to 70 mph. It was awful and lasted all night. I was so worried about the trees crashing on my house. They didn't but the ones in the far back fell. The house shook.
80711
I lived there five years, and I don't remember a single one. I hear that higher elevation deters tornado formation. Once, a hurricane plowed through the whole state and did some damage to Boone and the surrounding area, so maybe that counts.
928319
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.
982259
They are very rare, but I think as long as there is cold air clashing with warmer air (which can happen even in the winter), you can create conditions favorable to tornado developement. We had a severe snow storm in which we had thunder and lightning, the sky even turned slightly yellow....scary.