Is it likely or possible for a human to live through a tornado?
916746
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.  :-)
502971
i believe if you take two two liter pepsi bottles and fill one with water and tape the openings together so it looks like a giant egg timer when you turn one bottle upside down and swirl it a little it will cause a tornado effect.
350582
omg I hear the sirens monitor!! This is scary stuff. Get your pants on. You don't wanna be caught in this tornado with your pants down!! \n\nSeriously guys.......this is spooky scary!! Bang on the girl's apartment three doors down. I hear she has a roach motel!
47429
Go here http://www.fema.gov/hazards/tornadoes/\nand here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornadoes
254379
There are probably a few explanations, However a whirlwind probably not a tornado possibly. could you add some detail where are you located?\n\nI beleive there was some tornado activity in your area today.
392790
A tornado watch means that weather conditions are favorable for producing a tornado.  Doesn't mean that there will be one.\nA tornado warning means that a tornado has either been spotted or Doppler radar indicates the presence of a tornado.\nIn any case, you want to go down into your basement if you are inside or a central room like a bathroom and make sure to bring a flashlight and maybe even a small battery operated radio to check the weather status.\nIf you are outside or in a car, get out of the car and lay as low as possible, preferably in a ditch.  Watch for accumulating water and flash floods to avoid drowning. Do NOT go underneath a bridge, flying debris can easily strike and kill you there.\nIf inside a public building, look for the storm shelter and if no storm shelter, go to the NE corner of the building since tornadoes typically travel from SW to NE.
985762
You can make a tornado tube, and this website tells you exactly how to do it:\nhttp://ns.isp.nsc.ru/l24/mamont/climate/tornado.htm
184181
Oh thats an oldy but a goody. Its really not a stupid thing to prepare for bad times. Tornados,fires,floods,earthquakes. Just cause the media tells people its strange to have duct tape and water around dont mean its true. Good source is paladin press for books like this one
457720
Well, tornadoes can hit anytime.
304925
That's a misconception, in the event of a tornado it will cover a great area, the weakest structures are the most damaged, so the news cover it, that's why you see a lot of photos and videos of "trailer parks hit by tornado"; as an example one tornado could also hit a heavy steel and concrete bunker, and you'll see no evidence of damage nor victims......
348378
After reading some of the earlier replies to this question, I think I (or someone else with expertise in meteorology) must respond. First, DO NOT WASTE PRECIOUS TIME OPENING THE WINDOWS OF YOUR HOME!!! This is an old-wives tale, passed down by those who do not understand the pressure-loading upon walls during tornadic events. The inside of a tornado is low pressure, much lower than in your home. As a tornado passes near or over the home, pressure builds on the inside of the walls, out. Due to the depth of the low in a tornado, this pressure builds up much earlier than will any damage from in-blown debris will occur. In fact, if the windows are going to blow out, they will do so whether you go around opening them or not. Opening the windows also does not alleviate the pressure build-up along the walls, since unless you own clerestory windows (for which you can't open anyway) and your entire house is glass, the pressure will still build up along the walls regardless. Opening the windows is only a time-waster, and will offer no real protection from anything. At best, from the time those sirens go off, you have 15 minutes to get to cover - you do NOT have time to waste opening windows.\n\nSecond, unless you are a trained storm spotter or experienced chaser (and, since you're asking this question, you aren't) DO NOT try and "film" the tornado. Quite frankly, every civilian who does this not only puts their own lives at risk, but they also selfishly endanger the lives of EMS and civil defense workers. I personally think that every good-timing yahoo who tries to film the tornado, and lacks the knowledge to do so safely, should be mandated to make the calls to the families of the police, fire, and EMS heroes who sacrifice in the line of duty to save the idiots.\n\nAnother misconception that needs to be dispelled before someone suggests it, is DO NOT seek refuge under an overpass if you're caught outside in a tornadic event. Five or six years ago, there was some infamous footage of a t.v. camera crew taking cover under an overpass when they themselves were caught outside while taping the storm (yet another example of point 2 above). They luckily survived, and because they did, many people who watched the tape believed (falsely) that this was a good tactic. If you examine the equation of vorticity, you will note that the wind speed actually increases as the circumference of the confining area decreases- in other words, the wind speed and force actually increases under overpasses. At least a few souls that I know of found this out the hard way. If you're caught outside, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to lie smooshed-down, as flat as you can, into the nearest gulley or ditch; cover your head and neck with your arms so that you have at least some protection from debris. Hopefully, this tactic will shield you from debris, and may reduce the suction force since wind speeds slow down considerably in the boundary layer due to friction forces.\n\nIf you're in your car, abandon it and follow the procedure in paragraph 3 - you do not have the experience to know how to drive around a tornado and stay (relatively) safe. If you're in an apartment or trailer, either seek shelter in the storm shelter the property managers have (hopefully) put on-site or follow either the outdoor procedures (trailer park residents) or the following house advice (apartment dwellers). If you're in an apartment which does not have a shelter, or a house, seek shelter either (ideally) in a basement or in a window-less, centrally-located bathroom - or if all else fails, closet. You need windowless because you want to avoid flying glass and debris, and central because most tornados that strike are F3 or lower, which will only typically take the outer walls, and leave inner rooms intact. Bathrooms offer more protection than closets, because of the plumbing in the walls (of course, this only really applies if the plumb
51152
Natural disaster...tornado, earthquake, etc.
997243
Hello..I just wanted to answer your question and most likely amaze you just a little...lol...In my 37 years of life I have been in 6 hurricanes , 5 tornado's(seen more than 20) 1 house fire, Three major floods and I have seen hail the size of baseballs...I hope this answers your question...And YES its all true....Have a great day...GeneO
316209
We had a tornado blow through our house in 1987. We called it black friday. Our house was torn and I was just 10 years old at the time. I remember that my parents were both at work and my older siblings and I were playing outside. The air was clear and dead silent. No birds were chirping. All of a sudden there were hail stones as big as golf balls pouring down. We were smart, we went inside. I helped my older siblings gather up the younger ones ( there was 7 of us) and we called my dad. We were told to get to the basement and stay there. We did. Within 30 minutes of that call, the roof of our house was torn off. A day that I am sure none of us will forget. No one was hurt, but there was a lot of damage and debris everywhere.
570708
Tornado is the most violent of all storms. A tornado, sometimes called a twister, consists of a rapidly rotating column of air that forms under a thundercloud or a developing thundercloud. Tornado winds swirl at speeds that may exceed 300 miles (480 kilometers) per hour. A powerful tornado can lift cattle, automobiles, and even mobile homes into the air and destroy almost everything in its path. Fortunately, most tornadoes are relatively weak, and only a few are devastating. \nScientists use the word cyclone to refer to all spiral-shaped windstorms that circulate in a counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere or in a clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The term cyclone comes from the Greek word for circle. Cyclones come in many sizes. Among the largest such storms are hurricanes and typhoons, which may reach 250 miles (400 kilometers) across. \nMost tornadoes are small, intense cyclones. On rare occasions, the winds whirl in the direction opposite that of a cyclone--for example, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. \nMost tornadoes have damage paths less than 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide, move at less than 35 miles (55 kilometers) per hour, and last only a few minutes. Extremely destructive twisters may reach 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) in diameter, travel at 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour, and blow for more than an hour. \nThe United States has the highest incidence of tornadoes in the world. Most of these storms occur in a belt known as Tornado Alley that stretches across the Midwestern and Southern states, especially Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. However, tornadoes also strike many other parts of the world. Australia ranks second to the United States in number of twisters, and many damaging tornadoes strike Bangladesh. Tornadoes occur most often during the spring and early summer in the late afternoon and early evening. \nA tornado over a body of water is called a waterspout. Waterspouts occur frequently in summer over the Florida Keys. Waterspouts also form elsewhere in the Gulf, along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, over the Great Lakes, and even over the Great Salt Lake in Utah. \nThe story of a tornado. The majority of tornadoes develop from severe thunderstorms. A hurricane, when it makes landfall, can also generate tornadoes. \nThe most damaging tornadoes form in large, powerful thunderstorms called supercells. For a supercell to form, and perhaps spawn a tornado, several conditions must exist. There must be an adequate supply of moisture to feed the storm. In Tornado Alley, air from the Gulf of Mexico provides the moisture. There must be a layer of warm, moist air near the ground and a layer of much cooler air above. Often, a front (the boundary between two air masses at different temperatures) powers an upward flow of warm air. As the warm air rises, it begins to cool, and the moisture it holds condenses into raindrops. The air stops rising at high levels and spreads sideways to form a characteristic anvil-shaped storm cloud. \nFor a supercell to develop, the winds at higher elevations must differ markedly from those at lower levels in speed, direction, or both. Such a large difference in wind speed or direction is called wind shear. Wind shear makes the column of rising air begin to rotate, forming a broad, horizontal tube of swirling air. As the storm continues, this tube turns on its end, producing a rotating column of air called a mesocyclone. Studies show that most supercells containing mesocyclones eventually produce tornadoes. \nA low, dark, heavy cloud called a wall cloud forms underneath the mesocyclone. Tornado funnels develop out of the wall cloud. \nThe first sign of an approaching tornado may be light rain, followed by heavier rain, then rain mixed with hail. The hailstones may grow to the size of golf balls or even baseballs. After the hail ends, a tornado may strike. In most tornadoes, a funnel-shaped cloud forms and descends from the wall cloud until it touche
565442
That sounds like an interesting topic.  Here are some good websites (I tried to pick reputable ones) to help you get started.  Good luck on your portfolio.\n\nhttp://www.noaa.gov/tornadoes.html\nThis one has a good summary of what a tornado is, where and when they occur, and explains the scale used to rate tornadoes.  It's got many links to other helpful sites too.\n\nhttp://www.wildwildweather.com/twisters.htm\nThis site has a lot of good info on how tornadoes form and also has a lot of images of tornadoes and people who chase them.\n\nhttp://www.weatherwizkids.com/tornado.htm\nThis site is geared towards younger audiences, it's very good at explaining tornadoes and many facts about them.
274665
The definition of a tornado is a violently rotating column of air that extends from the base of a thunderstorm to ground level.  The circulation MUST go all the way to the ground and all the way to the cloud base.  There does not need to be a visible funnel for a tornado to occur.  The visible funnel often is the result of debris or rain being wrapped into the circulation.  This is why tornadoes come in different colors.  A tornado that moves over the red dirt of Oklahoma may take on a red hue, while one that moves over black soil may look black.  There are even "white" tornadoes, which get their tone from moisture being wrapped in.\n\nRadar is useful for determining if a thunderstorm has the necessary circulation in the mid levels to produce a tornado or that a storm COULD produce a tornado, but it can't tell if that circulation is actually on the ground.  Only human eyes can tell that.  As a result, the National Weather Service works with specially trained volunteer weather spotters through a program called SKYWARN.  These spotters are mostly volunteers, most of whom are licensed Amateur Radio operators.  These spotters monitor the storms from the field and radio reports of tornadoes or other hazardous weather to a liaison or directly to the NWS.  Some spotters also "chase" storms.  They watch the weather forecasts and may travel to areas where storms are likely to form.\n\nI'm a SKYWARN weather spotter, and have seen several tornadoes over the years.  It's a real trip to see a tornado form, move and eventually "rope out" and die.  However, it's very dangerous to get close to one (obviously!).  I was just in the right/wrong place at the time...\n\nThe sites I have listed below are ones that I have found useful over the years.  You can even get your own local weather by going to the first link (NWS) on the list and entering in your ZIP or by clicking your area on the map.\n\n*Edited to add another great link (SPC website)