Tornado
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A tornado, also known as a twister, is a rapidly rotating column of air that extends vertically from the surface of the Earth to the base of a cumulonimbus or cumulus cloud. Tornadoes are often visibl
A tornado approaching Elie, Manitoba, Canada on June 2007
A tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma, 1999. The funnel is the thin tube reaching from the cloud to the ground. The lower part of this tornado is surrounded by a translucent dust cloud, kicked up by the tornado's strong winds at the surface. The wind of the tornado has a much wider radius than the funnel itself.
Photographs of the Waurika, Oklahoma tornado of May 30, 1976, taken at nearly the same time by two photographers. In the top picture, the tornado is lit by the sunlight focused from behind the camera, thus the funnel appears bluish. In the lower image, where the camera is facing the opposite direction, the sun is behind the tornado, giving it a dark appearance.
A waterspout near the Florida Keys in 1969.
Waterspout
Videos
A waterspout is a rotating column of air that occurs over a body of water, usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud in contact with the water and a cumuliform cloud. There are two types of waterspou
Tornado
…2 mi) in diameter, and can stay on the ground for more than 100 km (62 mi). Types of tornadoes include the multiple-vortex tornado, landspout, and waterspout. Waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally…
Non-tornadic waterspout off the coast of Thailand, 9 December 2016
A family of four waterspouts seen on Lake Huron, 9 September 1999
Four waterspouts seen in the Florida Keys, 5 June 2009
Waterspout in the Tasman Sea, 29 January 2009