There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in … See more

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud. For a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in … See more

Supercell relationship
Tornadoes often develop from a class of thunderstorms known as supercells. Supercells contain mesocyclones, an area of organized rotation … See more

The Fujita scale, Enhanced Fujita scale (EF), and International Fujita scale rate tornadoes by damage caused. The EF scale was an update to the older Fujita scale, by expert elicitation, using engineered wind estimates and better damage … See more

The word tornado comes from the Spanish tronada (meaning 'thunderstorm', past participle of tronar 'to thunder', itself in turn from the See more

Size and shape
Most tornadoes take on the appearance of a narrow funnel, a few hundred meters (yards) across, with a … See more

Multiple vortex
A multiple-vortex tornado is a type of tornado in which two or more columns of spinning air rotate about their own axes and at the same time revolve around a common center. A multi-vortex structure can occur in almost … See more