Watch a tornado form during a strong thunderstorm
Watch a tornado form during a strong thunderstorm
Learn how tornadoes form, as explained by John P. Rafferty, earth and life sciences editor of Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
A tornado is a weather phenomenon that extends from a strong thunderstorm. Tornadoes are formed when a layer of cool dry air sits on top of a layer of warm moist air at the surface. You have a very warm day that heats up the air at the surface--maybe over a large region of a crop--and the water in that crop saturates the air and wants to move upward. So, long about the mid-afternoon when temperatures are the highest of the day, that upward movement is very very rapid. And that intensifies thunderstorms and could bring about the possibility of tornadoes.