Cause of Tornadoes

What causes tornadoes ?

A tornado is rapidly spinning air that develops from a thunderstorms and is on the ground. The ingredients for a tornado are a thunderstorm, winds changing speeds with height and rapidly rising air. When you watch a thunderstorm develop you will notice that the clouds build upward. This rising air is what causes all the rain and hail to form from the water in the air. The addition of changing wind speed and direction with height causes the rising air to spin. Think about spinning a top. You spin your fingers in opposite directions to get the top to spin. This is the same as wind coming from different directions. Most thunderstorms do not produce tornadoes because the spin is not balanced with the air rising from the surface. When the balance is just right though between the rising air coming into a thunderstorm and the winds changing with height then a tornado can form. Tornadoes can be weak or strong and last a few seconds up to many minutes.

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