Recently, two meteorologists at the University of Oklahoma, Nathan Snook and Ming Xue, have ran a series of simulations to study how tornadoes get their spin. First of all, tornadoes are caused by hot, humid weather in a cold clouded area. The men tested many different types of precipitation to see what could help cause a tornado's spin. Including, small hailstones, large hailstones, small raindrops, large raindrops, small hailstones and raindrops, and large hailstones and raindrops. They concluded that the size of the precipitation is a part that makes the tornado spin. When there is a small droplet of water, it is easier to evaporate, causing the rain or hail to fall to the Earth. This is also because smaller amounts of precipitation cool the air, eliminating the hot, humid air that causes a tornado. Larger droplets resist evaporation and do not cool the air during the storm, creating low pressure and starting the sucking force in the air. This force spins the air and creates the spin of a tornado. I think this is a cool topic to learn about and study because you can always witness weather and its everywhere around you. It is also cool because I never knew that something actually caused the tornado to spin, I thought it was only because that was what a tornado was. This is just another step to finding ways to prevent the damage tornadoes around the world have put onto lives and many peoples homes.
I got my information from: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/105/2
and the picture from: http://www.billspringer.com/share/tornado/mb-tornado-01.gif
