Impacts of tornadoes

Impacts of tornadoes

A tornado is one of the most intense and destructive wind found on the Earth’s surface. Due to the fact that they as most common to form along a cold front mean that they can, and regularly do form in groups over wide areas. They are very destructive because the funnel wall has a very large lifting force. A large tornado has the ability to move large objects weighing as much as 300 tonnes tens of metres and can move large houses hundreds of metres. As well as being able to move large objects, tornadoes have the ability to suck up vast quantities of water. In the past, tornadoes have been seen to completely drain rivers and completely exposing the bed.
But this is not the most destructive part of a tornado. Explosions inside the tornado occur due to a large dip in pressure that happens in a very short time period. Buildings with higher air pressure’s to that of the tornadoes cause the explosion. When the high pressure is unable to escape fast enough, a large explosion is created, these explosions also produce vast amounts of heat, which can actually be the main cause of death through severe burning.

Tornadoes alone killed over 12,000 people between 1916 and 2000. Although now there is on average 200 less deaths a decade due to warning and awareness. In 1927 a town of 1200 was wiped out in under 90 seconds with 26% of the population being either dead or severely injured. Although now death toll has reduced, costs of repairs are still large. In 1974 315 people were killed in a 16 hour period between Alabama and Canada but caused damages which cost $500millionUSD.

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Resources used

• Environmental Hazards-Assessing risk and reducing disaster (Fifth edition) Keith Smith and David N. Petley
• Natural Hazards (Second Edition) Edward Bryant