Tornadoes, Cyclones, and Hurricanes are three of the most disastrous things on Earth. Tornadoes are extremely destructive and powerful. A tornado is shaped like a funnel and has very high wind speed reaching up to 350 kilometers per hour. Have you ever wondered what was happening inside a tornado? Well, the air pressure at the bottom is very low. When it reaches the surface of the Earth it acts like a vacuum. A tornado can happen when cool, dry air come into contact with warm, moist air. Tornadoes don't last very long only a few minutes. Example: Nebraska Tornado tossed a 225-kilogram baby grand piano across a field. ( Watch the movie Twister)
Cyclones are an area of low pressure that consists of rising warm air. A cyclone spins because the cooler air overpowers the warm rising air causing it to therefore spin. Winds in a cyclone travel counterclockwise. When a cyclone occurs it usually results in rainy stormy weather and massive destruction. Example: The most recent cyclone that occurred in Myanmar near Thailand.
A hurricane is very similar to a cyclone. Hurricane mostly form over the Ocean. The warm and moist air in the hurricane rises and the cooler air slowly moves in. The
forming hurricane starts to spin, The air pressure in the middle decreases so therefore more air is drawn to the already spinning winds on the outer edges. The spinning air forms a circular wall of intense winds that reach 120-320 kilometers per hour. Inside the eye of the hurricane the air is calm because the wind went to the outside. There are many different categories of hurricanes that tell us how extreme they are. Example: Hurricane Katrina was a massive hurricane that wiped out New Orleans. I think tornadoes, cyclones, and hurricanes are fascinating but devastating.
My Sources:
Exploring Earth's Weather Book
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html
