Tornadoes: What to Do During a Tornado

When I was a kid, we lived in the Midwest inside that broad swath of land stretching north from Texas through the Great Plains states in what is called "Tornado Alley". I was lucky enough to never have seen a tornado myself, even though some tornadoes came a little too close for comfort. Here are a few things to know about what tornadoes are, how tornadoes work, and what to do if you are ever in a tornado.

What Is a Tornado

A tornado is the result of a warm front in the atmosphere colliding with a cold front. Warm, moist rises up; it is forced sideways by colder air above, and begins to spin. When this violently spinning air touches the ground, it is called a tornado. There are many cases of spinning air that does not touch the ground; in this case it would not be called a "tornado" but simply a "funnel cloud". A funnel cloud precedes a tornado.

Why Tornadoes Cause So Much Damage

Consider that a powerful hurricane, say a Category 3 hurricane like monstrous Hurricane Ike, has wind speeds of up to 130 miles per hour. A Category 5 hurricane like Hurricane Katrina has wind speeds of at least 155 miles per hour. By contrast, the most dangerous of all tornadoes, the F5 tornado, has wind speeds that begin at 261 miles per hour! Even less severe tornadoes, such as an F2 or an F3 tornado, can have winds between 113 and 206 miles per hour - stronger than your average to strong hurricane.

It is because of the incredibly powerful tornado winds that tornadoes do such damage. In recent American history, powerful tornadoes have literally wiped American towns off the map, including the small town of Greensburg, KS. The tornado that destroyed Greensburg was an F5 tornado that spanned nearly two miles in diameter.

Are We Safer from Tornadoes than in the Past?

The F5 tornado that struck Greensburg, KS, in 2007 has been compared to a 1955 tornado that killed 77 people in the town of Udall, KS. Since that deadly tornado, tornado watches and tornado warnings have been implemented to give people more time to find safety from tornadoes.

If you've ever been near a tornado, you know that the sky turns an eerie color right before the tornado strikes (in the Midwest the sky would turn pea-soup green before a tornado struck), and everything goes strangely quiet. No birds, no dogs barking - maybe only the sound of your local emergency alarms. When you notice these signs during a severe thunderstorm, seek shelter from the right away! All the tornado warnings in the world cannot replace common sense.

While even being close to a tornado can be a frightening experience, if you are lucky enough to have a basement, you should be relatively safe if you take the right precautions. If you do not have a basement, get away from windows and glass and hunker down in your bathtub. Still, a bathtub is not particularly safe from a tornado; if you have a neighbor with a basement, make friends and an emergency plan to seek shelter with them in the event of a tornado warning.

Some people are also starting to build "safe rooms" in their homes in the case of a tornado or other dangerous event. However you find shelter, please don't take a tornado lightly. All the modern technology in the world has not yet prevented people from dying as a result of these deadly tornadoes, so please take precautions.