Tornado Facts – Interesting Facts About Tornadoes

Tornado Facts

Tornadoes mostly travel a few miles and exhaust themselves.

Extreme and massive tornadoes can travel over 100 miles or 161 km.

When a tornado occurs over water, it is called a waterspout.

Tornadoes are detected by Pulse-Doppler radar.

Underground and basement areas are the safest areas to seek refuge during a tornado. Stay away from windows and door.

Tornadoes are also known as twisters or cyclones.

Tornadoes sometimes appear as wide funnel shaped clouds and other times as thin rope like swirls.

Funnel clouds can usually last less than 10 minutes before dissipating, and many only last several seconds. It is very rare for a cyclone to last over an hour.

Tornadoes are more frequent in the afternoon; however they can happen anytime, even at night.

Tornadoes are formed from the extremely large thunderstorms called super cells.