Now I look in the dictionary and see "The tornado (synonyms - tornado) is a very strong rotating vortex."
Indeed, a tornado and a tornado are very similar in appearance, but the physical mechanisms of the phenomena are different.
A tornado most often occurs when cold air invades a warmer surface of land or water and is not always associated with a thundercloud. It forms at the earth's surface, gradually rising up in the form of a pillar.
A tornado, on the other hand, is always associated with thunderclouds, and with very powerful and large clouds, which are called supercells. In such clouds, the rotation of the air inevitably occurs - due to the strongest upward movements covering the front of the cloud. When the air currents converge to one point, a rotation is always formed - like a funnel in the drain hole of a sink. The vortex motion in a thundercloud is gradually transmitted to the lower layers of the air - this is how a tornado is born. And unlike a tornado, a tornado descends from the cloud down, in the form of a trunk. In most cases, a tornado is more powerful than a tornado.
The structure of a tornado usually looks like this. The most powerful ascending currents at the periphery of the vortex - moreover, the speed of vertical movements reaches 40 m / s! That is why a tornado, like a vacuum cleaner, draws in not only dust and debris, but animals, people and even cars! In the very core of the vortex, descending air movements are often observed. The wind speed in the tornado zone often reaches 100 m / s. This is due to the huge pressure drop, which reaches 1 mm of mercury per 100 meters. The lowest pressure is at the center of the tornado. That is why, when a vortex passes through a closed building, windows and doors inevitably fly out of it, and sometimes even walls are squeezed out! The pressure inside the house does not have time to equalize with the outside, and the building literally bursts.
Tornadoes can occur in almost any corner of the planet, except for mountainous and polar regions. The absolute leaders, of course, are the Great Plains in the USA: on average, about 30 cases per year. Tornadoes often occur in southern Brazil and China. In other regions, including most regions of Russia, the conditions for the occurrence of tornadoes are formed 1-2 times a year.
In the history of meteorological observations, they were noted in the south of our country, and in the North-West, in the Urals, and even in Siberia. And all the same for cold Russia - this is a rare phenomenon. The only exception is the Black Sea coast. In Moscow and the Moscow region, tornadoes are observed approximately once every 20 years. The most powerful was the vortex on June 29, 1904, it is described in detail by Vladimir Gilyarovsky in the essays "Hurricane" and "Russian Word". Dozens of people became victims of the disaster.
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It is believed that by the end of the 21st century the frequency of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in Russia will increase, although they are unlikely to become commonplace, as in the United States.
