How Tornadoes Form From Thunderstorms

8/24/2021 (Permalink)

If thunderstorms or tornadoes cause water damage to your home or business, contact SERVPRO right away to get our team of experts on your side.

Residents and business owners in our area are freshly familiar with the need for tornado safety and preparedness after recent tornado activity brought major damage to the Newnan area.

Being fully prepared means, in part, knowing the conditions that may arise that can cause future storms, and knowing what to look for so as to recognize the threat of impending danger. Today we’re going to take a look at the formation of tornadoes and how they are birthed from thunderstorm cells.

First off, thunderstorms become more likely in spring and summer, because warm air begins to rise and clash with moisture and cool air in the upper atmosphere—this is called convection, which leads to moisture condensation, rain and the electrical charge disparities that cause lightning.

For a tornado to form within a thunderstorm, a few conditions must be met, an important one being wind shear. Wind shear is the formative stage of the rotation that results in a tornado: Winds at different speeds and at different levels of altitude blowing into the same area create unstable air and circular wind patterns, resulting in a larger thunderstorm and potential cyclonic activity.

Wind shear combines with the rising warm air create rolling, spinning air currents that begin horizontally, but can become vertical if updrafts are strong enough to disrupt them. This causes a storm cell to begin rotating, morphing it into a supercell. And that’s when we have a problem.

In all this rotation, funnel clouds can form and extend from the supercell as moisture and low pressure are drawn in by rotating winds. If a funnel cloud extends all the way to the ground, that’s when it becomes a tornado by definition.

The United States experiences an average of about 1,000 tornadoes per year,, and our area is part of a growing edge of what is known as Tornado Alley, which means it’s possible that more and more of these dangerous storms may be in our future. It’s wise to always be prepared, and to pay careful attention to any meteorological warnings that are put in effect.

Knowing the cause of these storms helps us know when caution is necessary, and readiness is the first step to staying safe in a dangerous situation.

If thunderstorms or tornadoes cause water damage to your home or business, don’t hesitate to make the call. Contact SERVPRO right away to get our team of experts on your side.