[Music] The weather is a funny thing! One day it can be sunny and warm,
perfect day for sunglasses and flip-flops But the next day, it can be cold
and rainy most of the time, the weather doesn't give us
anything that we can't handle with maybe some sunscreen or an umbrella or a snow shovel But sometimes and in some places there can be extreme weather, like big thunderstorms
or hurricanes or snow storms and one of the most powerful kinds
of extreme weather out there is a type of a storm that scientists pay close attention to: tornadoes! A tornado is a fast spinning column of air
that stretches all the way from a thunderstorm cloud in the sky down to the earth's surface Because tornadoes turn and twist as they move,
they're sometimes called 'twisters' They form inside really big thunderstorms when cold, dry air moving from one direction bumps into warm, wet air coming from a different direction Because the cold air is heavier it slides down under the warm air and pushes it up really fast All this fast-moving air rushing up and down
can create a sort of spinning thunderstorm, and it can eventually keep going
to form a tornado And when a tornado forms, it can be one of the most powerful forces in nature Tornado winds are the strongest in the world even stronger than hurricanes In some twisters, we know that the wind can blow to almost 500 kilometers an hour Strong enough to lift heavy things like cars and trucks into the air And they're loud, too!
people who have seen them or even been in them
say they sound like giant roaring trains But they don't move as fast as a speeding train. Usually, tornadoes travel across the land at about 50 kilometers an hour, slower than most cars go Now, weather can be really unpredictable, which means that you just can't predict or know what's going to happen before it happens And that's especially true for tornadoes These windy storms can speed up, slow down, change direction, or even stand still and they can last anywhere from a few seconds to
as long as an hour While tornadoes can happen all over the world, they're most common in the United States About two-thirds of all the tornadoes in the world happen right down the middle of
the country, from the Dakotas down to Texas especially in the late spring and early
summer Because tornadoes are so powerful and so unpredictable, meteorologists spend a lot of time studying them They want to understand more about exactly how and when tornadoes can form, and hopefully predict when they'll show up There are even people called 'storm chasers' who follow big storms around the middle of the US, hoping to spot one as it turns into a tornado so we can get a better picture of what really happens when a twister forms Scientists still don't know for sure
when a tornado is going to happen, but they have gotten better at predicting which thunderstorms
might be strong enough to create one And if they spot a bad looking storm early enough, then they can give people who live nearby a warning that a twister might be coming That's one of the most important jobs that a meteorologist has: helping people get ready for extreme weather So the more they learn about tornadoes, the better we can prepare for them And the more they can help us understand how our weather works even when it's not so extreme I hope the weather is nice where you are,
and if you have any questions for any of us here at the Fort about weather, animals, space,
or anything, just let us know by leaving a comment or emailing us at kids@thescishow.com!
Thanks for joining us, and see you next time! [Music]
