Here's a little tornado and hurricane trivia for Fun Fact Friday:
While the eye or center of the hurricane is calm, the winds surrounding it are the most intense.
A big hurricane releases the energy of about 10 atomic bombs every second. There's 10. 20. 30....
"The word hurricane comes from the Taino Native American word, hurucane, meaning evil spirit of the wind." (Hurricane Facts)
"In Spanish, there are two words that sound like the word tornado. The word for “thunderstorm” is tronada and the word for “to turn” is tornar. Some people have speculated that the word tornado was formed by combining these two words. It is possible that this is not one of the tornado facts, and that the word tornado was actually derived directly from tronada. Whatever the case, it is certain that the word came from the Spanish language." (Tornado Facts)
The Red Spot on Jupiter is a hurricane that has been going for over 300 years, and is bigger than Earth.
"Tornadoes Make Infrasound Below the 20Hz Range of Human Hearing" (Tornado Facts)
Some tornadoes are not visible.
"There Are 3 Scales for Rating Tornadoes-To help establish tornado facts, scientists use different scales to rate tornadoes. The Fujita Scale is a rating of the destructive power of the tornado. Because many tornado facts are only revealed after the storm has passed, scientists evaluate the damage, and rate the tornado, on the Fujita Scale from F0 to F5.
There is also an Enhanced Fujita Scale, which is an updated version of the original Fujita scale. For both of these, a scale F5 or EF5 is the highest rating. A tornado of this magnitude can rip a house right off its foundation!
The TORRO scale or T-scale was developed by the Tornado and Storm Research Organization in the United Kingdom. This scale works on a measure from T1 to T11. Unlike the Fujita scale, the TORRO scale is based on the wind speed of the tornado, and not the destruction it causes.
Of course, the higher the wind speed, the more likely a tornado is to cause significant damage. A tornado ranked highly on one scale is also ranked highly on the other scale. The subtle differences have to do with the different gradations of tornadoes. While some argue about which scale is better, one of our tornado facts is certain: we wouldn’t want to be in the path of any tornado that is ranked high on either scale!" (Tornado Facts)
I hope you enjoy these facts as much as I did; they're really interesting.
Sources:
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/weather/hurricane.html
http://interesting-facts.com/tornado-facts/
http://www.hurricane-facts.com/Interesting-Hurricane-Facts.php
While the eye or center of the hurricane is calm, the winds surrounding it are the most intense.
A big hurricane releases the energy of about 10 atomic bombs every second. There's 10. 20. 30....
"The word hurricane comes from the Taino Native American word, hurucane, meaning evil spirit of the wind." (Hurricane Facts)
"In Spanish, there are two words that sound like the word tornado. The word for “thunderstorm” is tronada and the word for “to turn” is tornar. Some people have speculated that the word tornado was formed by combining these two words. It is possible that this is not one of the tornado facts, and that the word tornado was actually derived directly from tronada. Whatever the case, it is certain that the word came from the Spanish language." (Tornado Facts)
The Red Spot on Jupiter is a hurricane that has been going for over 300 years, and is bigger than Earth.
"Tornadoes Make Infrasound Below the 20Hz Range of Human Hearing" (Tornado Facts)
Some tornadoes are not visible.
"There Are 3 Scales for Rating Tornadoes-To help establish tornado facts, scientists use different scales to rate tornadoes. The Fujita Scale is a rating of the destructive power of the tornado. Because many tornado facts are only revealed after the storm has passed, scientists evaluate the damage, and rate the tornado, on the Fujita Scale from F0 to F5.
There is also an Enhanced Fujita Scale, which is an updated version of the original Fujita scale. For both of these, a scale F5 or EF5 is the highest rating. A tornado of this magnitude can rip a house right off its foundation!
The TORRO scale or T-scale was developed by the Tornado and Storm Research Organization in the United Kingdom. This scale works on a measure from T1 to T11. Unlike the Fujita scale, the TORRO scale is based on the wind speed of the tornado, and not the destruction it causes.
Of course, the higher the wind speed, the more likely a tornado is to cause significant damage. A tornado ranked highly on one scale is also ranked highly on the other scale. The subtle differences have to do with the different gradations of tornadoes. While some argue about which scale is better, one of our tornado facts is certain: we wouldn’t want to be in the path of any tornado that is ranked high on either scale!" (Tornado Facts)
I hope you enjoy these facts as much as I did; they're really interesting.
Sources:
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/weather/hurricane.html
http://interesting-facts.com/tornado-facts/
http://www.hurricane-facts.com/Interesting-Hurricane-Facts.php