Physical characteristics of tornadoes

Airflow regions

Fully developed tornadoes contain distinct regions of airflow. As is shown in the figure, the central axis of circulation is within the core region, a roughly cylindrical area of lower atmospheric pressure that is bounded by the maximum tangential winds (the fastest winds circulating around the centre of the tornado). If a visible funnel cloud forms, it will occur within the core region. The funnel cloud consists of a column of water droplets, commonly called the condensation funnel. In very dry conditions there may be no condensation funnel associated with a tornado.

Responding to the reduced pressure in the central core, air near the ground located in what is referred to as the inflow boundary layer converges from all directions into a tornado’s “corner region.” This region gets its name because the wind abruptly “turns the corner” from primarily horizontal to vertical flow as it enters the core region and begins its upward spiral. The corner region is very violent. It is often marked by a dust whirl or a debris fountain, where the erupting inflow carries aloft material ripped from the surface. The inflow boundary layer that feeds the corner region is usually a few tens of metres deep and has turbulent airflow. Above the boundary layer, the core is surrounded by a weakly swirling outer flow—the inflow to the storm’s updraft—where radial motions (movements toward or away from the tornado’s axis) are relatively small. Somewhere aloft (exactly where is not known), the core and the swirling outer flow merge with the updraft of the generating thunderstorm.

Winds in a tornado are almost always cyclonic; that is, they turn counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. This dominance of rotation direction is indirectly due to the Earth’s rotation, which plays a role in controlling the structure of all large-scale weather systems. As is explained more fully in the section Tornado formation, most tornadoes are produced by thunderstorms, and a tornado’s parent thunderstorm is in turn embedded within a larger weather system that determines the vertical shear in the winds (that is, their change in speed and direction with height across the troposphere). These systems rotate cyclonically, and a tornado’s rotation comes from a concentration of the spin present in the sheared winds. However, not all tornadoes are cyclonic. About 5 percent of all observed tornadoes rotate anticyclonically—that is, they turn clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

Wind speeds and air pressures

Measurement of wind speeds can be obtained by photogrammetry (measurements from photographs) and through remote sensing techniques using the Doppler effect. These two techniques are complementary. They provide information about tornado wind speeds by tracking objects in and around the core (the assumption being that the objects are moving with the speed of the air). Photogrammetry allows speeds across the image plane to be determined by analysis of motions of dust packets, pieces of vegetation, and building debris as recorded on film or videotape, but it cannot be used to determine wind speed toward or away from the camera. On the other hand, through processing of Doppler-shifted electromagnetic “echoes” received from raindrops and debris illuminated with pulses of radio waves (radar) or light (lidar), wind speed toward or away from the instrument can be determined.

Under some conditions, extreme wind speeds can occur in the corner region of a tornado. The few measurements of violent tornado winds that have been made using Doppler radar and photogrammetry suggest that the maximum possible tangential wind speeds generated by tornadoes are in the range of 125 to 160 metres per second, or 450 to 575 km per hour (about 410 to 525 feet per second, or 280 to 360 miles per hour). Most researchers believe the actual extreme value is near the lower end of this range. Consistent with this thinking was the measurement made using a mobile Doppler radar of the fastest wind speed ever measured, 318 miles per hour (about 512 km per hour), in a tornado that hit the suburbs of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on May 3, 1999.

Maximum tangential speeds occur in a ring-shaped region that surrounds the tip of the vortex core that is centred 30 to 50 metres (100 to 160 feet) above the ground. (Hence, they tend to be a bit higher than damage-causing winds at the surface.) The vertical speeds of air rising as a central jet through the hole in the ring may be as high as 80 metres per second, or 300 km per hour (about 250 feet per second, or 170 miles per hour). Radial speeds of air flowing from the inflow region to the corner region (which feeds the central jet) are estimated to reach 50 metres per second, or 180 km per hour (about 160 feet per second, or 110 miles per hour). Because the organization of the airflow varies considerably with tornado intensity, extremes in vertical and radial speeds may not occur at the same time as extremes in tangential speeds.

These extreme speeds are the strongest winds known to occur near the Earth’s surface. In reality, they occur over a very small portion of the tornado core close to the ground. Their actual occurrence is rare, and, when they do occur, they usually last only a very short time.In almost all tornadoes (about 98 percent), the maximum attained wind speed is much less than these maximum possible speeds.

While there have not been any direct measurements of atmospheric pressure in tornadoes, a few measurements have been taken when tornadoes passed near weather stations with barographs (instruments that record atmospheric pressure over time). Data from such incidents, along with measurements made in laboratory vortices, provide for the construction of mathematical models describing the distribution of surface pressure beneath tornadoes. These models, combined with information on tornado winds, are used to extrapolate what was the most likely air pressure at the centre of any given tornado.

These extrapolations indicate that a region of low surface pressure is centred beneath the tornado core. The area of this region is relatively small compared with that of the annulus of high-speed winds that surrounds it. Even for violent tornadoes, the reduction in surface pressure in this area (relative to surface pressure in the surrounding atmosphere) is probably no more than 100 hectopascals (that is, about 10 percent of standard atmospheric pressure at sea level). In most tornadoes, the reduction in central surface pressure is not that great.

The lowest atmospheric pressure in a tornado is thought to be at the centre of the core a few tens to a few hundred metres above the surface, though the magnitude of the pressure reduction is unknown. In violent tornadoes this pressure difference appears to be sufficient to induce a central downflow.