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Reversal of Direction of Tornado
Name: Kassey
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
I want to know if a tornado can be on the ground and
change directions to the opposite direction it started off going? If
it is going NE can it change and go SW, while on the ground?
Replies:
Kassey,
A tornado may be located at the center of a thunderstorm or it may
form towards the outside of the storm.
In the first case the track of the storm will be the same
as the thunderstorm and therefore fairly straight; some movement
to one side or the other of the general direction of the storm
is common. Generally these tornados are the largest and most
destructive.
However, in the second case, the tornado moves around the
edge of the thunderstorm as the thunderstorm rotates and can
form spirals (as seen from damage patterns on the ground);
therefore the tornado can change direction during its lifetime,
sometimes making several loops, depending on how long it lasts
and exactly where it's located under the thunderstorm. So, it could
be traveling to the NE and then later to the SW, although it is
still being carried forward with the thunderstorm that produced
it.
David R. Cook
Meteorologist
Climate Research Section
Environmental Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
The trajectory of a tornado is very unpredictable. They are very non-equilibrium
conditions of the atmosphere. They can go left/right, forward/backward, up/down in
all combinations.
Vince Calder
You may want to make an analogy of a tornado with a spinning top on a smooth,
hard surface. The path is not always predictable.
Steve Sample
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Update: June 2012
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