Tornado

weather · spinning · storms

Air on a spin. A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that stretches from the ground all the way up to a storm cloud.

That funnel shape. The famous twisting funnel is made of water droplets condensing, plus a swirling cloud of dust and debris near the ground.

Super fast winds. Most tornadoes blow under 180 km/h, but the most extreme ones can spin faster than 480 km/h (300 mph)!

Sizes vary a lot. A typical tornado is about 80 meters wide, but giant ones can be more than 3 kilometers across.

On the move. Most tornadoes travel a few kilometers before fading away, though the strongest can stay on the ground for over 100 km.