Six people have been injured and a number of buildings destroyed after a tornado swept across the city of Jonesboro in Craighead County, Arkansas, on Saturday 28 March 2020. The incident happened at about 5.00 pm local time, and flattened a number of houses as well as damaging businesses, destroying cars, and derailing a train. Tornadoes were also reported at several more locations in Arkansas and Iowa on the same day, but no other significant damage has been recorded.
Tornado sweeping through the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas, on Saturday 28 March 2020. Reuters.
Tornadoes are formed by winds within large thunder storms called super cells. Supercells are large masses of warm water-laden air formed by hot weather over the sea, when they encounter winds at high altitudes the air within them begins to rotate. The air pressure will drop within these zones of rotation, causing the air within them so rise, sucking the air beneath them up into the storm, this creates a zone of rotating rising air that appears to extend downwards as it grows; when it hits the ground it is called a tornado.
Damage caused by a tornado in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on Saturday 28 March 2020. CNN.
Tornadoes can occur anywhere in the world, but are most common, and most severe, in the area of the American mid-west known as 'Tornado Ally', running from Texas to Minnisota, which is fuelled by moist air currents from over the warm enclosed waters of the Gulf of Mexico interacting with cool fast moving jet stream winds from the Rocky Mountains. Many climatologists are concerned that rising temperatures over the Gulf of Mexico will lead to more frequent and more severe tornado events.
Simplified diagram of the air currents that contribute to tornado formation in Tornado Alley. Dan Craggs/Wikimedia Commons/NOAA.
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