At least seven people have died as a series of tornadoes swept across Mississippi on Sunday 12 April 2020, with another person having lost their life in a storm in Arkansas. The storms also hit Louisiana, where over 200 homes were destroyed, as well as Florida, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. As well as the obvious wind-damage the storms caused widespread flooding, and disruption to power distribution networks, with about 750 000 people across ten states losing electricity supplies.
The remains of a house in Monroe City, Louisiana, where between 200 and 300 homes were destroyed by a tornado on Sunday 12 April 2020. Monroe City/Facebook.
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.
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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