The build up to a tornado

All the key processes that storms have in place to produce a twister

Just about every chase season, I get to see a supercell do something terrible and miraculous all at once: produce a tornado.

The build up to a tornado in most supercells is pretty predictable. Check out the video we recently posted highlighting four steps of the process.

tornadotitans

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From warm, moist air feeding into the storm to the air being pushed down and around the low-level meso — there’s a typical process most storms undergo to produce a tornado. The exact details of how all of these interact is still something scientists are examining, but in terms of storm spotting and storm chasing you can anticipate a storm’s next move pretty easily if you know what to look for.

The video above shows four of the key processes we tend to look for. (1) A mesocyclone indicating the presence of a supercell. (2) Warm/moist air being pulled into the storm. (3) Air being pulled down the back of the storm and around the low-level meso (the RFD). (4) An area of persistent and increasing rotation in the storm’s bas…