Rapid Fire
Tornado
- 04 Apr 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, a deadly tornado struck Mainaguri in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, killing five and injuring over a hundred, highlighting the increasing frequency of tornadoes in India.
- Tornado:
- A tornado is a rotating column of air that forms from a thunderstorm and touches the ground, while over the sea it is known as a waterspout.
- Any collision of warm, moist air with dry, cool air in the presence of a low-pressure system like a trough causes thunderstorms and tornadoes.
- Tornadoes can feature wind speeds ranging from 105 to 322 km/h, with the system potentially being stationary or moving at approximately 97 km/h.
- A tornado is a rotating column of air that forms from a thunderstorm and touches the ground, while over the sea it is known as a waterspout.
- Tornadoes generally occur in middle latitudes.
- They are most common in the United States, Argentina, and Bangladesh.
- Extreme storms, rare in India, mostly occur in the eastern states of West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand during the pre-monsoon period, with some evidence of them also forming in northwest India.
- In India, there is no official monitoring of tornadoes though the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded the recent West Bengal tornado.
Read more: Cyclone
