TORNADOES AND HURRICANES

 Running head: TORNADOES AND HURRICANES
Tornadoes and Hurricanes
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Running head: TORNADOES AND HURRICANES
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People who live along the coastline often face tornadoes and hurricanes. Hurricanes can
form over the water, tornadoes form over land. These two types of natural disasters have unique
peculiarities. A hurricane is kind of a storm that usually starts in the middle of the ocean. It forms
when two winds which are blowing in opposite directions meet. They spin around each other and
capture the moist and warm ocean air. While the winds swirl, the water vapor and turns in the air
condenses. This way the rain clouds appear and the storm starts. However, it is not an ordinary
rainstorm. There’s a couple of distinctive features which make a hurricane differ from other storms.
As soon as water vapor condenses into water droplets, heat is released. It makes the winds
swirl even faster. This pulls more warm air up from the ocean. At this stage, the heat makes the
storm become stronger. A larger amount of clouds are formed and more winds swirl around. The
storm gets very intensive and grows to be hundreds of miles wide. If wind speeds inside of the
storm reache 74 miles an hour (that is equal to 118 kilometers) a hurricane is formed. (Means,
2016).
The center of the hurricane is called an eye. It is actually calm there. The eye of the
hurricane is 32 kilometers across. Another interesting fact is that inside the hurricane it is very calm
and there is little wind. Outside the eye, it is the opposite; winds can reach up to 150 miles an hour
(240 kilometers). Hurricanes do not stay in one place. They often move toward the nearest coastline
where they crash into cities and towns. The power of a hurricane is so strong, it can destroy much of
what it hits. But when a hurricane reaches land, it gets weaker. The warm air supply inside it
decreases, thus it is divided into smaller storms and calms down gradually. Even if the hurricane
doesn’t touch land, it will die anyway. The reason for this very simple. All hurricanes move north,
where the temperature of the water is much colder. The same is true for hurricanes on land; they
can’t fuel themselves due to the lack of warm water. The average length of hurricane is 1-2 weeks
(Habby, 2017).
Compared to a hurricane, a tornado doesn’t last long, though it can cause more damage.
Tornadoes are long clouds that look like funnels. They can form like rain clouds. Their size is not
very large, only some hundred feet (kilometers across). The winds inside the funnel swirl blows
really fast. Their speed is 200 miles (340 kilometers) an hour. It is hard to determine the exact speed
of a tornado, though the funnel visibly moves at an unthinkable speed.
The power of tornadoes is strong enough to uproot trees and throw trucks in the air. The
damage caused by them is much greater than that caused by a hurricane because tornadoes can lift
Running head: TORNADOES AND HURRICANES
up and touch down on various objects, as well as buildings several times. One positive fact about
tornadoes is that they never last long. Even the strongest will last no longer than half an hour
(Weldon, 2015).
Both kinds of storms are rather scary, but they are as natural and normal on the planet as
rainbows. People often get used to such storms. When storms hit, those who live in a storm-path
often pack up to leave their homes or cover their windows and gather up supplies.
Running head: TORNADOES AND HURRICANES
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References
Means, T. (2016). Which is the worst: A thunderstorm, Tornado or Hurricane? Retrieved from:
https://www.thoughtco.com/thunderstorm-vs-tornado-vs-hurricane-3444281
Habby, J. (2017). What Causes Tornadoes and Hurricanes? Retrieved from:
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/basic_weather_questions/tornadoes_hurricanes.html
Weldon, E. (2015). Hurricanes and Tornadoes. Compare & Contrast. Retrieved from:
https://prezi.com/zbm0z3ue29l9/hurricanes-and-tornadoes-comparecontrast