On May 20, 2013, (click here) a supercell thunderstorm in central Oklahoma spawned a destructive tornado that passed just south of Oklahoma City. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aquasatellite acquired this natural-color image of the storm system at 2:40 p.m. Central Daylight Time (19:40 Universal Time), just minutes before the devastating twister began.
The red line on the image depicts the tornado’s track. It touched down west of Newcastle at 2:56 p.m. and moved northeast toward Moore, where it caused dozens of deaths, hundreds of injuries, and widespread destruction to property and public buildings. The tornado had dissipated by 3:36 p.m., after traveling approximately 17 to 20 miles (27 to 32 kilometers)....
There is no special clue a tornado is about to strike. The USA decided a long time ago it was best to invest in a warning system to keep people alive. No citizen has the capacity to outwit the warning system the USA developed. It is not possible to know more than the warning system. There is no reason for human death due to tornadoes in the USA. They are a fact of life. People should be prepared to act in their best interest when the warning system sounds.
- Tornadoes usually accompany thunderstorms, but not always.
- Sometimes the air is calm before a tornado hits, while in other cases it is preceded by strong, gusty winds.
- A tornado may follow sunshine or be shrouded in heavy rain and large, dark, low-lying clouds.
- The sound of a tornado has been compared to a freight train or a jet engine, but you may or may not hear such a noise before a tornado strikes.
