What's the difference b/n an F0 tornado & a dust devil w/ same wind velocities?
Jul 08, 2010
in
Tornado Pictures Video
40mph is said to be F0 grade on the Fujita scale, but dust devils are said to reach speeds in excess of 60 mph. They’re said to never be counted as tornadoes(Twister, Fury on the Plains video) Tornadoes are said to have thunderstorm connections, but something I found online said a lot of twisters have formed w/ no sign of lightning, so what’s the difference b/n that & a fair weather type thermal? Tornadoes also don’t always have visible connections to parent clouds. What would you call a tornado that did meet all the profile characteristics, but only packed 35mph winds?
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3 comments
TJ on July 8, 2010 at 6:49 pm
tornadoes are connected to a storm’s cloud base. a dust devil isn’t.
John G on July 8, 2010 at 6:49 pm
aren’t dust devils basically contained in a small section of air? They don’t go all the way up to the clouds, right? So they have far less power behind them, even if their speeds are faster.
That’s what i’ve always been told.
[ApraTur3] on July 8, 2010 at 6:49 pm
A "tornado" that met all of the "profile characteristics" that you’ve listed including only 35 mph winds would be considered a developing storm, and a miracle if it didn’t worsen. Tornadoes in general are usually affiliated with storms because what causes them (a clash of varying temperatures and humidities) is a characteristic of storms, or of areas where storms that are likely to produce tornadoes are possible to occur. The midwest United States, AKA, "tornado alley," a prime example. An area where warm, wet winds move up from the gulf and clash with cooler Canadian currents, sometimes cauing thunderclouds to form and so on. Dust devils are in fact all around us every day. You can see them in leaves or trash in the streets on the daily. They also occur in ash clouds after volcanic eruptions. They usually form when the wind is calm believe it or not. Dust devils form when heated land surfaces create convective rolls of air which can eventually be tilted vertically. They are rarely taller than 100 feet and can vary in size from 10 to 50 feet in diameter. They are only visible when there is debris such as dirt like I mentioned earlier is present.