[Karen W. (OP)]

It was the line in an old joke see insomnia thread! But I was wondering about if there really was a "White Tornado" and how it differed from a regular one. Are there different types of Tornado's?

 I really have very little knowledge of all Things Tornado's with the exception of that old kids joke!

    So what do ya think?

[paul.fr]

A quick look on the "insomnia" topic and I wonder if you are thinking of a dance move? This involved spinning on your head, the cool kids used to do this at school back in the early 80's when "body popping" was all the craze...I was not cool enough :-(

With regards to meteorology, I'm not sure. It could be similar to how you view a rainbow. When you look at a Tornado and the sun is behind it, this makes it look dark, and one where the sun is behind the viewer makes the tornado look lighter or even whitish. Waterspouts (tornadoes over a body of water) can also look white because they contain no debris.

Hope that helps.

[neilep]

Do they ever have Tornadoes at the Poles ?..I'm sure they would be like....well white !!  []

[Karen W. (OP)]

Yes.. I was just curious where the term came from. Thats interesting I figured there might be something behind it but was not sure,, apparently a white tornado is fast...LOL..

WHat is the difference between a cyclone and a Tornado? Is it the way they are formed or are they similar at all?


I was pre 80's I was a mom by 82 so the dance move you mention was popular when my kids were growing up with M C Hammer etc..

The insomnia thread reminded me of that Joke My brother used to annoy us but try to cop a feel from the girls his age,,, He was always in trouble.. But he was a sweetheart....

Neily thats a interesting thought!

[paul.fr]

Do they ever have Tornadoes at the Poles ?..I'm sure they would be like....well white !!  []

There have been Tornadoes in Alaska, and as recently as January 2008 there were winter Tornadoes in the US. This is a hand link:
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2009/alm09jan.htm

WHat is the difference between a cyclone and a Tornado? Is it the way they are formed or are they similar at all?

Erm, a big difference.

While both tropical cyclones and tornadoes are atmospheric vortices, they have little in common. Tornadoes have diameters on the scale of 100s of meters and are produced from a single convective storm (i.e. a thunderstorm or cumulonimbus). A tropical cyclone, however, has a diameter on the scale of 100s of *kilometers* and is comprised of several to dozens of convective storms. Additionally, while tornadoes require substantial vertical shear of the horizontal winds (i.e. change of wind speed and/or direction with height) to provide ideal conditions for tornado genesis, tropical cyclones require very low values (less than 10 m/s [20 kt, 23 mph]) of tropospheric vertical shear in order to form and grow. These vertical shear values are indicative of the horizontal temperature fields for each phenomenon: tornadoes are produced in regions of large temperature gradient, while tropical cyclones are generated in regions of near zero horizontal temperature gradient. Tornadoes are primarily an over-land phenomena as solar heating of the land surface usually contributes toward the development of the thunderstorm that spawns the vortex (though over-water tornadoes have occurred). In contrast, tropical cyclones are purely an oceanic phenomena - they die out over-land due to a loss of a moisture source. Lastly, tropical cyclones have a lifetime that is measured in days, while tornadoes typically last on the scale of minutes. For more information on tornadoes you can go to the Storm Prediction Center's FAQ maintained by Roger Edwards.

An interesting side note is that tropical cyclones at landfall often provide the conditions necessary for tornado formation. As the tropical cyclone makes landfall and begins decaying, the winds at the surface die off quicker than the winds at, say, 850 mb. This sets up a fairly strong vertical wind shear that allows for the development of tornadoes, especially on the tropical cyclone's right side (with respect to the forward motion of the tropical cyclone). For the southern hemisphere, this would be a concern on the tropical cyclone's left side - due to the reverse spin of southern hemisphere storms.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/L1.html
http://answers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=538&catID2=194&catID1=52&SearchType=advanced

[paul.fr]

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/080205/loc_20050802011.shtml

Tornado in Alaska

[Karen W. (OP)]

Do they ever have Tornadoes at the Poles ?..I'm sure they would be like....well white !!  []

There have been Tornadoes in Alaska, and as recently as January 2008 there were winter Tornadoes in the US. This is a hand link:
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2009/alm09jan.htm

WHat is the difference between a cyclone and a Tornado? Is it the way they are formed or are they similar at all?

Erm, a big difference.

While both tropical cyclones and tornadoes are atmospheric vortices, they have little in common. Tornadoes have diameters on the scale of 100s of meters and are produced from a single convective storm (i.e. a thunderstorm or cumulonimbus). A tropical cyclone, however, has a diameter on the scale of 100s of *kilometers* and is comprised of several to dozens of convective storms. Additionally, while tornadoes require substantial vertical shear of the horizontal winds (i.e. change of wind speed and/or direction with height) to provide ideal conditions for tornado genesis, tropical cyclones require very low values (less than 10 m/s [20 kt, 23 mph]) of tropospheric vertical shear in order to form and grow. These vertical shear values are indicative of the horizontal temperature fields for each phenomenon: tornadoes are produced in regions of large temperature gradient, while tropical cyclones are generated in regions of near zero horizontal temperature gradient. Tornadoes are primarily an over-land phenomena as solar heating of the land surface usually contributes toward the development of the thunderstorm that spawns the vortex (though over-water tornadoes have occurred). In contrast, tropical cyclones are purely an oceanic phenomena - they die out over-land due to a loss of a moisture source. Lastly, tropical cyclones have a lifetime that is measured in days, while tornadoes typically last on the scale of minutes. For more information on tornadoes you can go to the Storm Prediction Center's FAQ maintained by Roger Edwards.

An interesting side note is that tropical cyclones at landfall often provide the conditions necessary for tornado formation. As the tropical cyclone makes landfall and begins decaying, the winds at the surface die off quicker than the winds at, say, 850 mb. This sets up a fairly strong vertical wind shear that allows for the development of tornadoes, especially on the tropical cyclone's right side (with respect to the forward motion of the tropical cyclone). For the southern hemisphere, this would be a concern on the tropical cyclone's left side - due to the reverse spin of southern hemisphere storms.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/L1.html
http://answers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=538&catID2=194&catID1=52&SearchType=advanced

Wow Paul that is incredible and incredible that I did not know the difference and frankly could not remember exactly what a cyclone was or how it worked!

Wonderful links Thank you so much for showing me these!

[paul.fr]

Wow Paul that is incredible and incredible that I did not know the difference and frankly could not remember exactly what a cyclone was or how it worked!

If you want to learn more about Tropical weather the try this link:
http://www.stormpulse.com/

You can search for a particular storm by name and year, or all storms of a year/decade dating back to the 1850's.

[Karen W. (OP)]

Thanks Paul.. I will go check it out some now!

[Karen W. (OP)]

Even a few Karen's!