The RFD also focuses the mesocyclones base, causing it to draw air from a smaller and smaller area on the ground. As the updraft intensifies, it creates an area of low pressure at the surface. This pulls the focused mesocyclone down, in the form of a visible condensation funnel. As the funnel descends, the RFD also reaches the ground, fanning outward and creating a gust front that can cause severe damage a considerable distance from the tornado. Usually, the funnel cloud begins causing damage on the ground (becoming a tornado) within a few minutes of the RFD reaching the ground. Maturity
Initially, the tornado has a good source of warm, moist air flowing inward to power it, and it grows until it reaches the "mature stage". This can last from a few minutes to more than an hour, and during that time a tornado often causes the most damage, and in rare cases can be more than 1.6 km (1 mile) across. The low pressured atmosphere at the base of the tornado is essential to the endurance of the system. Meanwhile, the RFD, now an area of cool surface winds, begins to wrap around the tornado, cutting off the inflow of warm air which previously fed the tornado. The flow inside the funnel of the tornado is downward, supplying water vapor from the cloud above. This is contrary to the upward flow inside hurricanes, supplying water vapor from the warm ocean below. Therefore, the energy of the tornado is supplied from the cloud above.
Universities, government agencies such as the National Severe Storms Laboratory, private-sector meteorologists, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are some of the organizations very active in research; with various sources of funding, both private and public, a chief entity being the National Science Foundation. The pace of research is partly constrained by the number of observations that can be taken; gaps in information about the wind, pressure, and moisture content throughout the local atmosphere; and the computing power available for simulation.Solar storms similar to tornadoes have been recorded, but it is unknown how closely related they are to their terrestrial counterparts. Gallery
See also
References
Further reading
Bluestein, Howard B. (1999). Tornado Alley: Monster Storms of the Great Plains. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510552-4. Bradford, Marlene (2001). Scanning the Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3302-3. Grazulis, Thomas P. (January 1997). Significant Tornadoes Update, 1992–1995. St. Johnsbury, VT: Environmental Films. ISBN 1-879362-04-X. Pybus, Nani (Spring 2016). "Cyclone Jones: Dr. Herbert L. Jones and the Origins of Tornado Research in Oklahoma". Chronicles of Oklahoma. 94: 4–31. Retrieved May 5, 2022. Heavily illustrated. External links

NOAA Storm Events Database 1950–present
European Severe Weather Database
Tornado Detection and Warnings
Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology
NOAA Tornado Preparedness Guide
Tornado History Project – Maps and statistics from 1950 to present
Physics Today What we know and dont know about Tornadoes September 2014
U.S. Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters