This course has been discontinued
Tornadoes are the single most violent weather event known to occur on Earth.
These storms are compact, rotating columns of air, yet they are one of nature’s most violent and destructive storms. The path of damage may extend for feet or 50 miles, and the width may vary from feet to a mile. While a single tornado in 1989 killed 1,300 people, the average United States death toll is between 70 and 80 individuals per year with over 1,500 injuries. Occurring on every continent except Antarctica, tornadoes are most frequent and most violent in the United States.
This 2-hour online course reviews how, when and where tornadoes form. It explores measurement scales, and discusses the great variety in appearance of these destructive forces of nature.
Search Words: Tornado, tornadoes, tornadic, mesocyclone, thunderstorm, weather, air masses, fronts, supercell, landspout, waterspout, Fujita Scale, Enhanced Fujita Scale, Tornado Alley
At the conclusion of this course you will have a better understanding of:
- How and where tornadoes form
- The sources of energy that fuel tornadoes
- Why they are more likely to occur at certain times
- The scales with which tornadoes are categorized
- The variety of forms of tornadoes
- Some of the key concepts that are part of the current debates about tornadogenesis.
This course is a part of a series of RedVector courses on Earth Dynamics that includes:
Earth Dynamics: Geological Time (1 hour)
Earth Dynamics: Geothermal Energy (2 hours)
Earth Dynamics: Global Warming (3 hours)
Earth Dynamics: Plate Tectonics (4 hours)
Earth Dynamics: Volcanoes (2 hours)