Phenomena
Tornado
Meteorology
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A tornado, also called a twister, is a rapidly rotating column of air that extends from the surface of the Earth to the base of a cumulonimbus or cumulus cloud, often visible as a funnel of condensation with a cloud of rotating debris near the ground. Most tornadoes have wind speeds under 180 kilometers per hour, span about 80 meters across and travel only a few kilometers before dissipating, but the most extreme tornadoes can exceed 480 kilometers per hour, grow more than 3 kilometers wide and remain on the ground for over 100 kilometers.
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Tornadoes form within severe thunderstorms, most violently within supercells, from a rotating updraft.
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