Tornado is a form of natural disasters that usually accompanied by strong winds, heavy rain and sometimes snow, sleet, hail or no precipitation at all.
Tornadoes can generally form and develop in any geographic location, perhaps most frequently within areas located at mid-latitude when warm moist air collides with cooler air. They are responsible for the development of many severe weather phenomena and pose great hazards to populations and landscapes.
Damages that result from tornadoes are mainly inflicted by down-burst winds, large hailstones and flash flooding. Viewers can see the tornado\'s power and its negative consequences through series of photos below.
One photographer caught this extreme close-up of a tornado funnel in Manchester, South Dakota. The combination of high winds, flying debris and loud noise of the tornado would have made him very uncomfortable
A waterspout touched down near a boat near Dubrovnik, Croatia, in August 2007. Waterspouts are weak tornadoes that happen over warm water. They can move onto land and become tornadoes.
A thin funnel cloud touched down in a field in northwest Iowa. Funnel clouds became tornadoes once they touched the ground
A category F3 tornado swirled across a South Dakota prairie. The F (Fujita) scale was used to measure wind speeds based on damage left behind after a tornado
A rare mother ship cloud formation hovered over Childress, Texas. Tornado chasers there spent seven hours and 150 miles (240 kilometers) tracking the supercell thunderstorm that produced this cloud formation
One tornado chaser with a camera poses while his partner got into their truck as a tornado approached in South Dakota. South Dakota had 35 tornadoes in 2009
Heavy clouds hung low over a dilapidated homestead in the Midwest, foretelling a possible tornado
Storm-stained skies hovered over the remains of a mobile home demolished by a passing tornado
An EF5 tornado threw a van into a hotel in Greensburg, Kansas
A man threw a stuffed animal to his wife as they cleaned up the debris from their apartment, damaged by a February 2008 tornado over Lafayette, Tennessee
Several homes in a row were destroyed by a May 2008 tornado in Parkersburg, Iowa
A Kansas vehicle license plate impaled on a tree after an EF5 tornado struck Greensburg, Kansas. Flying debris is the main cause of injuries and deaths in tornadoes
A woman looked through a broken window of a friend\'s house after a February 2008 tornado over Atkins, Arkansas. Flying debris is the main cause of broken windows in tornadoes
A broken safety glass window framed a destroyed house after an EF5 tornado struck Greensburg, Kansas
Related links:
Thunderstorm Anxiety in Your Pets
The Mystery of Thunderstorm -related Asthma
Surviving Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, and Typhoons Basics
Unforgettable moments of tornadoes