They’ve been called so many things.
Winds of death. Nature’s most terrifying spectacles. Random killers. The most violent creatures of the atmosphere. They’ve been compared to animals: “a huge elephant trunk searching for food” or “a monstrous, writhing snake biting the ground.”
They’ve been likened to “the snapping of a bull whip” and “a giant column surrounded by silvery ribbons.” In more horror-movie terms, they’ve also been described as “a delicate dance of ghosts” and “the breath of the Death Angel.” Someone once called one “a demon of death, with the roar of a thousand trains.”
They swirl, twirl, and whirl in a chaotic dance. A tornado has as much energy as an atomic bomb. They can destroy every house on one side of a street and leave homes on the other side untouched. They can flatten buildings and hurl cows across state lines. Tornadoes can level small towns in seconds. They leave thousands homeless and many dead, and they cause millions of dollars in damage.
Tornadoes get our attention and even our respect. Let’s take a look at the storm that packs the fastest, strongest winds of any storm on Earth.
