Tornadoes have been called many things. Like “winds of death” and “nature’s most terrifying spectacles.”
They’ve been compared to “a huge elephant trunk searching for food” and “a monstrous, writhing snake biting the ground.” In the scary department, they’ve been called “a delicate dance of ghosts” and “the breath of the Death Angel.” Someone even said one was “a demon of death, with the roar of a thousand trains.”
What do they do to deserve all this abuse? A tornado has as much energy as an atomic bomb. One might wreck every house on one side of a street. But it could ignore the homes across the street! They can flatten buildings and hurl cows across state lines. Tornadoes can level small towns in seconds. They leave thousands homeless and many dead. A single twister can cause millions of dollars in damage.
Tornadoes get our attention and even our respect. Let’s explore the storm with the fastest, strongest winds on Earth.
