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Video length: 4 min
United States: Tornado chasers roam the country
United States: Tornado chasers roam the country
(France 2)
In the United States, tornadoes are the fear of everyone in the Midwest. They have multiplied in recent weeks, causing, among other things, the destruction of entire neighborhoods.
Every year, when they make landfall, Americans hold their breath. Tornadoes, monsters of wind, sweep across the central United States from May to June. Inside, gusts can go up to 400 km/h, nothing can resist their passage. The deadly corridor they take even has a name: tornado alley. Studying these phenomena is the work of several people. Some groups travel across the country to be as close as possible to tornadoes. “We don’t know where the tornado is going to hit and that’s what we’re trying to determine. We look at temperature, humidity, where the wind is coming from and satellite data on the clouds”confided a tornado chaser.
1,200 tornadoes each year
The group then begins hunting. Objective: collect as much data as possible. The lightning strikes one after the other, a gigantic cloud forms. The area, like the entire middle of the country, is conducive to the mixture of warm air from Mexico and cold air from Canada. Conditions that are ideal for the creation of a tornado. Two years ago, the town of Mayfield, Kentucky was completely devastated by a tornado. On average, the United States experiences 1,200 tornadoes each year.
