Published
Video length: 4 min
United States: tornado hunters try to study the phenomenon
United States: tornado hunters try to study the phenomenon
(franceinfo)
The United States is plagued by violent tornadoes, which often strike between May and June. To understand the phenomenon, several people, called tornado hunters, try to study it to better anticipate where these tornadoes form.
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 will 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 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.
