We’ve got the latest theory on how tornadoes form, although we’re not quite sure exactly how it works yet.
First of all, you’ve got winds on the surface and in our case, the winds are coming in from the south and going off to the north. And you’ve got upper level winds to stronger upper level winds moving faster so that begins to create a horizontal column of air that’s rotating around.
Now with a thunderstorm, as the thunderstorm passes by, its updraft tends to start to make this a horizontal, more of a vertical column of air so that it finally does become a vertical column of air with the updrafts going on.
The next sign of a of a tornado would be a wall cloud, and that is a sign of a tornado. It’s a little dropping of the cloud base. And then once you start getting a column that builds downward it becomes a funnel cloud. If it touches all the way down, it’s a tornado and that’s exactly what you don’t want.
Check WREG.com and tune in to News Channel 3 Wednesday for the latest updates on weather. Find our forecast here.