Avalanches are sudden, the warning signs are almost always numerous before they let loose. Avalanches kill more than 150 people worldwide each year.
Many avalanches are small slides of dry powdery snow. Disastrous avalanches occur when massive slabs of snow break loose from a mountainside and shatter as they race downhill. These moving masses can reach speeds of 80 mph within about five seconds. Avalanches are most common during and in the 24 hours right after a snow storm. Storminess, temperature, wind, slope steepness and orientation, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions are all factors that influence whether and how a slope avalanches. Different combinations of these factors create low, moderate, considerable, and high avalanche hazards.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tornadoes

Tornadoes are vertical funnels of rapidly spinning air. Their winds may top 250 miles mph and can be 50 miles long. Tornadoes are born in thunderstorms.
These violent storms occur around the world, but the United States is a major hotspot with about a thousand tornadoes every year. A tornado forms when changes in wind speed and direction create a horizontal spinning effect within a storm cell. This effect is then tipped vertical by rising air moving up through the thunderclouds. Tornadoes' distinctive funnel clouds are actually transparent. They become visible when water droplets pulled from a storm's moist air condense.
These violent storms occur around the world, but the United States is a major hotspot with about a thousand tornadoes every year. A tornado forms when changes in wind speed and direction create a horizontal spinning effect within a storm cell. This effect is then tipped vertical by rising air moving up through the thunderclouds. Tornadoes' distinctive funnel clouds are actually transparent. They become visible when water droplets pulled from a storm's moist air condense.
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