What is "tornado"

Tornado \Tor*na"do\, n.; pl. Tornadoes. [From Sp. or Pg. tornar to turn, return, L. tornare to turn, hence, a whirling wind. The Sp. & Pg. tornada is a return. See Turn.] A violent whirling wind; specifically (Meteorol.), a tempest distinguished by a rapid whirling and slow progressive motion, usually accompaned with severe thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain, and commonly of short duration and small breadth; a small cyclone.

1550s, ternado, navigator's word for violent windy thunderstorm in the tropical Atlantic, probably a mangled borrowing from Spanish tronada "thunderstorm," from tronar "to thunder," from Latin tonare "to thunder" (see thunder (n.)). Also in 17c. spelled tornatho, tornathe, turnado; modern spelling by 1620s. Metathesis of -o- and -r- in modern spelling influenced by Spanish tornar "to twist, turn," from Latin tornare "to turn." Meaning "extremely violent whirlwind" is first found 1620s; specifically "destructive rotary funnel cloud" (especially in the U.S. Midwest) from 1849. Related: Tornadic.

n. (context meteorology English) A violent windstorm characterized by a twisting, funnel-shaped cloud.

1. n. a localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground [syn: twister]

2. a purified and potent form of cocaine that is smoked rather than snorted [syn: crack]

3. [also: tornadoes (pl)]

The Tornado is a double handed multihull class recognised as an International Class by the International Sailing Federation. It was used for the Olympic Catamaran discipline from 1976 to 2008.

A tornado is a violent rotating column of air that touches the surface of the earth.

Tornado may also refer to:

Tornado was a short-lived weekly British comic book magazine published for 22 issues by IPC Magazines between March 1979 and August 1979. After the cancellations of the Starlord and Action titles IPC launched Tornado as a way to use up stories already commissioned for the other titles. Like Action it was a mixed title featuring War, Detective, Horror and Science Fiction stories. Tornado was printed on the low quality newsprint stock used by 2000 AD and also had five stories of 5 to 6 pages per issue. The title also had a 'superpowered' editor, like Tharg, 'Big E' who was portrayed in photo-strips by a rather portly Dave Gibbons. The real editor was Kelvin Gosnell.

Tornado was a competitor on the UK TV series Robot Wars, noteworthy as the champion of the sixth series.

Tornado was built by Andrew Marchant, Bryan Moss and David Gamble, from Sawtry, near Huntingdon. It even got its own Robot Wars Remote Controlled Toy, Diecast Minibot and pullback toy.

Post Robot Wars, the team live separately. David has remained in Sawtry, but Andrew now works in Maidstone.

Tornado (occasionally Toronado) is a horse ridden by the character Zorro in several movies and books. Tornado is referred to as a black Andalusian in the movie The Mask of Zorro, although a Friesian plays the role. Tornado is said to be very intelligent and very fast. His name is pronounced in the Spanish way, "tor-NAH-do" (except in The Mask of Zorro). Being as jet-black as Zorro's costume enables horse and rider to more easily elude capture at night.

Tornado is a 1943 film starring Chester Morris and Nancy Kelly. The movie was directed by William A. Berke.

Tornado is a combat flight simulator computer game by Digital Integration that models the Panavia Tornado. It was released in 1993 for DOS and Amiga. Tornado is one of the first flight simulations to offer head-to-head online dogfights.

Steve Debbes, better known by his ring name Tornado, is a South African professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Professionals. He is the current 2-time WWP Heavyweight World Champion and the longest-reigning title holder in the championship's history.

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that rotates while in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as twisters or cyclones, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology to name any closed low pressure circulation. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but they are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than , are about across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than , are more than in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).

Various types of tornadoes include the landspout, multiple vortex tornado, and waterspout. Waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non- supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water, but there is disagreement over whether to classify them as true tornadoes. These spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator, and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, and steam devil; downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is dissimilar.

Tornadoes have been observed and documented on every continent except Antarctica. However, the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. They also occasionally occur in south-central and eastern Asia, northern and east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand. Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity data, such as hook echoes or debris balls, as well as through the efforts of storm spotters.

There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes. The Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in some countries by the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado, the weakest category, damages trees, but not substantial structures. An F5 or EF5 tornado, the strongest category, rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes. Doppler radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns ( cycloidal marks) may also be analyzed to determine intensity and assign a rating.

The Tornado is a wooden roller coaster located at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa, near Des Moines.

The Tornado made its debut on July 4, 1978, during Adventureland's third full season. It was designed by William Cobb, and built by the Frontier Construction Company. Soon after its opening it was considered one of the top ten wooden roller coasters in the world. Even today after more than a quarter-century and the addition of many other rides and three other coasters, this is still Adventureland's signature ride. It has two trains, one red and one blue. The red train runs from the start of the season to mid-July. The blue train runs from mid-July to the end of the season.

The name Tornado has special significance for the park. Adventureland was to open for its debut season in July 1974. However, a real tornado hit the park before it could open, and caused it to be delayed until August of that year. When the ride debuted in 1978, park advertisements exclaimed "Another Tornado has hit Adventureland!"

Tornado (1996) is a children's book by Betsy Byars, illustrated by Doron Ben-Ami.

The Tornado is an amusement ride manufactured by Wisdom Industries Ltd. Most tornados travel with a traveling midway company to many fairs with many other rides.

Tornado is a video game for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system, developed by SKONEC Entertainment and published by Ignition Entertainment. The game tasks you as Toki, a member of the Cosmic Cleaner, who must replace all of Earths items which have been stolen by a character known only as the "Prince". Players do this by following him to Planet 69 and using a "tornado machine" to uproot all the items that the prince has stolen. The game makes use of both the stylus and microphone of the DS system. It was released on October 25.

Tornado is a scalable, non-blocking web server and web application framework written in Python. It was developed for use by FriendFeed; the company was acquired by Facebook in 2009 and Tornado was open-sourced soon after.

The Tornado is a water slide manufactured by ProSlide Technology. It requires riders to sit in a 2-6 seater round tube. Riders drop from inside a tunnel out into the ride's main element shaped like a funnel on its side. Riders oscillate from one side to the other until they exit through the back of the funnel and into a splash pool. Many of the slides feature a conveyor belt to bring the rafts to the top. On April 13, 2012 it was announced the first 6-man Tornado would be built using Hydromagnetic technology.

"Tornado" is a song recorded by American country music group Little Big Town. It was released in October 2012 as the second single from their fifth studio album, Tornado. The song was written by Natalie Hemby and Delta Maid.

Tornado is brand of table football (foosball) table that has been used in the World Championships since 1986. The original Tornado model was created by engineer Bob Furr. The Tornado brand has been manufactured by Valley-Dynamo since 1999, and is a market leader in both coin-operated and home recreation room markets.

Tornado tables are sanctioned for official play by the following governing bodies:

• International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF)
• Valley International Foosball Association (VIFA)
• United States Table Soccer Association (USTSA)
• United States Table Soccer Federation (USTSF)

The Tornado, initially referred to as the Bobs, was a roller coaster in Coney Island located along Bowery Street . Designed by Fred Church and built by the L. A. Thompson Company, the roller coaster cost $250,000 to build in 1926. Much like the neighboring Cyclone, it was a hybrid coaster with a wooden track and steel structure.

The coaster featured a large tower in the middle in which it is said that LaMarcus Thompson was seen working, although he had already died years before his company constructed the coaster. For this reason, the coaster is sometimes referred to as "Church's Haunted Coaster."

In 1977, much of the coaster was damaged by arson and the coaster was completely demolished in April 1978.

Tornado is the fifth studio album by American country music group Little Big Town. It was released on September 11, 2012 via Capitol Nashville. " Pontoon," which was released in April 2012 as the album's lead-off single, has since become their first Number One hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and Little Big Town's fastest-rising single to date. The album's second single, " Tornado," was released on October 1, 2012. It became their first album since 2005's The Road to Here to produce two top 10 singles and to be certified Platinum by the RIAA.

The Tornado is a steel inverted roller coaster at the Parque de Atracciones de Madrid in Casa de Campo, Madrid, Spain. Manufactured by Intamin, it opened on May 23, 1999.