Author Topic: Why they call it a twister?  (Read 1516 times)

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Offline vreihen

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Why they call it a twister?
« on: June 18, 2018, 04:50:35 PM »
Last month, we had a confirmed EF-0 tornado touch down near where I work.  There were two fatalities in town, both from falling trees.  (One of them was a visitor, pulling out of my employer's parking lot.)  The power was out at work for 3 days, and some people in the surrounding area were out for over a week.

Anyway, I have a co-worker who went out last week to the part of the grounds in the tornado's path, and he took this picture:



Amazing how that tree was wound up like a Guillow's model airplane rubber band, huh?????
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Why they call it a twister?
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2018, 05:08:53 PM »
 Very odd indeed.

I wonder how that happened?  If you look at some of the better videos of tornadoes we've gotten to see lately, most of the wind, while going around in a circle, is in a relatively small place, going one direction, a few hundreds of feet further the circumference of the circle is showing the curve, but not within a few inches of the tree trunk, or even a ten or so span of the limbs.  I guess if it were very near the edge of the winds sharp cut off and the branches were long enough, the wind like water flowing across a paddlewheel boat, might rotate the trunk as long as the roots held, and the whole thing can spin. 

Strange.
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Offline ocala

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Re: Why they call it a twister?
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2018, 05:47:44 PM »
I have seen that before while hiking in the Ocala National Forest. The tree limbs we're about a third of that size but you could definitely see how the wood was twisted like a piece of liquorish.
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Offline vreihen

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Re: Why they call it a twister?
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2018, 06:29:27 PM »
Keep in mind, this was a minimal northeast USA tornado, not a monster Kansas twister.  The funnel may have been tight enough where the trunk was inside and the branches were touching the walls?????
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Why they call it a twister?
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2018, 07:15:11 PM »
OK, I guess I didn't take that into effect.  Sort of like twisting a dandelion out of the ground by gathering the leaves and twisting rather than hitting it with a broad hoe.

The local twisters, when we've had them and I had a chance to fly over, have scattered trees about some mixed up by what I assumed was the wind spiraling around and mixing, but the narrowest I've seen was a hundred yards across to maybe 500' to the edge of damage.

I'm darned sure I'd not want to be at 550' from the center of the action.

Have you seen those immense dust devils that happen and some idiot wanders out into it for the experience?  I did little 3-10 foot ones on the farm when I was a kid and it was darned bumpy and not at all a uniform flow of air
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Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Why they call it a twister?
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2018, 08:13:55 AM »
Last month, we had a confirmed EF-0 tornado touch down near where I work.  There were two fatalities in town, both from falling trees.  (One of them was a visitor, pulling out of my employer's parking lot.)  The power was out at work for 3 days, and some people in the surrounding area were out for over a week.

Anyway, I have a co-worker who went out last week to the part of the grounds in the tornado's path, and he took this picture:



Amazing how that tree was wound up like a Guillow's model airplane rubber band, huh?????
Amazing what they can do.  Even the small ones explode with so much energy!!!
Thanks for sharing that image!

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