The United States is one of the countries with the most epic battles on the planet: The 150 episodes of dragon taps occur every year throughout the United States.
Cowering on the Texas plateau, swirling into residential areas at 240km / hr. The maximum speed measured in a tornado is 370 km / hour, or at least it is the ultimate limit on the scales of specialized tools to measure the vortex velocity.
Plunge into tornadoes of the water cannon.
Due to the geographical characteristics, cold and dry air flows from Canada down, across the east to the coastal mountains, encountering hot and humid air - often moving from the Gulf of Mexico to the north, born a series of atmospheric phenomena, which then produces vortices of madness. Often the early or early tornado period is in the spring in the states along the Gulf of Mexico, where they always have great velocity and last longer.
Later, in the late spring or early summer, the direction of hot air flows continues to shift further north, initiating the " risky bad period " - covering an entire axis from the Texas plains to Nebraska, constitutes a gruesome " vortex ".
Although it occurs more often, tornadoes in the last decade have been less lasting. In the regions of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, one third of the American storms are concentrated.
Much of the tornado information is researched by scientists at the National Laboratory on dry storms (NSSL). This room is located in the Norman city of Oklahoma - right in the middle of the " vortex corridor ".
From the spring of 1992 onwards, every year NSSL scientists collaborate with state universities on their cars . " whirlwind hunting ". They infiltrated inside the water hoses to gather the necessary information, something that could not be done otherwise.
One of their duties is to place technical scopes along the path of the tornado. It was a device weighing 180kg, which looked like a small sea cargo container named " Toto ". It is placed between a sturdy frame, to measure temperature, speed, wind direction and turbulent pressure.
Through " hunting " trips, NSSL experts drew the conclusion: strong taps often occurred on the dry side of giant stormy clouds shifting to the southwest - northeast.
" It is true that these whirlwind winds leave the twisted clouds themselves, like a giant wheel crossing from the main storm cloud. The above clouds are 800 to 10 km in diameter, one part of the large air mass in the sky is being swirled, known in scientific terms as "Mezo roundabout" - the main source of the power of rolling dragon battles; but only 50% of Mezo rings are creating whirlpools, and so far science has yet to explain why this number becomes a tornado, but with the other half not? ", renowned American meteorologist Davis Jones for know.
In April and May of 2010, NSS astronomers spent hundreds of hours traveling along the western side of Oklahoma. It is very difficult to " grab " the moment when stormy clouds produce tornadoes. In a whirlwind season that lasts for 2 months, usually only about 6 days, the whirlpools face the ground causing disaster for humans - with a radius of about 320km from the " hunter " wing vehicle. Those who specialize in hunting cannons must correctly judge where the tornado will be. It is risky when a group of "snatches" research teams are swirled, or missing a little bit more, the tornado "takes" them .
Just a short time on the ground is enough for the dragon to bring back losses that cannot be compensated and the devastating destruction. Whirlwind images in America are full of tragic events. In the evening and dawn on April 3 and April 4, 1974, there were 148 whirlpools occurred in 13 states, killing 315 lives.
The " most blood-thirsty tornado " came on March 18, 1925, causing 689 deaths in three Midwestern states, killing only 234 people in Murphysboro (Illinois).
Of course, the best way to avoid whirlpools is pre-alarm. In the uncompromising battle of today's rolling water, alarms are spread from the 17th floor of a building in Kansas City (Missouri) - the location of the National Meteorological Center.
Here, meteorologists attentively monitor the state of atmospheric pressure in the southern states, with the information system using the latest electronic computer systems to receive parameters from cosmic satellites. , from national radar stations and hundreds of other meteorological stations. Then handle them, give results via video terminology. Since the Mezo ring is on the screen, it takes 20 minutes or more to appear swirling.
The speed and accuracy of computer systems is essential for astronomers; from then on they can fight in the fight to protect life more effectively. At the same time quickly made a timely alarm bell, when the sky began to gray, and the clouds were curled up by the whirlwind and the mass "killer" was preparing to hand .