Jiangsu Dafeng tornado has caused 2 deaths and 15 injuries! Revealing which areas of China tornadoes love to ＂punch in＂, Guangdong actually ranks second in the country.

At about 16: 00 on August 13th, tornadoes occurred in Wanying, Xiaohai and Nanyang towns in Dafeng District, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, which were preliminarily identified as EF2 medium-intensity tornadoes by experts. According to a report on the evening of 13th in Dafeng District, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, 2 people were killed and 15 injured in the disaster.

Tornado is called the king of style. There are many rumors about its powerful power, such as uprooting trees, blowing cars into the sky, and turning into dragons to absorb water … Are these rumors true or false? How strong is the EF2 tornado? Why are tornadoes frequent in Jiangsu? China Weather Network launched the tornado chapter of "Weather Archives", and let’s listen to its confession.

Hello, everyone, I am a tornado. My name is world-famous, but not many people have actually seen me. Because of this, there are many legends about me circulating in the Jianghu. There are people who drive around the world to track my figure in order to see my style. Next, I will introduce myself: first of all, please remember, don’t be infatuated with me, I am just a gust of wind, a wind that can kill people.

I was born in unstable weather conditions, which is a strong and small-scale air vortex caused by air convection. When cold and warm air masses collide with each other, a cumulonimbus cloud will be formed. There are high-altitude airflow and low-altitude airflow inside the huge cumulonimbus cloud. When the ascending airflow is constantly entangled with the descending airflow, a strong horizontal vortex will occur. In the process of vortex rotation, it continues to be involved in more airflow, and it keeps growing like a snowball. I was formed when the vortex developed large enough and fell to the ground.

As a member of the strong convection family, my body is petite, with a diameter of several meters to several hundred meters, especially as large as 1 kilometer. My playing time is usually short, usually lasting a few minutes to dozens of minutes. Although I am small, I am extremely destructive. My central wind power can reach 30-150 m/s, and in extreme cases it can reach 300 m/s, which is several times faster than the maximum wind speed in the center of a strong typhoon. The huge wind speed allowed me to pull up trees, destroy houses and roll up cars, and the place I passed was like an explosion scene.

Of course, I don’t always burst like this. My family is divided into different sections. According to the current international EF grade (Fujita series), my strength is divided into six grades from low to high: EF0 to EF5. EF0 and EF1 are the most common. Although they are only bronze sections, they are enough to break the glass and blow the chimney. The EF1 level can overturn the roof, causing casualties.

When my strength reaches EF2 level and above, it belongs to a strong tornado, and EF2 level may cause trees to be uprooted; EF3 class even trains can be blown down; EF4 level can shovel and level houses; EF5 is the king’s position, and the damage is devastating. The house with frame structure may be thrown out together with the foundation, the reinforced concrete structure building will be seriously damaged, and the car may be blown away.

These are definitely not alarmist, and my black history makes people tremble.

For example, the Tri-State Tornado, which happened on March 18th, 1925, is considered as one of the most violent tornadoes in American history. The tornado started from Missouri and went through Illinois and Indiana, moving 350 kilometers in a straight line, causing nearly 700 deaths and 2,000 injuries. Wherever it went, it was a mess. Although the tornado was not officially rated by the United States, it was recognized as EF5 by most experts.

The EF4 tornado that occurred in Shanghai, China on September 24th, 1956 became one of the most famous tornadoes in China, and even appeared in geography and physics examinations. In the afternoon, a violent tornado hit the eastern edge of Shanghai. The strong wind swept a four-story oil storage tank with 110,000 kilograms to a height of 15 meters and threw it 120 meters away. The tornado also blew down a four-story reinforced concrete building in the suburbs, causing serious casualties.

Ever heard of "tornado hunter"? There is such a group of people in America who are dedicated to chasing my figure. Of course, the so-called hunters can’t hurt me at all. At most, they shoot my majestic posture and record the data when I pass by.

Tim samaras, a famous American tornado hunter, has his own chasing team. When a tornado comes, everyone else is hiding, and only their car runs in the opposite direction. Tim is a professional tornado hunter. The car is loaded with meteorological instruments, collecting data such as wind speed and air pressure, and monitoring my movements in real time with radar charts. But on May 31, 2013, when he was tracking a tornado in Oklahoma, the tornado suddenly turned, and Tim was thrown 800 meters away and died. I really hope that Tim’s unexpected death can alert other fans, to fear nature, and not to be too close to me. You can never predict whether you will catch up with me or I will catch up with you in the next second.

As you may have seen, my figure appears all over the world, and it is not easy to catch me if the so-called dragon sees the tail without the head. Scientists have also explored some of my haunting laws through a lot of data research. I mainly hang out in mid-latitude areas, and I visit North America, Europe, Russian, China, Japanese and Australian every year. Among them, the United States is called the "Tornado Kingdom", which is the country I visit the most, with an average of 1,141 punch cards per year (average from 2000 to 2020).

I have left my trail in most parts of central and eastern China, among which I often go to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Among my favorite provinces, Jiangsu ranks first, and the northern part of Jiangsu is in the climate transition zone between subtropical and warm temperate zones, which is easy to accumulate unstable energy. In addition, the local topography is low and flat, and rivers and lakes are intertwined, which is conducive to my development and growth.

Guangdong is also a province where I often punch in, especially in western Guangdong, where I often appear with typhoons. When the typhoon landed in western Guangdong, the vertical wind shear was often stronger and the water vapor transport was sufficient, which provided a favorable atmospheric environment for my birth. The terrain here was flat and suitable for my growth. In addition, the conditions in Hubei and Anhui are also good, and I will go there twice a year or so.

My favorite playing time is spring and summer, especially from April to August, in which July is the most, accounting for about 28% of the whole year, followed by April. During the day, I prefer to hang out in the afternoon to the evening, because after the solar radiation during the day, the atmospheric stratification is unstable during this period, which is the most prone period for strong convective weather, including me.

Because of my destructive power and elusive unruly personality, there have been various rumors about me in the Jianghu for many years. Today, I will give you a bottom. Don’t be too shocked. Some rumors are really true.

One day, there was a sudden thunder and lightning and dark clouds on the calm water, and then a water column like a dragon suddenly jumped out and soared into the sky, as if to suck up the water on the ground. The legendary dragon absorbs water, which is actually my appearance above the water surface, also known as waterspout. When the dragon absorbs water, my upper end is connected with thunderstorm clouds, and my lower end extends to the water surface, forming a shocking scene of water and sky connecting.

As for letting the sky rain Yu Yu and frogs, this skill is too simple for me. When the waterspout happens, the strong suction may involve fish, frogs and other animals in the water, and then it will be carried to other places by strong wind, which can cause the wonders of animal rain in your eyes.

Can tornadoes "travel" people? I must have seen too many fairy tales to ask this question, but I still have to answer you seriously. It is possible. There was a record that someone was involved in me and was later found hundreds of meters or kilometers away. However, this so-called "trip" is very scary. People involved will face huge wind speed and air pressure, and they will experience dizziness, suffocation, hypothermia, trauma and even tearing. It is definitely a miracle to survive.

So I’m here to remind you that if you meet me unexpectedly, you must stay away as soon as possible and hide in the basement or a solid building. Don’t just focus on making friends and miss the escape time. It is still the peak season of my appearance, and there will be reports of my presence from time to time in various places, so we must not take it lightly.

Source | China Weather Network
Editor | Liang Zeming