Project Aims to Help Scientists Predict Tornadoes

Project Aims to Help Scientists Predict Tornadoes

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Bob Doughty. On our show this week, we will tell about what is being called the world’s largest tornado experiment. We also will tell how a job loss can affect your health. And, we tell about a simple way to save lives.

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VOICE ONE:

Tornadoes are one of the most violent weather events on Earth. Each year, the severe winds of tornadoes kill many people. The storms have been known to carry homes, cars and trees from one place to another. And they can also destroy anything in their path.

VOICE TWO:

A tornado is a violently turning tube of air suspended from a thick cloud. It extends from a thunderstorm in the sky down to the ground. The shape is like a funnel: wide at the top, narrower at the bottom.

Tornadoes form when winds blowing in different directions meet in the cloud and begin to turn in circles. Warm air rising from below causes the wind tube to reach toward the ground. Because of their circular movement, these severe windstorms are also known as twisters.

VOICE ONE:

Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. But weather experts say they are most common is the United States. Each year, the United States has more than one thousand tornadoes.

These storms can happen any time of the year. But most happen from late winter to the middle of summer. There is a second high season in November.

During spring, warm air moves north and mixes with cold air remaining from winter. In November, the opposite happens. Cold weather moves south and combines with the last of the warm air from summer.

VOICE TWO:

Tornadoes can strike with little or no warning. Weather experts operate warning systems to tell people about possible tornadoes. But the storms often move too fast for people to flee. Last year, tornadoes killed more than one hundred people in the United States.

Most injuries happen when flying objects hit people. Experts say the best place to be is in a small room, without windows, in the middle of the lowest part of a building.

VOICE ONE:

Last month, American scientists began work on a project aimed at improving the ability to predict tornadoes. The project is said to be the largest tornado study in history. It is called Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment Two. The shorter name is VORTEX2.

The project covers an area of nearly one thousand five hundred kilometers in the central United States. This area, from west Texas to southwest Minnesota, is where the most violent tornadoes usually happen. It is known as” Tornado Alley.”

VOICE TWO:

VORTEX2 involves a team of nearly one hundred people, many of them scientists. They are using radars and other equipment to learn more about how, why and where tornadoes form. The team is using forty cars and trucks to chase tornadoes, dropping measuring instruments in their paths. In addition, unmanned aircraft are collecting information from inside storms.

The project costs more than eleven million dollars. Most of the money is coming from America’s National Science Foundation.

VOICE ONE:

The first Vortex project took place in nineteen ninety- four and nineteen ninety- five. The results helped scientists better understand supercells. They are the severe thunderstorms that produce the most deadly and destructive tornadoes. This time, scientists hope to learn more about the formation, wind speed and shape of tornadoes.

The study is to continue through June thirteenth. A second part of the study is planned for early next year. You can follow reports from scientists on the project at tornadoscientists. blogspot. com.

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