We have been learning to explore one of the Earth's sub-systems... atmosphere.

We have been looking at extreme weather conditions, like tornadoes!

Our model text for this week tells us more about tornadoes.

What are tornadoes?

Tornadoes are very wild and dangerous storms.  A tornado is a spinning storm with very, very strong winds.  The winds spin in a circle.

A tornado is shaped like a funnel or a cone.  The tornado reaches from the clouds all the way to the ground.  Some tornadoes are fat.  Some tornadoes are skinny.  All tornadoes are powerful.

Tornadoes form when warm, wet air meets cool, dry air high up in the sky.  The warm air and the cool air have lots of energy.  If the two types of air push each other hard enough, this can make a thunderstorm.  Tornadoes sometimes form in the middle of big, powerful thunderstorms.  The air in the thunderstorm spins around very fast.  It moves two ways.  The air spins around in a circle.  The air also moves up very fast in the middle of the circle.

Sometimes, the spinning winds drop down out of the clouds and reach the ground.  When this happens, we call the storm a tornado.  A tornado that forms over water is called a waterspout.  Waterspouts can be very fat or skinny, just like tornadoes that form over land.

Last year there was a waterspout over Auckland.