Tornadoes and the Impact on our lives
Where do tornadoes get all that
energy?
Latent heat of condensation (a form of
potential energy) is released when the warm air rises and water vapor condenses
into liquid water. This latent heat is the energy that liquid water took in
when it evaporated to
form the water
vapor.
According National Severe Storms Laboratory, latent heat is the biggest single
source of energy in a thunderstorm. When the released latent heat warms the
rising air parcel, the resulting difference in density can push the air up at
the extreme velocities needed to create the tornado.
The release of latent heat helps cause differences in pressure, which are
another form of potential energy.
This potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy as increased wind
speed. The ultimate source of this wind (kinetic energy) is the sun.
In other words,
radiation energy was converted to thermal energy, which evaporated water from
the oceans.
This water contained latent heat energy, which eventually was converted to
kinetic energyin the thunderstorm. Thermal
energy is transferred between various air bodies within the thunderstorm.
Finally, electric energy is released by accumulations of positive and negative
charges, causing lightning within the clouds, and from the clouds to the
ground. Electric energy is not important to the tornado, but it does attract
attention! Tornadoes release lots of energy .
A tornado with
wind speeds of 200 mph will release kinetic energy at the rate of 1 billion
watts -- about equal to the electricity output of a pair of large nuclear
reactors.
But the large thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes are immensely more powerful,
releasing latent heat at the rate of 40 trillion watts -- 40,000 times as
powerful as the twister.
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