NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

This resource collection from NOAA Education explores how tornadoes form and impact our lives. A tornado warning has been issued and you are in the path of one of the 1,200+ tornadoes that hit the United States each year. How quickly can you get to a safe place out of the severe weather? Do you have a plan? Where would you go? Will you, your family, your students be safe?

An archive of video footage from the National Severe Storms Laboratory VORTEX2 tornado research project.

A video from SciJinks on how tornadoes form.

The supercell: The deadliest and most destructive tornadoes often come from this specific type of rotating thunderstorm. Now, scientists have embarked on a new study to better understand how these severe thunderstorms form tornadoes, with the goal of improving forecasts.

Rain and hail will be suspended by the updraft inside a thunderstorm until the weight of the hail and water can no longer be supported. Usually, the stronger the updraft in a thunderstorm, the more intense the storm and the larger the size of hail that can be produced. Suspending a ping pong ball in the stream of air supplied by a hair dryer will demonstrates how hail is supported in thunderstorms.

They are sometimes seen as threatening funnel clouds descending from stormy skies. Others can be nearly invisible, like a ghostly spiral of wind skimming the sea surface. These eerie columns of rotating air are known as waterspouts — commonly defined as tornadoes over water.

A collection of national and international data products from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). These data products include information on temperature, precipitation, snow and ice, drought, fires, storms, wind, weather patterns and more.

Frequently asked questions about tornadoes from the Storm Prediction Center.

This forecast data product from the National Weather Service provides an interactive map, which can be customized to feature data on temperature, precipitation, hazard, humidity, wind, cloud cover, snow and ice, fire, wave, tornado, hurricane, and more. Once users select a chosen region and data type, they can generate a bookmarkable URL, so they can return to the same forecast at later dates.

he tornado outbreak across the southern United States in late April 2011 was deadly, devastating, and record breaking. These days, when the weather breaks records, it's natural to wonder if climate change is to blame.