Atmospheric vortices. Dispersal of clouds - the establishment of good weather. The principle of dispersal of clouds, consequences Conclusions to the chapter

WEATHER CONTROL METHOD. People have always dreamed of controlling the weather. That is, we want the rain of a given intensity to fall at the right time and in the right place. We also want warm, sunny weather in summer to be at the right time and in the right places, so that there is no drought, and in winter, so that snowstorms and frosts do not rage. We want hurricanes and storms, tornadoes and tornadoes, typhoons and cyclones, if it is impossible to get rid of them, then that all these atmospheric phenomena, at least, bypass our cities and settlements. Fantasts in their works have long succeeded in this. Is it really possible to control the weather? From the point of view of a person, the weather can be comfortable and not comfortable. But this is, of course, a subjective assessment. Comfortable weather for a resident of, for example, Africa - a European due to the elevated temperature of the atmosphere, may seem unbearable. For a polar bear, accustomed to the harsh climate of the Arctic, the European summer seems unbearable. In general, the weather on our planet Earth depends on the solar heat that enters it. The flow of this heat to the surface of the planet primarily depends on geographical latitude. But the weather on each specific section of the earth's surface is not only its temperature, but also the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. The atmosphere is a capricious lady. It receives its share of heat not from the Sun, but from the earth's surface and rarely stands in one place. It is the atmosphere with its winds, hurricanes, cyclones, anticyclones, typhoons, tornadoes and tornadoes that creates everywhere what we call weather. We can briefly say that the weather is made by vertical vortices of the atmosphere near the surface of the Earth. To control the weather means, first of all, to learn how to control atmospheric vortices. Is it possible to control these vortices? In some countries of Southeast Asia, sorcerers and psychics are hired to disperse clouds over large airports for flight safety. It is unlikely that they would be paid money for idleness. In Russia, we don’t hire sorcerers and psychics, but we already know how to disperse clouds over airfields and cities. This, of course, cannot yet be called "weather control", but, in fact, is the first step in this direction. Real actions to disperse the clouds are already being carried out in Moscow during the May holidays and during the days of military parades. These measures cost the state dearly. Hundreds of tons of aviation gasoline and tens of tons of expensive chemicals are spent to spray them in clouds. At the same time, all these chemicals and products of burnt gasoline eventually end up on the territory of the city and its environs. A lot goes to our respiratory tract. But it is possible to disperse clouds or, conversely, to cause rain in a certain place at a much lower cost and with little or no damage to the environment. This, of course, is not about sorcerers and psychics, but about the possibilities with the help of modern technology to create vortices in the atmosphere with the desired direction of rotational movement. In the late 70s of the last century, my friend (S Volkov Dmitry Viktorovich) and I carried out experiments at our own expense to create a possible impulse jet engine. The main difference between the proposed invention and the already known solutions of such an engine was the use of shock waves and their rotation in a special vortex chamber. (See the article: "Impulse jet engine" in the same section of "Samizdat" for more details). The experimental setup consisted of a vortex chamber and a charging tube, which at one end was screwed tangentially into the cylindrical wall of the vortex chamber. All this was mounted on a special device for measuring impulse thrust. Since our goal was the engine, it was natural that we sought to obtain maximum impulse thrust, and looked at the weather only as a possible hindrance. To this end, a series of explosions of gunpowder was carried out in the charging tube. At the same time, the optimal length of the charging tube, the thickness of its walls (so as not to break) and other parameters were selected. We also paid attention to how the direction of swirling of the powder gases in the vortex chamber affects the thrust. It turned out that when spinning clockwise (as in an anticyclone), the thrust is slightly greater. Therefore, in further experiments, we used only the anticyclone swirl. One small trouble forced us to refuse from spinning counterclockwise (as in a cyclone) - the powder gases of the exhaust pressed against the ground in a circle from the experimental installation. Of course, we did not want to breathe powder gases. We did our experiments for almost a week at the beginning of December 1979. It was mild winter weather. Suddenly a 20-degree frost came, and our winter experiments had to be stopped. We never returned to them. VNIIGPE also contributed to the oblivion of our experiments with its refusal decisions after almost a year of correspondence. More than 30 years have passed since then. Now, when analyzing the results of those experiments, questions and assumptions arose: 1. Isn't it in vain that we stopped researching swirling powder gases using explosive shock waves? 2. Is it not our anticyclone spin that caused those frosts? 3. Would a cyclone swirl cause precipitation? The answers to the above questions are obvious to me. Of course, these studies had to be continued, but the state was not interested in our experiments, and we, as they say, could not afford to conduct such experiments in private. Of course, those frosts are not caused by our experiments. A few grams of gunpowder in the charging tube could not spin the winter anticyclone, and then nature did without our help. But on the other hand, it is known that any disturbances in the Earth's atmosphere propagate over long distances, like waves on the surface of water. It is also known that, under certain conditions, vertical vortices of the atmosphere are capable of superrotation, that is, of self-acceleration. After all, if you do not chase after the thrust of the impulse and make a small design change to our installation, while increasing its parameters by an order of magnitude, and at the same time cause spin not by separate explosive impulses from a few grams of gunpowder, but by bursts of blank charges, for example, from an automatic rapid-fire gun , then answering the second question in the negative, without experimental verification, is simply unreasonable. The answer to the third question above is similar to the previous answer. Nikolay Matveev.

Describe atmospheric hazards (cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes, storms, storms, squalls, tornadoes, heavy precipitation, droughts, fogs, ice, snowstorms, frosts, frosts, storms, thunderstorms).

We live at the bottom of a large air ocean, which is located around the globe. The depth of this ocean is 1000 km and is called the atmosphere.

The winds are the so-called "mixing devices", they provide:

Exchange between polluted and clean air;

Oxygenation of fields and forests, warm and cold Arctic regions:

They disperse the clouds and bring rain clouds to the fields that produce crops, so the wind is the most important component of life.

The gaseous medium around the Earth, which rotates with it, is called the atmosphere. Uneven heating contributes to the general circulation of the atmosphere, which affects the weather and climate of the Earth.

Atmospheric pressure is distributed unevenly, which leads to the movement of air relative to the Earth from high to low. Wind is the movement of air relative to the earth's surface, resulting from an uneven distribution of atmospheric pressure and directed from a high pressure zone to a low pressure zone.

The strength of the wind depends on the baric gradient: the greater the atmospheric pressure difference and the closer the interacting regions are, the faster the pressure drop equalizes and the higher the wind speed.

Wind direction depends on:

Mutual positions of high and low pressure areas;

The rotation of the earth;

In 1806, the English admiral Bafarth developed a scale for determining the strength of the wind in points. This scale is still in use today.

The wind starts causing damage at about 20 m/s. Wind speed is measured in both meters per second and kilometers per second. Multiplying the first value by a factor of 3.6, we get the second value (with the reverse action, the same factor acts as a divisor).

A person is kept on his feet at wind speeds up to 36 m/s. With a wind speed of 44 m / s, no one dares to leave the room. As soon as the pressure of the wind, which is equal to the square of the speed, exceeds the mass of a person, the forces change him, the wind picks him up and carries him.

For a person, the most favorable wind speed on hot days, when he is lightly dressed, is 1-2 m / s. At a wind speed of 3-7 m/s, irritation appears. Strong winds over 20 m/s cause disruption of life.

Beaufort scale for determining wind strength

Wind strength (points)	Verbal designation	Speed ​​m/s	Average rounded, m/s	Average rounded, km/h	Average rounded, knots	Rounded average pressure, kg/m	The effect of wind on objects
	Quiet wind	0,3-1,5			2,5	0,1	There is a slight breeze. The direction of the wind can be determined from the smoke. Leaves and flags are motionless.
	Light breeze	1,6-3,3				0,5	The pennant fluctuates slightly, sometimes the flags and leaves on the trees.
	weak wind	3,4-5,4					Flags flutter, small leafy tree branches sway.
	moderate wind	5,5-7,9					Small flags and pennants are stretched out, branches of trees without foliage are swaying. The wind raises dust and scraps of paper
	Fresh breeze	8,0-10,7					Large flags are being raised, large bare branches of trees are swaying.
	Strong wind	10,8-13,8					Large boughs sway, whistle in gear, between houses and stationary objects.
	strong wind	13,9-17,1					The trunks of small trees without leaves sway. Telephone wires hum.
	Very strong wind	17,2-24,4					Shakes large trees, breaks branches and branches. Significantly delays movement against the wind.
	Storm	20,7-24,4					Breaks large bare branches of trees, moves light objects, damages roofs.
	Heavy storm	24,5-28,4					Breaks trees, damages buildings.
	Violent storm	28,5-32,6					Produces great destruction.
	Hurricane	32 or more	Over 32	Over 105	Over 57	Over 74	Causes catastrophic destruction, uproots trees

Weather conditions play the role of an air conditioner, thanks to which our planet remains habitable. They are the driving force that moves heat and moisture from one place to another and is able to create the strongest bursts of energy.

weather systems are circular areas of vortex air flows width from 150 to 400 km. Their thickness fluctuates greatly, reaching 12-15 km and located in fact over the entire height of the troposphere (the atmospheric layer closest to the Earth). The thickness of other, smaller and rapidly moving systems does not exceed 1-3 km.

Weather systems are characterized by changes in air pressure, as well as various shoeing winds.

The main linear (baric) systems are cyclones and anticyclones. Anticyclone- This is an area of ​​high atmospheric pressure with a descending air flow with a maximum in the center. Cyclone is an area of ​​low pressure with ascending air currents with a minimum in the center. Therefore, cloudy weather is typical for cyclones.

Anticyclones, as an area of ​​high atmospheric pressure, are usually characterized by stable weather, which most often does not change significantly for several days. The wind blows clockwise around the center in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere. On synoptic maps, anticyclones are depicted as concentric isobars (lines connecting areas with the same pressure) around the center with the highest pressure.

Anticyclones are usually characterized by light winds and clear skies. The absence of clouds means that the heat radiated by the surface during the day escapes into outer space. As a result, the soil and surface air cool rapidly at night. In winter, cooling causes frost when there is moisture in the air, hoarfrost or fog. Light winds of the anticyclone region contribute to the evolution of these weather phenomena. If strong, it could mix the air masses, and surface cooling would spread to much deeper layers of air.

Warm and cold air mix with difficulty. Therefore, warm air flowing in waves in the polar front flows through the flow of cold dense air, and does not mix with it. Cold air follows warm air and thus forms cyclone. Usually there are 2 fronts inside a cyclone: warm front separates the approaching flow of warm air from cold air. In this case, warm air rises above the layer of cold dense air in front. In the rising cool air, water vapor condenses and clouds form. The warm front is followed by cold front. Along this front, cold air makes its way under the layer of warm air, causing it to rise. Therefore, the cold front also brings cloudy, rainy weather. The cold front moves faster than the warm front, as a result of which they eventually collide, and warm air is forced upward.

Meteorologists carefully study the sequence of weather patterns associated with cyclones. This knowledge is extremely important for weather forecasting. For example, thin cirrus clouds of the upper layer, followed by gray rain clouds of the lower layer. These clouds usually bring rain for several hours before a warm front.

Behind the warm front is a region of warm air with its inherent cloudiness and humidity.

This is followed by a cold front, where, due to the rising air currents, thunderstorms occur. Often, heavy rain falls along the edge of a cold front, the duration of which is usually less than under conditions of a warm front. After the passage of a cold front, as a rule, clear cold weather sets in.

As a result of natural processes occurring in the atmosphere, phenomena are observed on Earth that pose an immediate danger and impede the functioning of human systems. Atmospheric hazards include cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons), storms (storms), tornadoes (tornadoes), hail, snowstorms, downpours, ice, fog, lightning.

Cyclones can be:

1. Ordinary (non-tropical), which arise as a result of the interaction of cold and warm air fronts with each other.

2. Tropical, which have different names:

- "hurricane" - the name is associated with the name of the god of storms among the ancient Mayan people, called the inhabitants of the United States. Central and South America.

- "typhoon" translated from Chinese "very big wind", called the inhabitants of Russia (Far East), Australia, Korea, China, India, Japan. In a strange irony, typhoons and hurricanes are given female names.

Tropical cyclones

In the homeland of hurricanes, in the tropics, air masses are very hot and saturated with water vapor - the temperature of the ocean surface at these latitudes reaches twenty-seven to twenty-eight degrees Celsius. As a result, powerful ascending currents of air arise and the release of the solar heat stored by it and the condensation of the vapors contained in it. The process develops and grows, it turns out a kind of giant pump - into the funnel formed at the place of origin of this pump, neighboring masses of the same warm and vapor-saturated air are sucked in, and thus the process spreads further and in breadth, capturing more and more new areas on the surface of the ocean.

When you pour water from the bathtub through the drain hole, a whirlpool is formed. Approximately the same thing happens with the air rising up at the place where the cyclone originates - it begins to rotate.

The giant air pump continues to work, more moisture condensing on its funnel-shaped top, more heat being released. (American meteorologists have calculated that over a million tons of water can be lifted up in one day - in the form of steam, which continuously saturates the surface layer of the atmosphere; the energy released during condensation in just ten days would be enough for such a highly industrialized state, like the USA, for six years!). It is believed that a moderate cyclone releases approximately the same amount of energy as 500,000 atomic bombs with the power dropped over Hiroshima. Atmospheric pressure in the center of the nascent cyclone and on its outskirts becomes unequal: there, in the center of the cyclone, it is much lower, and a sharp pressure drop is the cause of strong winds, which soon develop into hurricanes. In a space with a diameter of three hundred to five hundred kilometers, the strongest winds begin their frantic whirlwind.

Having arisen, cyclones begin to move at an average speed of 10-30 km / h, sometimes they can hover over the area for a while.

Cyclones (ordinary and tropical) are large-scale eddies with a diameter: ordinary from 1000 to 2000 km; tropical from 200 to 500 km and height from 2 to 20 km.

Air masses move in the area of ​​the cyclone in a spiral, twisting towards its center (counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, vice versa in the southern) at a speed of:

Ordinary no more than 50-70 km / h;

Tropical 400-500 km/h

In the center of the cyclone, the air pressure is lower than at the periphery, which is why, moving in a spiral, the air masses tend to the center, where they then rise up, giving rise to strong clouds.

If in the center:

Normal cyclone air pressure compared to atmospheric (760 mm r.s.) is 713-720 mm r.s.;

Then in the center of a tropical cyclone, the pressure drops to 675 mm r.s.

In the center of a tropical cyclone there is an area of ​​low pressure with high temperature, 10-40 km in diameter, where calm reigns - typhoon eye.

Every year at least 70 tropical cyclones arise and fully develop on the globe.

When a tropical cyclone (typhoon, hurricane) approaches the coast, it carries huge masses of water in front of it. Storm Shaft accompanied by strong rains and tornadoes. It swoops down on coastal areas, destroying everything in its path.

Example

In 1970, a typhoon. which broke through the mouth of the Ganges River (in India) flooded 800,000 km 2 of the coast. Had a wind speed of 200-250 m/s. The sea wave reached a height of 10 m. About 400,000 people died.

Today, there are modern methods for predicting tropical cyclones (typhoons, hurricanes). Every suspicious cloud formation where it did not occur is photographed by meteorological satellites from space, weather service planes fly to the "eye of the typhoon" to get accurate data. This information is put into computers in order to calculate the path and duration of a tropical cyclone (typhoon, hurricane) and notify the population in advance of the danger.

Hurricane

A hurricane is a wind force of 12 points (up to 17 points) on the Beaufort scale, i.e. at a speed of 32.7 m/s (more than 105 km/h) and reaches up to 300 m/s (1194 km/h)

Hurricane- a strong small-scale atmospheric vortex in which the air rotates at a speed of up to 100 m/s. It is shaped like a pillar (sometimes with a concave axis of rotation) with funnel-shaped extensions at the top and bottom. The air rotates counterclockwise and simultaneously rises in a spiral, drawing in dust, water, and various objects. A hurricane on land is called storm and on the sea storm. The main characteristics of hurricanes are:

Wind speed;

Ways of movement;

Dimensions and construction;

Average duration of actions.

The most important characteristic of hurricanes is wind speed. The table below (on the Beaufort scale) shows the dependence of the wind speed and the names of the modes. The average speed of a hurricane in Ukraine is 50-60 km/h.

Hurricanes vary greatly in size. Usually, the width of the zone of catastrophic destruction, which can be measured in hundreds of kilometers, is taken as its width. The hurricane front reaches a length of up to 500 km. Hurricanes occur at any time of the year, but are more frequent from July to October. In the remaining 8 months they are rare, their paths are short.

The average duration of a hurricane is 9-12 days. In Ukraine, hurricanes do not last long, from a few seconds to several hours.

A hurricane is almost always clearly visible; when it approaches, a strong hum is heard.

Hurricanes are one of the most powerful forces of the elements. In terms of their harmful effects, they are not inferior to such terrible natural disasters as earthquakes. This is due to the fact that they carry enormous energy. Its amount, released by a hurricane of average power in one hour, is equal to the energy of a nuclear explosion of 36 Mgt.

A hurricane carries a triple threat to people who find themselves in its path. The most destructive are wind, waves and rain.

Often, showers accompanied by a hurricane are much more dangerous than the hurricane itself, especially for those people who live on or near the coast. A hurricane creates waves up to 30 m high on the coast, can cause showers, and later cause an epidemic, for example, a hurricane storm tide, which coincided with the usual one, caused a giant flood on the coast of India in 1876, during which the wave rose by 12-13 m About 100,000 people drowned and almost as many died from the consequences of a ferocious epidemic.

When a hurricane propagates over the sea, it causes huge waves 10-12 meters or more high, damaging or even leading to the death of the ship.

The greatest danger during a hurricane is objects lifted from the ground and spun to great speed. Unlike storms, a hurricane travels in a narrow band, so it can be avoided. You just need to determine the direction of its movement and move in the opposite direction.

Hurricane wind destroys strong and demolishes light structures, devastates sown fields, breaks wires and knocks down power lines and communication poles, damages highways and bridges, breaks and uproots trees, damages and sinks ships, causes accidents on utility and energy networks in production . There were cases when hurricane winds destroyed dams and dams, which led to large floods, threw trains off the rails, tore bridges from supports, knocked down factory pipes, and threw ships onto land.

The atmosphere of our planet is never calm, its air masses are in constant motion. The air element reaches its highest strength in cyclones - circular rotations of the wind towards the center. Storms and hurricanes are giant whirlwinds. Most often, they originate over heated areas of the tropical zones of the oceans, but they can also occur at high latitudes. The most high-speed whirlwinds - tornadoes - are still largely mysterious.

Earth's atmosphere is like an ocean, where air instead of water splashes. Under the influence of solar radiation, relief and daily rotation of the planet, inhomogeneities arise in the air ocean. Areas of low pressure are called cyclones, and areas of high pressure are called anticyclones. It is in cyclones that strong winds are born. The largest of them reach thousands of kilometers in diameter and are clearly visible from space thanks to the clouds that fill them. At their core, these are vortices where air moves in a spiral from the edges to the center, into an area with low pressure. Such whirlwinds, constantly existing in the atmosphere, but born precisely in the tropics - in the Atlantic and the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean - and reaching wind speeds of more than 30 m / s, are called hurricanes. ("Hurricane" - on behalf of the Indian evil god Huracan). In order for air to move at such a speed, a large difference in atmospheric pressure over a short distance is necessary.

Similar phenomena in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator, are called typhoons (from the Chinese "tifeng", which means "big wind"), and in the Bay of Bengal - simply cyclones.

Hurricanes appear over the warm waters of the oceans between the fifth and twentieth degrees of northern and southern latitude. A prerequisite for their formation is a huge mass of heated water. It is established that the water temperature should not be lower than 26.5 ° C, the depth of heating should be at least fifty meters. Warmer than air, ocean water begins to evaporate. Masses of heated steam rise up, forming an area of ​​low pressure and entraining the surrounding air. At a certain height, the heated steam reaches the dew point and condenses. The thermal energy released at the same time warms the air, prompting it to rise upwards, and thus feeds the newborn cyclone. The rotational component of the wind speed twists it - counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Rotation involves in a whirlwind more and more masses of air from the outside. As a result, the silhouette of the cyclone takes the form of a giant funnel, turned with its neck down. Its edges sometimes rise to the upper limits of the troposphere. Inside the funnel, a zone of clear calm weather with low atmospheric pressure is formed, surrounded by thunderclouds. This is the eye of the hurricane. Its usual size is 30-60 kilometers. It occurs only near powerful tropical cyclones and is clearly visible from space. A tropical cyclone moves north or south of the equator, depending on the place of birth. Over land, it quickly weakens, collapsing due to the roughness of the earth's surface and lack of moisture. But as soon as he gets out to the ocean, the flywheel can spin with renewed vigor. A powerful hurricane is able to wipe entire islands off the face of the Earth and change the coastline. Having fallen on densely populated areas, it causes colossal destruction, and the accompanying downpours and floods inflict another, no less dangerous blow. So, from the consequences of the cyclone that hit the state of Bangladesh in 1970, more than three hundred thousand people died. Hurricane Katrina, which originated in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005, killed nearly 2,000 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage.

In the tropical zone, hundreds of cyclones are formed annually, but not all of them are gaining hurricane strength. The National Hurricane Center in Florida predicts 11 strong vortices for the coming season. They already have their own names. The tradition of naming hurricanes was laid down in the 16th century by the Spaniards, who owned Latin America. They called them the names of saints. Then women's names came into fashion, from the 1970s - men's. The idea was picked up by meteorological services around the world, except for South Asia.

The Atlantic is stormy

In high and polar latitudes, there are similar eddy phenomena, only the mechanism of their formation is different. An extratropical cyclone receives energy from a powerful atmospheric front, where cold polar air converges with warm air. The untwisting of such a system also occurs due to the rotation of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are larger in diameter than tropical cyclones, but have less energy.

When the wind speed in an extratropical cyclone reaches 20-24 m / s (nine points on the Beaufort scale), it is assigned the category of a storm. Stronger winds are rare. If, nevertheless, a hurricane forms, for example, over the North Atlantic, then it rages in the ocean, sometimes capturing the coast of Europe. In recent years, however, exceptions have begun to occur. In December 1999, the strongest hurricane Lothar, which originated precisely from the North Atlantic cyclone, moved to the center of the mainland, to Switzerland. Kirill, which paralyzed the lives of Europeans for several days in January 2007, covered even more territory. The wind speed in it sometimes reached 62 m/s.

Over the past decade, extratropical cyclones have become more storms and hurricanes, and their trajectories have also changed. If earlier atmospheric depressions that originated over the North Atlantic rushed through Great Britain and the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Arctic Ocean, now they began to go east and south, bringing powerful winds and heavy rainfall to the center of Europe and even Russia. These facts indicate that the likelihood of severe storms is increasing and we should be prepared for elements like Kirill.

A tornado destroyed a residential area in the town of Kvirla in East Germany on the night of October 2, 2006

People and Hurricanes: War of the Worlds

The kinetic energy of one powerful hurricane is huge - 1.5 x 10 12 watts, this is half the generating capacity of all power plants in the world. Some developers have long dreamed of directing it in a useful direction, but information about this is at the level of rumors. Allegedly, there are secret laboratories that develop meteorological weapons and even test them. One of the few official confirmations that work is being done in this direction is the report Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025, posted some time ago on the US Air Force website. It has a chapter on weather control for military purposes. Among the main strike capabilities of meteorological weapons are directed storms. The US military knows their “combat power” firsthand: in 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Homestead base on the Florida peninsula. However, the idea of ​​directional storms should be viewed more as science fiction than as a project. So far, hurricanes have not been controlled by humans.

To resist the natural elements, they offered a lot of ways, including exotic ones - to drive them away from the coast with the help of giant fans or to break them up with a hydrogen bomb. In the Stormfury experiment, conducted by American scientists in 1960-1980, silver iodide was sprayed in the hurricane area. It was assumed that this substance contributes to the freezing of supercooled water, as a result of which heat is released, and rains and winds intensify in the eye of the hurricane, destroying the structure of the entire vortex. In fact, it turned out that in tropical cyclones there is too little supercooled water, and the effect of spraying is minimal. Most likely, preventive measures will help, such as changing the parameters of the specific atmospheric depression from which the hurricane is born. For example, cooling the surface of the ocean with cryogenic materials or icebergs, spraying soot over water to absorb solar radiation (so that the water does not heat up). After all, there must be some kind of trigger mechanism that suddenly twists the wind into a frenzied spiral. It is in it that lies the key to controlling the elements and the ability to accurately predict the place and time of the birth of a hurricane. Only experts cannot detect it in any way, and therefore attempts to prevent the strengthening of the vortex do not lead to success.

From Kansas to Oz

In the atmosphere there are small whirlwinds - tornadoes. They arise in thunderclouds and stretch towards water or land. Tornadoes occur almost everywhere on Earth, but most often, about 75% of cases, their appearance is noted in the United States. The Americans call them "tornadoes" or "twisters", referring to the frenzied rotation and complex trajectory. In Europe, the same phenomenon is known under the name "thrombus".

There are plenty of facts about tornadoes - they began to be studied at the end of the 19th century. (Mini tornadoes can even be set up at home by placing a fan over a hot tub.) Nevertheless, there is still no coherent theory of their origin. According to the most common view, tornadoes originate at an altitude of a few kilometers when warm air coming from below meets a cold horizontal wind. This explains, for example, why there are no tornadoes in very cold places, such as Antarctica, where the air near the surface is not warm. To accelerate the vortex to a high speed, it is also necessary that the atmospheric pressure inside it drops sharply. Tornadoes often accompany tropical cyclones. Such a pair - a hurricane with a tornado - produces especially strong destruction. There are several tornadoes in a row. So, in April 1974, 148 tornadoes appeared in the USA and Canada within 18 hours. More than three hundred people died.

Typically, a tornado is shaped like an elephant's trunk hanging from a thundercloud. Sometimes it looks like a funnel or a pillar. Having captured water, sand or other materials from the surface, the tornado becomes visible. The width of an average tornado is several hundred meters, the speed of movement is 10–20 m/s. He lives for several hours and travels a distance of tens of kilometers. A strong whirlwind sucks, like a giant vacuum cleaner, everything that comes in its way, and scatters it for tens of kilometers around. There are many funny stories about miraculous rainfall, for example, from fruits or jellyfish. In 1940, in the village of Meshchery, Gorky Region, silver coins fell from the sky, which a tornado “borrowed” from a shallow treasure. Once in Sweden, a whirlwind that suddenly flew into the stadium right in the midst of a bandy match lifted the goalkeeper of one of the teams along with the goal and carefully rearranged them a few meters without causing any harm. Although, moments before, he broke telegraph poles like matches and smashed several wooden buildings to pieces.

The energy of a tornado is less than the energy of hurricanes, but the wind speed in it is much higher and can reach 140 m/s. For comparison: tropical cyclones of the highest, fifth, category, according to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale adopted in the United States, begin with a wind speed of 70 m/s. A stick, decently spun by a tornado, can pierce a tree trunk, and a log can ram a house. Only 2% of tornadoes reach destructive power, and yet their average annual damage to the economies of the affected countries is very high.

And what about global warming?

The researchers note that in the Atlantic, periods of activity of hurricanes and tornadoes alternate with relative calm. The number of atmospheric whirlwinds, in particular powerful hurricanes (on average 3.5 per year), increased in 1940-1960 and from 1995 to the present. The strength of the current winds and ocean storms amazes even seasoned sailors. Some scientists consider the latest outbreak of atmospheric activity to be long-term and link it to global warming. Others defend its connection with the cycles of solar activity. Both versions have not yet been confirmed, on the contrary, on a planetary scale, an increase in the number of tropical cyclones has not been noticed.

However, the question of how the activity of hurricanes will change as the average annual temperature of the planet rises remains open. Therefore, accurate tropical cyclone forecasts are more relevant than ever. For them, the most modern means are involved: space satellites, aircraft, buoys stuffed with electronics, radars, supercomputers. There is a lot of information: all hurricanes register, track and notify people of possible danger. Timely warning and evacuation are the only effective ways to deal with the elements today.

Innokenty Senin