Does a tornado really suck a water out of a well, or a swimming pool?
For many decades, it was believed that the pressure drop within a tornado vortex was capable of all sorts of things: sucking wells, rivers, or swimming pools dry; making buildings explode; pulling the feathers off chickens; and other bizarre tornado “oddities” reported from time to time. Although we scientists still don’t know the details of the pressure distribution at the surface associated with tornadoes, it’s now pretty much accepted that the pressure drop in tornadoes is probably on the order of a tenth of an atmosphere (~100 mb) or less. This sort of pressure drop simply is incapable of doing most of the things that are attributed to tornadoes on occasion. Water is relatively heavy, and a pressure drop of 100 mb can only lift a water column about 3 feet. Reports of swimming pools or wells sucked dry have always turned out to be false (they were empty before the tornado came through). Most buildings can leak enough air that they won’t “explode” from the pressure effects … the ap
