I have heard about outbreaks. What is an outbreak?
If there are six or more tornadoes from a single weather system, it is generally termed an outbreak. Sometimes the National Weather Service doesn’t term it an outbreak unless there are 10 tornadoes. If there are only 3, and each one is a killer, the word outbreak will probably be used. The word “outbreak” is a very loose, poorly defined term. Sometimes all 6 (or 10) tornadoes can come from just a single thunderstorm. • I have also heard about tornado families–what are they? A tornado family is a group of tornadoes spawned by a single thunderstorm. A “family” has had as many as 7 tornadoes, although two is much more common. The family gets a name based on the most damaging event. In 1991, a tornado passed over an underpass on the Kansas Turnpike, resulting in a famous video. That tornado was the fourth and last member of the Andover tornado family. The Andover tornado was the third tornado from that thunderstorm and it killed 17 people. • What do tornadoes sound like? Do they really so
