Why are some tornadoes white, and others black, gray, or even red?
Tornadoes tend to look darkest when one looks southwest through northwest in the afternoon. In those cases, they are often silhouetted in front of a light source, such as brighter skies west of the thunderstorm. If there is heavy precipitation behind the tornado, it may be dark gray, blue, or even white—depending on where most of the daylight is coming from. This happens often when the spotter is looking north or east at a tornado, and part of the forward-flank and/or rear-flank cores. Tornadoes wrapped in rain may exhibit varieties of gray shades on gray, if they are visible at all. Lower parts of tornadoes also can assume the color of the dust and debris they are generating; for example, a tornado passing across dry fields in western or central Oklahoma may take on the hue of the red soil so prevalent there.
