5,000 feet or about 1 mile (1,650 m) away.
Thunderstorms kill approximately 200 people in the United States and injure about 550
Americans per year, mostly from lightning strikes. Have you heard the common misconcep-
tion that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice? In fact, lightning strikes the New
York City’s Empire State Building about 100 times per year (Figure16.25).
Figure 16.25: Lightning strikes some places many times a year. Here, lightning is striking
the Eiffel Tower in Paris. ( 14 )
Tornadoes
Tornadoes, also called twisters, are the most fearsome products of severe thunderstorms
(Figure16.26). Tornadoes are created as air in a thunderstorm rises, and the surrounding
air races in to fill the gap, forming a funnel. A tornado is a funnel shaped, whirling column
of air extending downward from a cumulonimbus cloud.
A tornado can last anywhere from a few seconds to several hours. The most important
measure of the strength of a tornado is its wind speed. The average is about 177 kph (110
mph), but some can be much higher. The average tornado is 150 to 600 m across (500 to
2,000 feet) across and 300 m (1,000 feet) from cloud to ground. A tornado travels over the
ground at about 45 km per hour (28 miles per hour) and travels about 25 km (16 miles)
before losing energy and disappearing.