Talk:Tornado

Sheltering on the first floor

In the Safety section, immediately after a photo of damage in Birmingham, in the UK, it's stated that people are advised to shelter either in a basement or on the first floor.

A lot of English speakers are unaware of this particular difference between American and British English, and even those who are might be led to assume the British English interpretation given the context of the UK example.

First floor in the US refers to the ground floor in the UK.

First floor in the UK refers to the second floor in the US.

Given that any misinterpretation here could lead to people putting their lives at risk when sheltering from a tornado, it might be worth replacing the term first floor with less ambiguous language. 178.238.147.66 (talk) 07:22, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

I think it would be best to change it to refer to the ground floor which has the same meaning in the US and UK. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 13:17, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Alternatively, the article could refer to the "lowest floor", meaning a basement if one is available and the ground floor otherwise. TornadoLGS (talk) 02:00, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

Landspouts and waterspouts as "true" tornadoes

Concerning landspouts and waterspouts, the second lead paragraph says "there is disagreement over whether to classify them as true tornadoes" due to those (usually) not being associated with a mesocyclone, e.g. non-supercell. Tornado#Size and shape implies landspouts that touch the ground or are stronger than 64 km/h are considered tornadoes. The Landspout article simply refers to itself as a tornado unassociated with a mesocyclone, while confusingly Waterspout is divided into "tornadic" (mesocyclone-associated) and "non-tornadic" varieties, the latter of which are still "non-supercell tornadoes".

I'm having trouble pinpointing where this disagreement with terminology can be found in the article body if at all, although it does seem to be a popularly held belief. Could we clarify which sources say a tornado must be associated with a supercell to be defined as a "true" tornado? 9³ (talk) 08:54, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

I'd like to hear some discussion for this as well. I believe the popular opinion is that non- super cellular columns of rotation are in fact tornadoes. And I also agree that there is dissonance in the article and child articles. I don't believe many professional sources would claim a vortex must belong to a supercell to be defined as a tornado, as that would alienate plenty of notable tornadic events derived from waterspouts and gustnados/QLCS formed spin-ups.

Additionally as per WP:TECHNICAL I feel it's not the best move to apply meteorological discourse with vague consensus into an integral article, unless its actually necessary. Wikiwillz (talk) 20:17, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Gallery

I'm not sure that the gallery should exist. There are multiple photos placed across the article that illustrate its appearance and function. ?talkcontribs

Updating images in the article

Most of the images in the article have been taken before the year 2000, going back to the 1950s. With the abundance of available tornado footage and images I think updating this article to have more clear, high-res imagery would do it good. Ikethecatto (talk) 17:38, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 September 2023

In the landspout section I would Like to add that :tornado not associated with a mesocyclone "And is Formed Due to a developing storm Updraft causing rotation. 2601:603:382:4A60:30CB:7CC5:1474:CC47 (talk) 05:11, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 14:04, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

• 5000*500*

2400:C600:3663:815D:16C6:D950:E85E:9FAD (talk) 13:10, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 January 2024

The etymology, as it stands, is not consistent with its two linked sources. According to one of them (Etymonline) the English word comes from two Spanish words i.e. tronada and tornado (the latter, despite its ortographical identity to the English word, is considered secondary in Etymonline and entirely absent from M-W): now the article only mentions the latter, and (which is the actual, egregious point) it incorrectly attributes to it the ultimate Latin origin of the former. My proposed edit is as follows:

The word tornado comes from the Spanish word tronada ('thunderstorm'), from tronar, itself from Latin tonare (both meaning 'to thunder'); the English word was also influenced by Spanish tornado, past participle of tornar ('to twist, turn'), from Latin tornare ('to turn').

91.197.196.75 (talk) 19:25, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

(Still me.) I guess that was a no? 31.13.255.32 (talk) 17:23, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

(Also me.) Done by a kind soul: consider me satisfied. 80.249.126.241 (talk) 17:13, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

References