Appearence


Tornadoes can be nearly invisible, marked only by swirling debris at the base of the funnel. While tornadoes are invisible at night, some nocturnal tornadoes have been observed glowing diffusely due to lightning activity. Verified observations by Hall and others suggest a cellular structure inside tornadoes. In Utah tornados during the spring are sometimes called "white tornadoes" because they appear white. This happens when the funnel passes through snow-covered land, sucking the white snow into it.




Rotation


Tornadoes normally rotate in a cyclonic direction (counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere). Large-scale storms always rotate cyclonically because of the Coriolis force. The tornadoes usually rotate the same way, however, they are on too small a scale to be directly affected by the rotation of the earth. Therefore, on occasion (about 1 in 100 tornadoes) a tornado will rotate in an anticyclonic direction. Usually only landspouts will rotate anticyclonically. However, on very rare occasions, an anticyclonic supercell will develop, producing a traditional tornado, only anticyclonic.

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