Chasing Tornadoes and Capturing Their Power

Factors of Tornedo Formation:
Tornadoes usually occur in regions with warm, moist air near the surface and cold, dry air aloft. This creates an unstable atmosphere, where warm air wants to rise and cold air wants to sink.
Wind shear is the change in wind speed and direction with altitude. Strong wind shear in the lower atmosphere can lead to the rotation of horizontal vortices, which is a crucial factor in tornado formation.
A trigger is often needed to start the process. This can be a weather front, a dryline (a boundary separating moist and dry air masses), or the outflow boundary of a thunderstorm.
Within a severe thunderstorm, you have a strong updraft of warm, moist air and a downdraft of cold, dry air. When these air masses interact, it can create horizontal rotation.
If the horizontal rotation is stretched and intensified by the wind shear, it can develop into a mesocyclone. This is a rotating updraft within the storm that is a key precursor to a tornado.
The mesocyclone's updraft can then extend downward, and if it tightens and intensifies, it forms a tornado. This is when the funnel cloud reaches the ground.