Whether you're in meteorology school or ground school, the tornado undoubtedly captures the attention. I've often noticed how a room goes silent when a conversation about this topic begins. Popular weather articles describe the tornado in terms of collisions between the air masses, jet streams, and fronts, and then go on to describe how to take shelter.However in this article we'll give you an explanation that's more grounded in aviation meteorology. In the airplane there's no place to hide, so you might as well have the best information at hand so you can make sense of these phenomena when they spring up. I would recommend checking back with our March 2022 article on severe storms for some good starter material.Surprisingly during the early days of aviation, the U.S. Weather Bureau refused to forecast severe storms and tornadoes due to a pervasive fear that missing a deadly tornado outbreak would be a career ender (for the directors, naturally). There was a similar sentiment when it came to the responsibility of keeping airplanes safe. Because of this, it was a dangerous time for flying, with pilots left to their own devices. The earliest airlines dealt with endless weather-related crashes, prompting them to create their own company meteorology departments in the years leading up to WWII.
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