What Really Happens Inside A Tornado?

As Dorothy's Auntie Em would testify, a variety of scenarios may play out if you got sucked inside a tornado. The most unlikely among them is that you will swirl into the distance, watching an evil witch laugh at you as she rides a cruiser bike (this only happens in "The Wizard of Oz"). According to How Stuff Works, most people swept up by tornadoes don't stay inside the vortex very long: the wind will probably drop you back onto the ground. Most injuries are caused by debris. However, tornadoes can and do sweep people up and carry them across distances, although most don't have time while inside to take notes on the scenery within the eye of the storm. But what would you see, hear, and smell if you were swept up into a tornado and held within its terrible grasp?

Nature has a way of inspiring both awe and fear in millions. Yet, often the most remarkable scenarios are also the most dangerous. Such is the case with tornadoes. These massive wind tunnels happen all around the world, though they are most common in the United States. Specifically in a region known as tornado alley. Tornado alley is a group of states in the midwest where tornadoes occur most frequently. However, according to World Population Overview, tornado alley appears to be migrating east.

As of 2021, no tornado has ever exceeded the damage done by the 1925 Tri-State Tornado. In the span of several hours, over 600 people lost their lives and over 2,000 people were injured across three different states in America.

Good ol' American pride. We've had a lot of firsts and superlatives. Whether it's individual achievement (first guy on the Moon, and no, it wasn't a hoax, really) or familial (we have more Kardashians than anywhere else. Or at least it feels that way) America has a competitive spirit, striving for #1 in whatever is getting a ranking these days. Sometimes it's an accident of geology — Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone, or El Capitan in California — and sometimes it's by design (which country had the first happiest place on Earth? Yes, we did). Other times it's geography and climate and a little bit of luck ... or bad luck, in the case of tornadoes, which grace this great land of ours more frequently every year than anywhere else on the planet, says The Atlantic.

According to Peraton Weather, the legendary tornado scene in the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum was inspired by a real-life weather disaster. Baum worked as a newspaper editor and learned about twin tornadoes that ripped through the town of Irving, Kansas in 1879. One of the victims of these destructive forces of nature was a woman named Dorothy Gale. Baum used the same name for his main character in his novel and Judy Garland played Dorothy in the film version.