The Science Behind Tornado Formation

Hello and welcome to CNN 10. I'm Allison Chinchar filling in for Coy just for today. He's actually out on the West Coast shooting some special content for later this summer. So if you're in Las Cruces, New Mexico today, you might see his bald head out and about. I'm excited to be here with you. We've got a great show for you today, so let's go ahead and get started.

We begin today with severe storms that battered a large area of the U.S. and triggered dozens of tornado reports over the last week. Now, late last week, an EF3 tornado rocked the St. Louis area, damaging or destroying thousands of buildings. And a powerful EF4 tornado tore across southern Kentucky. The National Weather Service officials say it was the deadliest tornado in the history of their area, with London, Kentucky, hit particularly hard.

Another storm hit parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado late on Sunday where homes were severely damaged, roads were blocked, and cars were overturned. The storms were powerful enough to toss semi-trucks into a field in Kansas. A powerful EF-1 tornado tore apart homes and brought down trees in Nebraska. We went into the bathtub and then put pillows and blankets and I just laid it on top of my daughter so that if anything came through I would hopefully get me and not her.

Sounded like a train, basically, and just really windy, and then you could hear stuff hitting against the house. More tornadoes touched down as the severe weather pattern continued earlier in the week, battering homes and power lines in the small city of Plevnik.

Kansas. Thankfully, no one was injured there, and as the severe weather moved east, millions of people in parts of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee valleys braced for new rounds of storms as they were still cleaning up debris from the previous It is simply unsafe to be around that much debris with this level of wind.

Now further east, tornadoes touch down in parts of Alabama. Let's head to the Weather Center to show you what meteorologists like myself look for when these storms form. This is a two-dimensional look at a storm on radar, but meteorologists see a tornado. But what is it exactly that meteorologists see? Well, let's take a look.

The yellow and green colors you see here are going to be your very heavy rain in the storm. The red color indicates your hail core. And then all the way down there, the purple circle, that's where your tornado is going to be. Meteorologists often refer to it as the hook echo because of the hook shape that it ends up taking. But these aren't the only features we look for. We also have to take a look at the winds inside the storm. Imagine this flagpole was inside of our storm and the flag is going

all the way up to the very top of the cloud. The thing is, the wind changes direction as you go up. So this naturally creates that rotation necessary for funnel clouds and also even tornadoes. So now let's take a look. a look at the base of that storm what you have is you have very warm inflow warm air coming into the storm and rising because that's what warm air does it goes up

But you also have cold air coming down from the tops of the clouds and sinking all the way down towards the base. Now, together, these help to create wind shear down near the perimeter. And that is what helps create some of the more violent... tornadoes.

Now, what if your tornado has been on the ground for at least a little bit? Then you start to get this, the debris cloud, which is essentially a collection of all of the stuff the tornado has been able to pick up. Everything from dust... to trees, to even homes. Now, tornadoes can happen almost anywhere, so it's important to know the differences between the three key alerts for these storms. You have a tornado watch, a tornado warning, or a tornado emergency.

And the National Weather Service has come up with a pretty clever analogy to help us all remember. Tacos! So a taco watch is we have all of the ingredients but we haven't yet assembled the tacos. Simply meaning we have all the ingredients for a tornado and they're present but you need to make sure you know your emergency. plans and can be ready to go to a safe place when the taco is made.

Now you have a taco warning. This means the taco is made. Or in other words, a tornado has either been seen or indicated by weather radar, so the threat of danger is imminent. You want to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building and avoid all windows. Also, anyone in a mobile home should safely move to a more substantial shelter.

And the third and highest alert level is a tornado emergency. Now, no tacos here, but this alert is reserved for rare situations. It's issued when a confirmed and violent tornado poses a substantial risk to life and property, and it means it's time to take shelter immediately, preferably underground.

10-second trivia. Now, what country has the highest density of robot workers? Is it Japan, China, Germany, or South Korea? Your answer here is South Korea, currently home to over 1000 industrial robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, have just created a tiny robot the size of an AirPod.

of like an insect, it moves by hopping and weighs less than a paper clip, with a spring-loaded leg and four flapping wings. Here's how it works. make sure the robot can bounce back efficiently from the ground. On the other hand, the flapping wing modules ensure the robot stays upright for stability.

So why does the world need such a small cyborg? The creators say the robot could be used in search and rescue operations because it can navigate confined spaces and withstand rough terrain. It's official! Flag football will be making its debut in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and you may be seeing some of the biggest names in the NFL representing the US in the sport. Flag football is the no-contact version of—

American football that swaps tackles for grabbing flags the opponents are wearing. While the International Olympic Committee approved the inclusion of the sport back in 2023, the NFL just voted to allow a maximum of one player per NFL team to go for the flag football gold. Plus, each club's designated international athlete will be able to play for his country. And the Olympic flag football competition will

also include women's teams. Now to South Korea, where a trip to the nation's largest fish market can be an overwhelming sensory experience. There are rows of hundreds of vendors, a wide variety of live seafood, and a whole lot of smells. Luckily, our Lalit Marcus went there to give us some tips on making the most of a visit. We are in Norianjin, which is the oldest and biggest fish market in Seoul. Think of it as like a giant mall, but the only thing you can buy is live fish and shellfish.

It's just bigger. It's way bigger. There is much more variety to that. It's fresher, I believe so. Noryangjin originally was opened in 1927, but it moved here to this location in the 1970s, which is where it's been ever... since. Okay, it's chewier than I expected. things that you should know if you come here. First of all, all the fish is live.

So that means you can pick it out and then take it upstairs and have someone cook it right there so that you can eat it. It's about as fresh as it gets. You're also totally welcome to haggle. In fact, they kind of expect it. Another important thing if you visit, make sure that you wear good footwear. The floors are wet and I'm an idiot who showed up in ballet flats. So you want to take a cue from all the other people who are here? Try a pair of tennis shoes or some rain boots.

Today's story of getting a 10 out of 10 goes to a school resource officer doing a good deed for a student in need. Officer Brett Boyer noticed one of his high school seniors was due for an upgrade. Sean Merritt was born with cerebral palsy and relies on an electric wheelchair to get around. But that chair had seen better days, and Boyer decided...

to take action. I went out and talked to some of my good friends and people of the neighborhood and the community and explained the situation and before I could get past Sean Merritt, which is Sean's name, they were all in. The community rallied to raise money, and by senior scholarship night,

Boyer surprised the graduating senior with a new wheelchair, complete with upgraded features and even Bluetooth speakers. A gift Merritt says will remind him of home as it helps him transition to college life in the fall. Alright superstars, it's time to send out a shout out to Mr. O and all of the patriots at Colonia Middle School in Colonia, New Jersey. Thanks for spending part of your day with us and thank you all for letting me spend the day with you.

Coy will be back tomorrow to finish out the rest of the week. It's been a blast getting to fill in and host the best 10 minutes in news. Have a great day, everyone.