Tornado nomenclature

[Paul Knightley]

I think it's useful to have a discussion thread on the various nomenclature used for tornadoes, and perhaps we can try to remain civil!

As the other thread has shown, the term tornado is perfect for describing a violently rotating column of air, pendant from a cumuliform cloud, and in contact with the ground.

I don't see why other names have to be made up? Surely describing the tornado by terms such as, "non-mesocylone", "convergence zone", "mesocylone", etc etc is fair enough?

 

[Willie Dines]

I agree with you on that Paul, the phrase "live and let live" comes to mind, and I think that the various items of terminology for identification that are used to describe the various conditions, in which a vertical and/or horizontal vortex is formed, are just as good as any other classification, so long as it helps to give better understanding, so that in turn, we can all gain more detailed knowledge, to therefore be able to help educate the public, and to als help to try and increase warning times, etc

In other words, there is not point in trying to fix something that isn't broken , I understand and respect that many people will have many different views on this, but overall, many chasers/spotters, etc have become acustomed the various terminology/classifications, and I don't see any reason to change the classifications of various types of vorticies

Willie