Climate change is leading to more frequent tornadoes and hurricanes in Russia. What you need to know

A strong tornado struck the Urals. In the Sverdlovsk region, 16 people were injured and hundreds of houses were damaged. Due to climate change and rising temperatures, air vortices will form more frequently, including in Russia. For the same reason, the power of hurricanes is increasing in the world. What you need to know about destructive wind phenomena is in the Izvestia article.

Tornado in the Urals

• On June 22, the Urals were hit by an atypical natural disaster for this region — a tornado. The air vortex formed near the villages of Laya and Malaya Laya to the northwest of Nizhny Tagil in the Sverdlovsk region. The tornado reached the city of Kushva and hit it with the greatest force. The wind also caused damage in the city of Verkhnyaya Tura and the village of Baranchinsky.

• As a result of the disaster, about 100 private houses were damaged in Kushva and the surrounding area, 32 of them were completely destroyed. A school, kindergarten, and a gas station were damaged by the wind. More than 4,000 private homes in the Sverdlovsk region were left without electricity, and 15 power lines were damaged. 16 people were injured, one of them was hospitalized.

• The wind speed inside the funnel of the tornado that struck Kushva reached 250 m/s. The last time a similar climatic phenomenon occurred in the Urals was in 2007. At that time, meteorologists counted about 20 tornadoes in the Ivdelsky district of the Sverdlovsk Region and in the south of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. Less severe whirlwinds occurred in 2017 in the village of Staroutkinsk and in 2019 near Kushva.

How do wind phenomena occur?

• A tornado, also known as a tornado, arises from the largest cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds - dark gray dense clouds associated with precipitation, thunderstorms and hail. They carry cold air at altitude, which is at the junction with the warm air on the surface of the earth. The difference in temperature and wind strength at different heights leads to a strong swirling of the updrafts of warm air. The air simultaneously rises up and collides with crosswinds, spiraling.

• Inside such a funnel is a low-pressure area that rapidly ejects air and objects from the earth's surface. Such a vortex can spin at speeds up to 500 km/ h, and reach a diameter of hundreds of meters. When steam condenses in the funnel and dust and debris from the ground enter, the tornado becomes visible to the naked eye. It follows a thunderstorm cloud and usually fades within an hour.

• Hurricanes are formed according to a similar principle, which are also called a tropical cyclone or typhoon. They form above the warm surface of the oceans, from where moist air heated by water rises powerfully, and cold air masses come in its place. Under the influence of the Earth's rotation, these air currents also spiral, but the forming funnel reaches a diameter of 500 to 1,500 km.

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• Hurricanes are accompanied by powerful thunderstorms, heavy rainfall and gale force winds. They exist for days or even weeks, fueled by moist ocean air. However, on land, they gradually lose their strength and fade, while managing to cause damage in the form of floods and squally winds.

Are there more tornadoes and hurricanes

• Global warming and climate change are causing extreme weather events to become not only more frequent, but also more severe. Tornadoes and hurricanes are no exception, as the main condition for their formation is the collision of streams of warm and cold air. As the Earth's temperature gradually rises, such collisions will occur more frequently and become more widespread.

• With regard to hurricanes, scientists have already formed a consensus that they will become more and more destructive in the coming years. Their power depends on the moist air they receive from the ocean. The higher the temperature gets, the more the hurricane "feeds" on steam and the longer it will plow the surface of the planet, and when it hits land, it will bring down more heavy rains on it.

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Specialists are restoring electricity and removing fallen trees.

• Tornadoes require more factors to form, so their number does not depend so much on the temperature rise. In addition, they are generally less studied and less predictable than hurricanes. However, it is possible that their geography will expand due to regions that have not previously experienced extremely high temperatures. Tornadoes may also begin to appear in large cities, as large agglomerations not only emit a lot of heat, but also retain warm air and redirect it upward due to dense and high-rise buildings.

• Climate change threatens Russia with more frequent tornadoes. Hurricanes formed over the tropical zones of the oceans rarely reach both the European part of the country and the Far East. Tornadoes form on land and can appear suddenly throughout the summer period. The more often they occur, the more likely it will be that another vortex will end up in a densely populated area and cause serious destruction.