I have what might, or might not, be a stupid question; at any rate, google has no answer.
I'm one of the very few, very very few, native Nebraskans who's never seen a tornado (funnel) in his entire lifetime; for whatever reasons, it's one of those phenomenons that has stayed out of my way.
BEG here, a native Nebraskan, described what had to be the great tornado that struck Omaha in May 1975, an epic storm, horrific in its destruction. Mrs. Smith spent much of her life in that part of Nebraska susceptible to tornados, and so has probably seen a few. I dunno for sure about dutch508, but since he's one of the very few survivors of the biggest earthquake ever to hit Nebraska, probably he's outlasted some tornados too.
Surely even the sissified Omaha Steve of Skins's island has seen a tornado.
All members of my family, including even my younger brother, had seen a tornado at least once in their lifetimes, and ditto for friends in high school and college and thereafter. Here in Nebraska, one is always bumping into people who've seen tornados.
I almost saw a tornado once.....back in 2006, when I was slumbering in bed, suddenly all the cats rose up and made a mad dash for the door to the basement. I only half-woke up, and groggily thought perhaps they had to run to the restroom (litter boxes). Then I went back to sleep. Two days later, the neighbor stopped by, and informed me that a tornado had gone by, about halfway between this house and the highway. This house is two miles south of the highway, so apparently it had been a mile north of where I was sleeping.
(No one until then had said anything, because they all assumed franksolich already knew all about it.)
Anyway, question.
As most know, tornados (funnels) are "v" shaped structures that skip up-and-down, sometimes touching the ground, sometimes not. When on the ground, they stir up a great deal of debris, which obscures them at the base, but essentially they're "v" shaped things, with a small tip at the bottom.
One of the tornados that struck western Iowa this past weekend was described as being "three-quarters of a mile" at its base.
Which is not what one might call a "small tip".
And so my question.
Would there have been some sort of abnormally strong pressure above the top of the funnel, that shoved or compressed it down, making it (in tornado terms) short and squat, rather than tall and slender?
I know, I know, probably a stupid question, but franksolich has never alleged to know everything.
