Tornado Funnel with Debris

This simulation depicts a tornado: a violently rotating column of air that descends from a supercell thunderstorm when warm, moist updrafts collide with a strong wind shear layer, stretching a spinning column and shrinking its radius as it accelerates (conserving angular momentum). The visible funnel forms where the pressure inside the vortex core drops low enough for water vapor to condense into a visible cone reaching toward the ground. Around its base, powerful inflow winds loft dust, soil, and debris into a rotating field that spirals upward along the funnel's surface. Watch the spinning vortex narrow toward the top, the particle haze thicken near the ground, and individual debris chunks tumble as they climb.
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