Are tornados affected by which hemisphere they're in like water draining in a drain?

Question

Are tornados affected by which hemisphere they're in like water draining in a drain?

Answer 1

Yes. Tornadoes in the northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise, while those in the southern hemisphere rotate clockwise.

Answer 2

Excess CO2 in the atmosphere is mostly responsible for tornados, while the spinning motion of the planet produces the Coriolis Effect, which exacerbates it.  That's because CO2 is miscible in water.  Take a 2 liter bottle of carbonated soda like Sprite, spin it several times and watch a funnel cloud form in the bottle.  Perhaps deforestation adds to the frequency of tornadoes since forests act as carbon sinks, absorbing excess CO2 in the atmosphere.  CO2 is continuously added to the atmosphere as byproducts of respiration, and as byproducts of combustion:

Aerobic Respiration:

C6H12O6 + oxygen --> 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energy (ATP)

Combustion:

Butane C4H10 + 6.5 O2 --> 4 CO2 + 5 H2O

Think of all the cigarettes being lit everyday, and you'll have an idea of the magnitude of the problem.  Add to this all the pets, farm animals and mammals respiring.

Answer 3

Tornados are not just  a phenomena that is confined to the northern Hemisphere.  Tornados or Cyclones are capable of forming anywhere in the world.  The only factors that control the rotation, is the storm its self.  However, the southern Hemisphere has a jet stream that does travel in the opposite direction than the one in the north.  To learn more go to the sites I listed in the  sources.

Answer 4

I heard that the water draining thing is a myth and that what makes it change direction is the pressure. Some weather guy wrote about it in an article.

Answer 5

The degree to which the Coriolis force affects a fluid flow is described by the Rossby number

For small systems like water draining in a sink, the Rossby number is very large, so the Coriolis force has almost no effect whatsoever.  It is a myth that water spirals one direction in the northern hemisphere and the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere.  In fact, just about any aspect of the sink's geometry has more effect on the direction the water spirals down the drain than the hemisphere it's in.

For very large systems like hurricanes, the Rossby number is small.  Hurricanes are governed primarily by the Coriolis effect.  They almost always rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere.

Tornadoes are somewhere in-between.  They may have a tendency to rotate like a hurricane would at the same location, but they will often rotate in the opposite direction.