Lesson 2 Vocabulary Storms 1.Thunderstorm – a disturbance in the earth’s atmosphere that involves lightning and thunder; sometimes gusty surface winds, heavy rain, and hail are also present. 2.Vortex –

3.Funnel cloud – when the rapidly rotating cloud becomes visible as a funnel at the base of a thundercloud. 4.Tornado – a violent windstorm that spirals around a rotating column of air (the vortex) of intense low pressure and moves in a narrow path over the land. 5.Hurricane- a massive, rotating storm that originates over tropical oceans and has sustained winds of more than 119 km per hour

6. typhoon – a storm that forms north of the equator in the western Pacific Ocean. 7. Cyclone – a storm that forms in the Indian Ocean or off the coast of Australia 8. Eye – center of a hurricane 9. Eye wall – a ring of spiraling clouds and thunderstorms that whirl around the storm’s center and extend upward to almost 15 km above sea level.