Eli5:How can you tell a tornado is happening by looking at radar?

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I slightly understand the hook and the old Doppler showing a purple or dark color representing debris, but I’m sure that’s only if the debris field is that high up and a large amount. When looking at radar now with representations of tornadoes, I find it hard to pick out which part of the radar shows it. I’m sure this won’t be a popular question but anyone with knowledge of radar, your expertise would be appreciated.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

What a radar signal is reflected by depending on the frequency/wavelength. If you have a weather radar the wavelength of 1-10 cm and then water droplets and ice in the air will reflect back the signal to you. What you see in a cloud is just that water droplets or ice.
10 cm is 3 GHz and a microwave oven is a 2.4 GHz signal. So if you can get water to absorb microwaves you can get it to reflect slightly different frequencies too.

For radar designed to detect aircraft, you use different frequencies that pass through the clauses

So a weather radar show is not debris but the water liquid or solid in the clouds.

A Doppler radar uses pulses in a way so you can determine the speed and direction of the thing, it reflects from. The principle is the same way a pitch of an ambulance of a police siren is different depending on if it moves toward or away from you.

So what you can see o a weather doppler radar you can see the clouds and the direction. So you can spot a tornado by looking for a circular high-speed pattern.

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