Many people have not experienced them and therefore most probably may not know how to identify them if they do occur. Such events can develop so rapidly such that a lack of awareness can mean the difference of being prepared or unprepared. Tornadoes are not only dangerous because they can pick you up and throw you, they are also dangerous because of the debri they can hurl at you. This is even the case up to a small distance away from the tornado. Debri can be taken to huge heights and dumped hundreds of metres around the tornado path.
Tornadoes occur from large, very severe thunderstorms.
The largest type of thunderstorm on earth is known as the supercell. Due to the overall rotating structure of supercells, they are responsible for most of the reported tornadoes as well as the most violent. Tornadoes can also occur in other severe thunderstorms known as multicells. Severe multicells differ in their structure from supercells in that they are normally not associated with a rotating structure. Multicell structure involves the development of newer adjacent cells as other cells die.