00:00Did you know tornadoes can actually spin backwards?
00:04Most tornadoes in the northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise because of the Coriolis effect,
00:10the same force that helps influence large-scale storm rotation across the planet.
00:14But at the size of a tornado, the Coriolis effect is not always 100% effective.
00:19In fact, meteorologists estimate that only about 1-2% of tornadoes in the northern hemisphere actually rotate clockwise.
00:27Sometimes, storms can produce smaller satellite tornadoes that spin opposite the main tornado.
00:33Meteorologists call these anticyclonic tornadoes.
00:35Most clockwise spinning tornadoes are these smaller satellite tornadoes,
00:39but in extreme rare cases, a tornado can spin clockwise completely on its own.
00:44This radar image from Tillman County, Oklahoma on April 30, 2024,
00:48showed a rare standalone anticyclonic tornado rotating opposite of what we'd normally expect in the northern hemisphere.
00:55Even after decades of studying storms, the atmosphere can still surprise us.
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