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tornado. In the center of a tornado, winds can reach speeds

of 500km per hour or more. At such high speeds, winds can

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destroy anything in their path .

There is an average of over 1,000 tornadoes every year in the

United States. And Tornado Alley is an area in mid-America that

gets a very high number of very destructive tornadoes.

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Tornadoes usually occur individually within a short period
time. For example, in April 1974, almost 150 tornadoes were

reported east of the Mississippi River within two days. And, in

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April 1991, an outbreak of 54 tornadoes also occurred within
two days. The Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925, was the

deadliest tornado in American history. According to the report,

689 people were killed by this tornado. It was a series of

tornadoes, not a single giant tornado.

tornado over the ocean

5 path : course
6 individually : one by one
7 period : length of time
8 outbreak : the sudden occurrence of something unwelcome 13