Video inside a tornado: calm to carnage in 60 seconds

An astonishing video has captured what appears to be a tornado hitting the village of Bashkiria in Russia, tearing roofs of building and sending debris hurtling through the air at high speed.

The video was only recently uploaded to YouTube, although the time stamp on the video suggests that it may have happened a year ago. 

Nevertheless, it shows the immense power that a tornado has, going from a scene of calm to chaos in the space of just 60 seconds.

If you look closely towards the end of the video, you can see that the vehicle is thrust forward, such is the strength of the wind.

Looking at the level of damage and the speed at which debris is flying through the air, the winds are probably in the range of 100-130mph.

How does a tornado form?

A tornado forms when cumulonimbus clouds spawn severe thunderstorms, with violent updraughts and downdraughts of air within and around them.

It is this rapid movement of air in and around the storm that can sometimes start rotating, due to winds in the atmosphere blowing in different directions at different heights, causing spin.

They can initially start as a funnel cloud extending from the bottom of a storm, but if they become stronger and reach the ground, they are then classed as a tornado.

These dangerous twisters are most prevalent in tornado alley in the US, where during spring and summer they can wreck havoc, destroy whole communities and kill people, with 55 fatalities in 2013.

The fastest wind speed ever recorded from a tornado is 302mph, during the deadly Oklahoma tornado outbreak in 1999.

Tornadoes can occur in other parts of the world too when severe thunderstorms take place – including here in the UK.

The most notable UK twisters in recent years have been the Birmingham tornado on 28 July 2005, followed by the London tornado on 7 December 2006.

Video and image: YouTube