Mystery #1Tier 3weather / storms / air

How does a wild spinning tornado drop down out of a storm cloud?

A tornado can rip the roof off a house and toss a car around like a toy, yet it begins as nothing more than warm air drifting upward. One minute the sky is just a big grey storm, and the next a twisting rope of cloud is snaking down towards the ground. How does a plain rising current of air suddenly learn to spin?

A wide funnel-shaped tornado reaching from a dark storm cloud down to a field, with a cloud of debris swirling where it meets the ground. — Photo: Justin Hobson (Justin1569 at English Wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What do you reckon makes the rising air begin to twist round and round?

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