Kelley Gaffney, age 9, of Houston, Texas, for her question:

How wide is the tunnel in a tornado?

As a rule, the center of a tornado is no wider than a quarter of a mile. Actually it is a wind tunnel the wildest wind tunnel that ever dips doom to touch the ground. In its small space, it swirls around as fast as the giant hurricane. Some experts claim that a tornado may be the world's wildest storm. So let's be glad that its tunnel is only about a quarter of a mile wide. Naturally this is bad enough but if it were bigger, it could be even worse.

The dark tunnel actually is a funnel of winds rushing upward from the ground. It works like a super vacuum cleaner, sucking up dirt and debris as it weaves along. Out on the prairies it pulls up a column of loose dust. But it is strong enough to pull up trees by the roots. When it strikes a town, it can plow a path of total destruction. As a rule, this path is about a quarter of a mile wide  because this is the width of the windy tunnel.