Severe weather in Dominican Republic

      A tornado is formed when a column of air starts to rotate, this begins when two different altitudes are moving in two different speeds creating a wind sheer. When the column gets sucked into a supercell updraft the updraft is then squeezed and spins faster. When this horizontal funnel turns vertically it turns into a  mesocyclone. After the funnel cloud is created the rain, hail in the thunderstorm make the funnel touchdown to create a tornado. 

      In the Unites States tornadoes usually travel southwest to northeast. This is the dominant direction in the US because the wind patterns that occurs in tornado valley produce frequent thunderstorms that can turn into tornadoes. The winds enable the moisture warm masses to collide with the cooled air that is more then likely dry. In order to make tornadoes wind sheer is needed to give the rotation the thunderstorms need to covert into tornadoes. The average number of tornadoes observed in the US per year is 1253. 

Website: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-events/us-tornado-climatology

Tornadoes are not that like to occur in Dominican Republic but hurricanes that occurs there have the possibility to produce and release dangerous tornadoes.  

      I could not find any information regarding  average number of tornadoes observed in my country per year but I found an article decribing three tornadoes that occurred after a tropical storm in 2008.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2008-04-22-dominican-republic-tornadoes_N.htm

  .Do,in an Republic falls in relation to the “hot spots of tornado activity" just below Florida. Many of the tornadoes that occur on my island are because of an occurring hurricane. 

      Its uncertain to say that tornadoes have increased over time because we classify tornadoes differently now then before, there is more technology available that can detect tornadoes and record. We also have many people linked to social media, technology like cameras that can report tornadoes. 30 years ago these things were not available to us. Now we not only have scientist recording but many others witnessing and posting picture that enable scientist to observed and construct data besides their own.

      In order for a hurricane to form  ocean waters must be warmer than 79 degrees at the surface. This enables moisture and the heat   into the upper atmosphere that provides energy to fuel a hurricane. To make a hurricane the heat and energy combines with the moisture in the air from evaporation of the ocean water.  A wind pattern near the ocean surface starts to spiral air inward. There are  of thunderstorms forming, enabling the air to warm up more and rise higher. If the winds at these higher levels are relatively light,  the structure of thunderstorms stay together and grow stronger as long as the winds are not too strong to break them as they travel higher. Hurricanes typically form between 5 to 15 degrees latitude north and south of the equator. The Coriolis Force is needed to create the spin in the hurricane and it becomes too weak near the equator, so hurricanes can never form there. 

      These main hurricane formation regions and their terms used depending on the regions. In the Atlantic and EastPacific they are called  Hurricanes. Cyclones in the Indian Ocean near Australia and Typhoons off the coast of China and Indonesia. 

      In the Unites States the general path hurricanes usually travel is from Texas to Maine. Hurricanes heading towards the United States start over the Sahara desert in Africa, move over the Atlantic Ocean and become tropical storms and then hurricanes. The trade winds much these winds over the Atlantic near the equator, these trade winds are very consistent westward winds near the equator. When these tropical storms reach the 25 or 30 degrees latitude the local weather in the united Sates affect what happens next. There are eastward bounding jet streams, north and northeast winds along the east coast.

      These winds are known to  cause storms that approach from the west and appears to move right up the East Coast, or to approach the East Coast and then retreat. High and Long fronts can affect the development of a hurricane, if a storm comes in from the west and does not travel far up north to lose the strong winds from trade winds it can continue to move westward to the Gulf of Mexico and land in Texas or Mexico. 

     Hurricanes  do occur in Dominican Republic.The average number of hurricanes that hit the US per year is 1.75 per year. 

Website:http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/E19.html
The average number of hurricanes that hit Dominican Republic per year is 1.

Website: http://www.hurricanecity.com/city/elmacao.htm