Tornadoes are often reported by eyewitnesses as “skipping” over one location only to touch down again a short distance away. This perception of the tornado literally lifting off the ground is a common misconception. Tornadoes do not physically jump; the rotating column of air, or circulation, almost always remains in contact with the ground. The appearance of skipping is caused by fluctuations in the tornado’s visible components and intensity, which create breaks in the observable damage path.
Understanding the Visible Funnel Versus the Circulation
A tornado is defined by its violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm cloud to the ground. The swirling air itself is often invisible; the condensation funnel we see is moist air that has cooled due to the low pressure inside the vortex, causing water vapor to condense. The condensation funnel does not always need to extend all the way to the surface for a tornado to be present.
The damaging wind field, or tornadic circulation, defines the event and typically remains continuous on the ground. If the visible funnel appears to lift or retract back into the cloud base, the invisible, high-speed winds at the surface may still be active. This continuous, ground-level circulation can still cause light damage, such as disturbing debris or scuffing the soil, even when the funnel cloud is no longer visible. The tornado remains a destructive force, even if the atmosphere’s humidity level is too low to make the entire vortex visible.
Mechanisms That Cause the Appearance of Skipping
The primary cause for the perceived skipping is a temporary weakening of the surface winds to non-damaging levels, not the tornado lifting. Tornadoes constantly fluctuate in strength as they move across terrain and interact with the air currents of the parent thunderstorm. When the tornado temporarily weakens, the radius of its strongest winds can contract dramatically, or the wind speed can drop below the threshold for significant damage.
Post-storm surveys often show a continuous path with long segments of minimal or no visible damage. This occurs when the tornado’s strength dips below the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale’s lowest rating of EF0. This rating requires wind speeds between 65 and 85 miles per hour to cause visible structural damage. The circulation remains on the ground, causing minor effects like bending grass or scattering light debris, which eyewitnesses easily overlook.
Suction vortices are smaller, highly intense whirls of air within the main tornado circulation. Most strong tornadoes are multi-vortex tornadoes, containing two to five of these sub-vortices that orbit the main center. These smaller vortices can add over 100 miles per hour to the ground-relative wind speed, causing localized, extreme destruction.
The damage pattern left by a multi-vortex tornado often appears chaotic and discontinuous. If only one or two suction vortices are strong enough to cause severe damage, the result is a path marked by narrow, intense swaths of destruction. These swaths are separated by areas of much weaker damage. This creates the illusion that the entire tornado “skipped” the intervening section.
Reading the Continuous Damage Track
Meteorologists and damage survey teams confirm the continuous nature of a tornado’s path through detailed post-storm analysis. They utilize the National Weather Service’s Damage Assessment Toolkit to map the track centerline and the extent of the damage swath. Teams look for subtle evidence of ground-level circulation, which often remains even where major structures were spared.
Evidence includes scoured soil, minor tree damage, or a continuous line of disturbed vegetation across open fields. Even if a structure is missed, the ground circulation may still have been strong enough to flatten crops or leave a faint signature in the dirt. This lighter, continuous track confirms that the wind vortex maintained contact with the surface throughout its lifespan.
The perceived gaps in the damage are sections where the tornado’s strength temporarily dropped or where intense sub-vortices did not pass over a robust structure. If a tornado appears to be skipping a location, the area is still within the influence of the damaging wind field. Assuming safety because the visible funnel has lifted or the path seems broken is dangerous, as the invisible circulation may intensify again.