Hello there. If you were never interested in meteorology, you will be after this post.
This account of the observations of inside a tornado is THE most remarkable incident in all of recorded history. Trust me I should know. Amateur storm chaser for many many years.
http://b.org.za/stories/tornado.htm
"I lay back on my left elbow, to afford the baby better protection, and looked up. It is possible that in that upward glance my stricken eyes beheld something few have ever seen before and lived to tell about. I was looking far up the interior of a great tornado funnel! It extended upward for over a thousand feet [300 m], and was swaying gently, and bending slowly toward the southeast. Down at the bottom, judging from the circle in front of me, the funnel was about 150 yards [140 m] across. Higher up it was larger, and seemed to be partly filled with a bright cloud, which shimmered like a flourescent light. This brilliant cloud was in the middle of the funnel, not touching the sides, as I recall having seen the walls extending on up outside the cloud.
Up there too, where I could observe both the front and back of the funnel, the terrific whirling could be plainly seen. As the upper portion of the huge pipe swayed over,
another phenomenon took place. It looked as if the whole column were composed of rings or layers, and when a higher ring moved on toward the southeast, the ring immediately below slipped over to get back under it. This rippling motion continued on down toward the lower tip.
If there was any debris in the wall of the funnel it was whirling so fast I could not see it. And if there was a vacuum inside the funnel, as is commonly believed, I was not aware of it. I do not recall having any difficulty in breathing, nor did I see any debris rushing up under the rim of the tornado, as there surely would have been had there been a vacuum. I am positive that the shell of the twister was not composed of wreckage, dirt or other debris. Air, it must have been, thrown out into a hollow tube by centrifugal force. But if this is true, why was there no vacuum, and why was the wall opaque?
When the wave-like motion reached the lower tip, the far edge of the funnel was forced downward and jerked toward the southeast. This edge, in passing, touched the roof of my neighbor's house and flicked the building away like a flash of light. Where, an instant before, had stood a recently constructed home, now remained one small room with no roof. The house, as a whole, did not resist the tornado for the fractional part of a second. When the funnel touched it, the building dissolved, the various parts shooting off to the left like sparks from an emery wheel.
During pistol practice in the army, when the light was favorable, I have seen bullets from a .45 pistol flash from gun to target. The bullets had a known velocity of 825 feet per second [251 m/s]. The white planks from the house moved at a speed equal to, if not greater than, those of the bullets, which would establish the velocity of the
tornado's rotation close to 600 mph [960 km/h or 267 m/s]. This, I believe, is conservative. My own conviction is that the funnel was spinning faster than the speed of sound, accounting, in some way beyond my knowledge, for the total lack of noise within it.
The very instant the rim of the funnel passed beyond the wreck of the house, long vaporous-appearing streamers, pale blue in color, extended out and upward toward the southeast from each corner of the remaining room. They appeared to be about 20 feet [6 m] long and six inches [150 mm] wide, and after hanging perfectly stationary for a long moment, were suddenly gone."