Ahead of the film release: Defining twister terms

Tornadoes are among the fiercest and awe-inspiring natural disasters to hit Earth, but are you aware of how they form their famous spirals?

With Twisters set to release in cinemas on Wednesday 17th July in the UK, here's some tornado facts you might like to know ahead of your cinema trip.

A "typical" tornado usually comes from a supercell storm, while landspouts are not produced by supercells.

They form from rotating thunderstorms that have a well-defined mesocyclone, or rotating updraft. This is a supercell thunderstorm. Tornadoes usually occur over land and are often accompanied by strong winds, hail, and heavy rain.

However another type are landspouts. Landspouts form over land but are generally smaller and weaker than tornadoes produced by supercells. They form from the ground up, rather than from a mesocyclone, and are associated with shallow, low-precipitation thunderstorms.

Waterspouts can then be either tornadic, or non-tornadic, and are atmospheric vortices that form over water. They can occur in both tropical and non-tropical environments and are often associated with thunderstorms, but they can also form in the absence of thunderstorm activity.