Forums of the Megaverse®

Can a Tornado on land cross a river ?

OR not ?

yes it can.

however, while over the river it turns into a waterspout.

Correct, the major difference between a tornado and a waterspout is surface over which it is passing. A tornado could pass from land, over a body of water, and back to land again. Thus it turns from a tornado to a waterspout and then back to a tornado. Semantically, it could be argued that when a tornado passes over water, it isn't a tornado anymore.

If your GM said that your tornado can't pass over a river, you should just accept it. Your GM is doing the best that he or she can and should not be expected to know everything.

Lord Z wrote:Correct, the major difference between a tornado and a waterspout is surface over which it is passing. A tornado could pass from land, over a body of water, and back to land again. Thus it turns from a tornado to a waterspout and then back to a tornado. Semantically, it could be argued that when a tornado passes over water, it isn't a tornado anymore.

If your GM said that your tornado can't pass over a river, you should just accept it. Your GM is doing the best that he or she can and should not be expected to know everything.

Not logically. That the exsact same thing has a different name depending on it's location dosn't make it something else. it's like saying summon and control rats dosn't work in mexico because there they're called "Rata"

I'd think that a magically-conjured tornado should have no problems jumping a river.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:however, while over the river it turns into a waterspout.

Are you sure that applies when they're crossing rivers? I'd agree if it's crossing a river the size of the Mississippi, but what about narrower ones?

The Beast wrote:

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:however, while over the river it turns into a waterspout.

Are you sure that applies when they're crossing rivers? I'd agree if it's crossing a river the size of the Mississippi, but what about narrower ones?

yep. all a waterspout is is a tornado that's sucking up water. usually the term is used to refer to tornado's that show up over really large bodies of water, like oceans or the great lakes. very rarely does it show up in reference to rivers or smaller bodies of water., usually because those tend to quickly pass over onto land.

the two terms refer to exactly the same phenomenon.