A tornado forms from a combination of specific atmospheric conditions, primarily within severe thunderstorms, especially supercells. Here's what makes a tornado:

• Tornadoes develop from severe thunderstorms in warm, moist, unstable air, often along and ahead of cold fronts where contrasting air masses meet

• Inside these thunderstorms, warm, humid air rises while cooler air descends, creating spinning air currents. Initially, these spinning currents are horizontal but can tilt vertically due to wind shear, forming a rotating column of air called a mesocyclone

• The mesocyclone lowers beneath the cloud base and draws in cool, moist air from downdrafts, causing a rotating wall cloud to form. The interaction between the warm updraft and cool downdraft focuses the rotation into a smaller area, intensifying the spinning and creating a visible funnel cloud

• When the funnel cloud extends downward and makes contact with the ground, it becomes a tornado. The rear flank downdraft (RFD), a descending rush of air behind the storm, helps drag the rotation to the surface and can cause the funnel to touch down

• The tornado's formation is driven by the balance of warm, moist air rising and cold, dry air descending, combined with wind shear (changes in wind speed and direction with height) that causes the air to spin

In summary, a tornado is made when a rotating thunderstorm (supercell) with a mesocyclone interacts with warm, moist air and cool downdrafts, causing a spinning funnel cloud to descend and touch the ground, resulting in a violently rotating column of air