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Name: Alex
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Question:
What is the name of the instrument used to measure temperature and air pressure inside of a tornado? Is it called a canister?

Replies:
Alex,

There are several such devices, none of which has an official meteorological term that I know of.

The name applied to one that I particularly like is TOTO, for Totable Tornado Observatory, although it was too big and tall to be very practical.

If you Google the term TOTO, you will find descriptions of that particular device.

There are fairly low-profile and smaller devices being built these days for the same purpose, and a few have actually made measurements as a tornado passed over them.

David R. Cook
Meteorologist
Climate Research Section
Environmental Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory

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