Tornado in a Bottle Experiment | Fun Weather Science Experiment For Kids

This tornado in a bottle science experiment is one of my favorite weather experiments! Making your own tornado inside a plastic bottle never gets old, especially when you add some flying debris into the mix!

Your kids will get hours and hours of entertainment out of creating and watching their own tornado spin around inside a bottle.

Supplies Needed:
2 (2-Liter) Bottles
Water
Food Coloring
Glitter
Legos
Tornado Tube Connector or Lots of Duct Tape

The science behind this super cool tornado experiment:

This tornado in a bottle experiment works with the same science that creates a real-life tornado!

It all begins with air rising from the lower bottle into the top bottle, which represents an updraft of warm air in a thunderstorm.

As the air bubbles rise through the water in the top bottle, they won’t turn into a tornado unless the air is twisted or spun a little bit.

In our bottle example, we used water to illustrate the clouds, but real tornado funnels are made as the wind swirls through water vapor in the clouds.

In the atmosphere, real tornados also need some spinning winds to help create the funnel of a tornado. The spinning winds inside the clouds that help produce a tornado are called wind shear.

The stronger these winds are that are changing directions at different levels in the cloud, along with how strong the updraft of air rising from the ground will determine if you have an EF-0 tornado or an EF-5 tornado!

Get step-by-step instructions on how to make this tornado in a bottle experiment right here:

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We hope you enjoy this fun tornado in a bottle experiment! Let us know if you tried it and what kind of flying debris you put inside yours!