The invention describes an Atmospheric Vortex Engine in which a tornado-like convective vortex (37) is produced by admitting air tangentially in the base of a cylindrical wall (1). The vortex is started by heating the air within the circular wall (1) with fuel (83). The heat required to sustain the vortex once established can be the naturally occurring heat content of ambient air or can be provided in a peripheral heat exchanger mean (61) located outside the circular wall. The heat source for the peripheral exchanger mean can be waste industrial heat or warm sea water. The preferred heat exchange mean is a crossflow wet cooling tower (61). The mechanical energy is produced in a plurality of peripheral turbines (21). A vortex engine could have a diameter of 400 m; the vortex could be 100 m in diameter at its base and extend to a height of 1 to 15 km; the power output could be in the 100 to 500 MW range. The vortex process could also be used to produce precipitation to cool the environment, or to clean or elevate polluted surface air.