Oklahoma Tornado

[Dotini]

It is VERY odd that Moore, OK has experienced three F4 or better tornadoes crossing almost exactly the same path through their community in the very recent past. I have an hypothesis to explain it, but it is too speculative to defend.

 

[Rainbow Dash]

The climate is changing due to global warming. Here in PA the winters use to be regularly in the teens to mid 20's but the past decade it's been warmer & warmer each year. I think the one Christmas it was around 70F. That's insanity.

 

[Dotini]

The climate is changing due to global warming. Here in PA the winters use to be regularly in the teens to mid 20's but the past decade it's been warmer & warmer each year. I think the one Christmas it was around 70F. That's insanity.

For the past several million years, the Earth has been cooling down. But as it goes down, there are increasingly jagged short-term swings of temperature during the interglacials. I think we are now in one of those upwards jags, but we will soon (could be hundreds of years, but maybe much less) resume the cooling with a new glacial.

 

[Slash]

I predict a minor hurricane season. The numbers of tornadoes is only half what it usually is. Just bad luck it hit a populated area. There's more of those now than there used to be on the great plains.

The climate is changing due to global warming. Here in PA the winters use to be regularly in the teens to mid 20's but the past decade it's been warmer & warmer each year. I think the one Christmas it was around 70F. That's insanity.

I don't believe the influx of tornadoes over the past 10 years has anything to do with global warming, but more so better recorded keeping and weather tracking.

Since those have gotten better, and it's been proven times over, that the number of spotted tornados has significantly increased. It takes one look at Wikipedia to see that.

 

[Keef]

The El Reno tornado has officially been rated an EF5 and grew to over 2 miles wide at it's maximum intensity. Base winds were over 300mph. At one point it expanded from 1 mile wide to nearly 2 miles wide in less than 30 seconds, which is probably how the Twistex team were caught off guard.

Here's another map:

I hope the local Walmart stocks a lot of underwear because everybody in that city needs a new pair.

 

[Doodle]

The El Reno tornado has officially been rated an EF5 and grew to over 2 miles wide at it's maximum intensity. Base winds were over 300mph. At one point it expanded from 1 mile wide to nearly 2 miles wide in less than 30 seconds, which is probably how the Twistex team were caught off guard.

And I think 60mph is scary. 300mph is just insane.

 

[disinfected]

In the four years I've lived here, there have never been this many major storms.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I hope the local Walmart stocks a lot of underwear because everybody in that city needs a new pair.

Yeah, it's crazy looking at that photo and seeing how it arched around the town. Considering its size, if it went directly over that town it would have completely wiped it off the face of the earth.

In the four years I've lived here, there have never been this many major storms.

It's all your fault!

 

[boomee]

I do not believe its due to global warming at all. Those are some tough people that live around that area though. keep strong guys keep strong

 

[disinfected]

Considering its size, if it went directly over that town it would have completely wiped it off the face of the earth.

The only thing there is a Ford dealer with obnoxious commercials and world famous onion burgers.

 

[CodeRedR51]

"While flying back from vacation on May 31st, I took this image of thunderstorms over central Oklahoma. The storm here was the supercell that produced the widest tornado recorded in U.S. history (2.6 miles), and, tragically, killed 20 people. This photo was taken shortly before the tornado formed. Note the extensive anvil as the storm reached the equilibrium level, and the clouds overshooting the anvil into the stratosphere, indicating violent updrafts in excess of 100 mph."

-Tom Magnuson, WCM NWS Pueblo — at north central Oklahoma at 40K feet.

 

[Slash]

All I can say is WOW!

 

[TenEightyOne]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but not really worth a new one... so what to do?

Just read this at the Beeb, Great Walls of America 'could stop tornadoes'.

On the face of it this idea seems completely mad. What are your thoughts?

 

[Robin]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but not really worth a new one... so what to do?

Just read this at the Beeb, Great Walls of America 'could stop tornadoes'.

On the face of it this idea seems completely mad. What are your thoughts?

As long as it actually worked then I don't see it being that totally bonkers.

It's the fact that the red tape to build something like this would take 50 years and there would be opposition of just about every group of people. I wouldn't want to live near something like that!

If they are glass it would look OK but then you just know planes, birds etc would crash into it plus it would cause a terrible greenhouse effect on either side. It would also cost millions to maintain.

 

[DK]

I'm not the only one who thought of the walls of Attack on Titan when reading that article, am I?

 

[Keef]

I disagree. It may help stop tornadoes from impacting those local areas but it would cause all sorts of other wind and turbulence problems. You can't stop the wind, it's gonna blow, and when it blows over a ridgeline it creates standing lenticular clouds at the peak and lee waves on the backside. Anybody that lives on the leeward side of a wide valley will know that it can be annoying and any pilot who's ever flown a small plane in the area won't know a thing because he's already dead.

Trees are the best natural method of slowing surface winds. Lots of trees. Thousands of acres of forest. But forests don't grow on the Great Plains.

 

[Slash]

The best thing to do is make huge hills and plant trees. As said, walls might help a little bit, but they won't completely stop them.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The best thing to do is make huge hills and plant trees. As said, walls might help a little bit, but they won't completely stop them.

So is it worth doing if they help a bit. Surely better than no help?

I was thinking of the wind-wall at Europort outside Rotterdam, that's probably an insignificantly-sized project in comparison but probably similar in concept?

 

[Slash]

You'd have more success by focusing on how to predict storms better and building structure than dumping how many millions into a glass wall that might not even make a dent.

 

[Brett]

So is it worth doing if they help a bit. Surely better than no help?

I was thinking of the wind-wall at Europort outside Rotterdam, that's probably an insignificantly-sized project in comparison but probably similar in concept?

It is not worth the investment of building a wall, when a storm shelter at each residence would be more cost effective.

You'd have more success by focusing on how to predict storms better and building structure than dumping how many millions into a glass wall that might not even make a dent.

Oklahoma already does a very good job at predicting storms. If there is even a remote chance of a tornado, then it will be wall to wall storm coverage on all of the local TV/radio stations. However, the number of storm shelters is surprisingly low.

 

[disinfected]

Also since this thread has been bumped, it's worth mentioning I finally moved out of Oklahoma.

 

[GTPorsche]

Wait....

A wall built of glass would be the idea method to prevent tornadoes?

Tornadoes kick up debris at very high speeds. The only result of a glass wall in a tornado prone area would be a massive amount of glass shrapnel flung at a very high rate of speed once a tornado picks up the pieces.

Terrible idea...

 

[Exorcet]

The wall prevents the tornado from forming.

 

[GTPorsche]

The wall prevents the tornado from forming.

It's just not feasible to have a gigantic wall of anything sticking way up into the sky.

 

[TenEightyOne]

It's just not feasible to have a gigantic wall of anything sticking way up into the sky.

It's feasible, absolutely, and I expect the glass wouldn't be as brittle as you think.

The engineering to create the wall is available. It could be built.

It would be extremely expensive to do and it seems to me to be a slightly crackpot idea, I was more wondering what people thought of the overall concept. Like I said, the engineering itself isn't a problem if you throw enough money and brute force at it.

 

[Dotini]

It's feasible, absolutely, and I expect the glass wouldn't be as brittle as you think.

The engineering to create the wall is available. It could be built.

It would be extremely expensive to do and it seems to me to be a slightly crackpot idea, I was more wondering what people thought of the overall concept. Like I said, the engineering itself isn't a problem if you throw enough money and brute force at it.

Crackpot. Expensive. Foolish. Will not happen.

 

[GTPorsche]

It would be extremely expensive to do and it seems to me to be a slightly crackpot idea, I was more wondering what people thought of the overall concept. Like I said, the engineering itself isn't a problem if you throw enough money and brute force at it.

That's why it's not feasible.

 

[Nish]

I don't think this would ever happen. I also don't think it would help anything but may create additional problems BUT if this were to come into play they could put residence/bussiness inside them. 100 miles is alot of space and I'd guess said wall would be rather thick.

 

[Dotini]

I don't think this would ever happen. I also don't think it would help anything but may create additional problems BUT if this were to come into play they could put residence/bussiness inside them. 100 miles is alot of space and I'd guess said wall would be rather thick.

1000' tall and 1500' thick, if I recall correctly. It would make the Game of Thrones ice wall, only 700' tall x 300 miles long, seem much less impressive.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Just incredible. This image pretty much sums up why I think tornadoes are amongst the most beautiful things on this planet.