Weather!

[geckzilla]

I used to hide in the center of my house in this tiny hallway. Thinking about it, it's probably best that a tornado never knocked down the house because the walls were rather thin and the construction pretty old. And the water heater was right there in a cabinet. There was also the tub in the bathroom directly adjacent that I figured I'd run to if it seemed really bad. It's strange that more people don't die from tornadoes but that just shows they usually hit uninhabited farmland.

[Chris Peterson]

It's strange that more people don't die from tornadoes but that just shows they usually hit uninhabited farmland.

It also goes to show that the human body is quite durable, and even when a house falls down around you, you are more likely than not to survive. Wood frame houses are easily destroyed, but also very good at protecting their occupants, even when the house is destroyed. Most serious injuries and deaths in tornadoes come from flying debris, and if you're in the middle part of a house, you are pretty well protected from that (even if the house is coming apart).

[neufer]

Wood frame houses are easily destroyed, but also very good at protecting their occupants, even when the house is destroyed.

• Not so much if your house is made of sticks:

<<The Daulatpur–Saturia, Bangladesh Tornado was an extremely destructive tornado that occurred in the Manikganj District, Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. It was the costliest and deadliest tornado in Bangladesh's history. There is great uncertainty about the death toll, but estimates indicate that it killed around 1,300 people, which would make it the deadliest tornado in history. The tornado affected the cities of Daulatpur and Saturia the most, moving east through Daulatpur and eventually northeast and into Saturia. Previously, the area that the tornado hit had been in a state of drought for six months, possibly generating tornadic conditions.

Damage was extensive over the area, as countless trees were uprooted and every home within a six square kilometer area of the tornado's path was completely destroyed. After the storm hit, an article in the Bangladesh Observer stated that "The devastation was so complete, that barring some skeletons of trees, there were no signs of standing infrastructures". The tornado was estimated to be approximately one mile wide, and had a path that was about 50 miles long, through the poor areas and slums of Bangladesh. Approximately 80,000 people were left homeless by the storm, and 12,000 people were injured by the storm. Saturia and Manikganj were both fully destroyed by the tornado. The Fujita scale rating of this storm is unknown due to poor housing construction and lack of data. In Bangladesh, housing construction in the poor areas is very poor, so sometimes a strong gust of wind may knock over a home and kill the residents inside. This is also why the vast majority of homes hit by the tornado were leveled.>>

[geckzilla]

And that's why we don't live in stick houses in Oklahoma. Even a trailer home sounds more protective than the houses in Bangladesh in 1989.

[orin stepanek]

Hmmm! A house of sticks!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[neufer]

Wood frame houses are easily destroyed, but also very good at protecting their occupants, even when the house is destroyed.

• Not so much if your house is made of sticks:

<<The Daulatpur–Saturia, Bangladesh Tornado was an extremely destructive tornado that occurred in the Manikganj District, Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. It was the costliest and deadliest tornado in Bangladesh's history. There is great uncertainty about the death toll, but estimates indicate that it killed around 1,300 people, which would make it the deadliest tornado in history.>>

And that's why we don't live in stick houses in Oklahoma.
Even a trailer home sounds more protective than the houses in Bangladesh in 1989.

Of course, there might be other factors as well, e.g.:

• ---------------------------------------------
  Population Density:
  ............................
  Bangladesh 1,033.5/km²
  Oklahoma 21.3/km²

[geckzilla]

Point taken. Still, I guess I'd rather have a sturdy wall being pushed down or collapsing around me rather than pieces of corrugated metal and other shoddy construction materials (dried plant matter? logs? sticks? mud? clay? what are they using as fasteners, anyway?) becoming projectiles and flying through me.

Side note, not necessarily involving tornadoes: Sometimes I wonder if I would have a slightly higher survival probability during a building collapse since I am small and can fit into smaller spaces. Then again, I'd have to be pretty quick and lucky to get into one should a large building suddenly collapse around me. If it ever happens, I will emerge victoriously and proclaim that all of those years not being able to reach the top shelf don't seem so bad anymore.

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Side note, not necessarily involving tornadoes: Sometimes I wonder if I would have a slightly higher survival probability during a building collapse since I am small and can fit into smaller spaces. Then again, I'd have to be pretty quick and lucky to get into one should a large building suddenly collapse around me. If it ever happens, I will emerge victoriously and proclaim that all of those years not being able to reach the top shelf don't seem so bad anymore.

• 1) You're a smaller target...but
  2) You're easier to pick up than a cow

[mjimih]

you can move quicker too, which is key when your in a hurry.

[geckzilla]

The El Reno tornado was a record-breaking 2.6 miles wide.

Holy balls, that's one big tornado.
http://www.ktul.com/story/22498590/el-r ... re-tornado

[bystander]

The El Reno tornado was a record-breaking 2.6 miles wide.

Holy balls, that's one big tornado.
http://www.ktul.com/story/22498590/el-r ... re-tornado

Yeah, that was just the opening salvo of our excitement last Friday night. Luckily it tracked through a relatively unpopulated area, splitting the distance between El Reno and Union City and lifting before it got to Yukon. Originally labeled as an EF-3, it was upgraded to an EF-5, today.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=576704682350463

The El Reno tornado of May 31, 2013 is officially the widest tornado in U.S. history at 2.6 miles. Maximum wind speeds well over 200 mph, making it an EF-5.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.46458 ... 31826&z=12

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?p=200330#p200330

[mjimih]

http://www.startribune.com/weather/blog ... ather.html
(Friday's El Reno EF-5 tornado was a game-changer)

The massive tornado that hit the suburbs of Oklahoma City last Friday was a game-changer. The NWS confirms the widest tornado ever observed on the planet: 2.6 miles. Winds reached 296 mph; based on a portable Doppler on the scene, which itself is generating controversy, since EF-rating is always tied to damage on the ground.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/210101661.html
Second deadly tornado that hit Okla. upgraded to rare EF5; 2.6-mile width widest ever recorded

OKLAHOMA CITY - The deadly tornado that plowed through an area near Oklahoma City last week was even larger and more powerful than previously estimated — a record 2.6 miles wide with winds that reached nearly 300 mph, just shy of the strongest winds ever measured.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday announced that the twister that hit El Reno was a top-of-the-scale EF5 twister — the second to strike the area in less than two weeks.

Friday's tornado was initially rated as an EF3. But the agency upgraded that ranking after surveying damage and concluding that the storm had winds of 295 mph. Nineteen people died in the storm and subsequent flooding, including three storm chasers.

The Oklahoma City area also saw an EF5 tornado on May 20. That one raked Moore, a suburb 25 miles southeast of El Reno, and killed 24 people. Moore was hit in 1999 by another EF5, which had the strongest winds ever measured on earth: 302 mph.

The massive tornado that formed Friday avoided highly populated metro areas, a fact that almost certainly saved lives..

These huge tornados are getting old. Who needs them? Make them go away! If the jet stream doesn't straighten out soon, it could be a rough summer imo.

Mark

[bystander]

[b][i]NASA Earth Observatory image created by Robert Simmon, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.[/i][/b]

---

A Scarred Landscape in Oklahoma
NASA Earth Observatory | 2013 Jun 05

Infrared Light Reveals Tornado's Path
NASA Image of the Day | 2013 Jun 05

Swath of Destruction from Deadly Oklahoma Tornado Visible from Space
Universe Today | Nancy Atkinson | 2013 Jun 05

The Tornado Outbreak of May 20, 2013
National Weather Service, Norman, OK

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?p=199729#p199729

---

On May 20, 2013, central Oklahoma was devastated by a EF-5 tornado, the most severe on the enhanced Fujita scale. The Newcastle-Moore tornado killed at least 24 people, injured 377, and affected nearly 33,000 in some way. Early estimates suggest that more then $2 billion in damage was done to public and private property; at least 13,000 structures were destroyed or damaged. It was the deadliest tornado in the United States since an EF-5 event killed 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, in 2011.

On June 2, 2013, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed the scar of that tornado on the Oklahoma landscape. In this false-color image, infrared, red, and green wavelengths of light have been combined to better distinguish between water, vegetation, bare ground, and human developments. Water is blue. Buildings and paved surfaces are blue-gray. Vegetation is red. The tornado track appears as a beige stripe running west to east across this image; the color reveals the lack of vegetation in the wake of the storm.

According to the National Weather Service, the tornado was on the ground for 39 minutes, ripping across 17 miles (27 kilometers) from 4.4 miles west of Newcastle to 4.8 miles east of Moore, Oklahoma. At its peak, the funnel cloud was 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) wide and wind speeds reached 210 miles (340 km) per hour.

[Beyond]

Oklahoma is the tornado capital of the world.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... e/2401885/

[geckzilla]

I use my-cast.com for their convenient radar and weather warnings and watches. I know their forecasting is just terrible but today this really caught my eye:

Click to view full size image

Snow on Monday. Yeeaahhh.... sure. I checked in New York, NY and apparently all of NYC is getting snow tomorrow.

[owlice]

I hope you haven't put your boots away yet, geckzilla!

We're under a tornado warning and flood watch.

[orin stepanek]

It has really been pleasant the last week with timely rains; but it supposed to get into the 90's today with thunderstorms for later!

[BMAONE23]

I hope you haven't put your boots away yet, geckzilla!

We're under a tornado warning and flood watch.

Two terms that make little sense
A "Watch" is a warning that the event might happen
And a "Warning" means someone is Watching it happen

[owlice]

Right; there was indeed a tornado, or something that looked close enough to one to warn people about.

The flood watch was warning people they *might* need to move to higher ground, or find a different way to work in the morning, or home from work tonight. The creek did rise, but I ignored the traffic report about the route's closure, knowing that that station's reports are often behind what is actually happened, and found my usual way not closed, as the report had said. Fortunately, others did heed the report, so commuting was a bit faster for me as a result.

[orin stepanek]

Right; there was indeed a tornado, or something that looked close enough to one to warn people about.

The flood watch was warning people they *might* need to move to higher ground, or find a different way to work in the morning, or home from work tonight. The creek did rise, but I ignored the traffic report about the route's closure, knowing that that station's reports are often behind what is actually happened, and found my usual way not closed, as the report had said. Fortunately, others did heed the report, so commuting was a bit faster for me as a result.

Ahh; I see; Wise as an Owl! I got to hand it to you owlice!

[owlice]

Thanks, Orin, but it was more gamble than wise! Just lucky that it paid off this time!!

[Beyond]

Owltelligence

[orin stepanek]

Thanks, Orin, but it was more gamble than wise! Just lucky that it paid off this time!!

Shh! Mustn't let out your secrets! Just go with the wisdom thingy

Owltelligence

[Moonlady]

I enjoyed cycling today because we have the perfect weather, 21°C, sunny, nowadays here in west Germany, east Germany is flooded after heavy rain in the last weeks.

[owlice]

Ho ho! I'm watching great dark storm clouds advance, and hear thunder. A band of wind came through earlier with just a brief rain; big raindrops pelted the west side of the house, but it was short-lived so didn't even fully wet the street. The sun came out between that band and the one that is now approaching.

NOW it's really raining!