posted
That tornado was almost 11 years ago--11 August 1999 (the same day that there was a total eclipse of the sun on the other side of the world--though not at exactly the same time, because they both happened in daylight).
We don't get tornadoes in Utah--funnel clouds, maybe. And this was a no-warning tornado that happened because of a flukish conjunction of two storm patterns. It came together, zip-zapped, and was gone. Blink!
Tornadoes that they can give warnings about are because of conditions that tend to "breed" tornadoes, and that's probably what happened with LA, though usually, unless there is an actual sighting, they call it a tornado "watch" and not "warning." With a "warning" there must have actually been a tornado, or at least a funnel cloud (a tornado that hasn't reached the ground yet).
the only thing i dog from it was White Sands Missile Range needs to update their specker sistem. they are still using the cold-war era speekers and they sound like someone is talking underwater.
posted
Well, I've had tornados (or is it tornadoes with an "e"?) pass as close to me as, oh, under half a mile---without a tornado warning. Hurricanes are much scarier, I've gotta say. I'd probably feel different if I had a direct hit on my house, but that's another story...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I live right in Tornado Alley. Have for all my life and have yet to see a tornado. I've seen the results they leave behind though. One came down and took the back off of the barn just one road over from us a few years back. I was also around the year of the Palm Sunday tornado back in the '60's. It did a lot of damage all over town. Fortunately, our house was untouched.
Hey Meredith; It's kinda like you guys and earthquakes. They happen, and if you live where they're more common, you just learn to live with it and hope for the best. Like I said; I've spent all of my 58 years living in an area well known for tornadoes and never even seen one. Glad you're okay. Freakesh though isn't it?
[This message has been edited by Crystal Stevens (edited January 20, 2010).]
posted
Yeah. By the time they gave the warning, the storm was apparently already moving away from me at a pretty good clip. Something touched down. But the last I heard they hadn't firmly decided whether it was a water spout that came ashore or a down burst or what.
Thing is, I know this house can survive an earthquake. It has, several times. I also know it's in no way built to survive a tornado. They kept talking about interior rooms--go to an interior room. There aren't any. It's a bungalow with a ranch wing built onto it. Even the bathtub is directly under a window.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited January 20, 2010).]
posted
Actually I've been through a couple of earthquakes, too...all in Upstate New York, all incredibly mild three-point-something-or-others. I might not have realized they were earthquakes except they were reported as such in the papers the next day.
Earthquakes are way scarier than hurricanes or tornadoes. They strike without warning.
posted
Now, see, it's all what you're used to. Earthquakes don't bother me, much. I grew up with them. And a 3 something doesn't even raise an eyebrow around here. We only get interested if it's over 5 (which, if I recall the scale correctly, is something like 100 times stronger).
But a tornado warning was definitely something new and different.
posted
We've got flood warnings in Arizona, but then we get those every year. This week is supposed to be big though, the biggest rain storm in 20 years. We'll see.
Posts: 968 | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
That's what they're saying about tomorrow, here. I've been reviewing in my mind some of the major storms I can remember over the last few years. It should be interesting. I think we'll be staying in. Hopefully, we won't lose power, though.
Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Hurricanes are much scarier [than tornadoes], I've gotta say. [...] Earthquakes are way scarier than hurricanes or tornadoes.
I've witnessed two hurricanes, numerous tropical storms, a microburst, local flooding, and more earthquakes that I could possibly count (especially as I don't feel them). More recently, I've waited out a tornado warning.
For me, the worst was the tornado--a crisis I've never received training for--then the hurricanes. The microburst I didn't understand enough to fear until I saw the aftermath; in fact, the beauty of the microburst in progress distracted me so much that classmates had to drag me to safety. Flooding and earthquakes probably don't scare me as much because I grew up with them.
I agree with Meredith: What is scarier depends on what you're used to.
[This message has been edited by aspirit (edited January 21, 2010).]
posted
Down the road a piece from where I lived in Upstate NY, there was a rock-mining place---not precisely sure what they mined for, but most likely I'm forgetting something I once knew---that regularly blasted to break their rocks up. The earthquakes I went through were just like that, only they lasted longer.
Down here in Florida, where I am, we regularly hear the double sonic boom of the space shuttle on its way to Cape Canaveral. Every time it did this, I always knew what it was from.
Something else I've always known what it was, at least after the first one, was an exploding transformer. That's happened about half a dozen times 'round here, and a couple of times when I've been somewhere else.
posted
Right now my parents are on vacation in DisneyLand, needles to say it's not a very fun DisneyLand experience. We usually get a good amount of wind in June, which once in a while manifests as mild microbursts we did once lose a fence and a greenhouse and enough shingles to warrant a good deal of roofing work. Now we laugh when someone moves in and puts up a nice fence that doesn't allow the wind to pass through it, because we know it won't last a year. I also had a brother who disappeared for a while in the middle of Hurricane Andrew. He was looking for someone else, who was actually found before him. He later told me about the wind riders. Idiots who went out into a wheat field with big strips of cardboard and jumped into the storm.
Actually I think an order of magnitude is like a thousand times bigger than the last. So the difference between a 3 and a 5 is like a thousand times a thousand. (Of course that's measured in energy expended I think.)
posted
As I recall, every tenth of a point on the Richter scale is ten times more powerful than the point before. I wait to be corrected on this.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The shaking amplitude (height of the wave) is ten times larger for each whole point on the Richter scale, but the destructive power involves a more complicated calculation.
posted
Hey, Meredith, do you have a crawlspace? If so, you may want to keep it clean in case (and let's hope it's a very slim case) of another tornado warning.
Posts: 1139 | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Hey, Meredith, do you have a crawlspace? If so, you may want to keep it clean in case (and let's hope it's a very slim case) of another tornado warning.
Technically, yes. Would I want to go there? No. Could I under any circumstances get my 91 year old mother in there? Not a chance.
Oh, and BTW, I'd have to go outside to crawl into the crawl space--no access from inside the house.
posted
We got some tornado warnings last night too. I've never in my life seen a tornado warning happen in Arizona. It was a big stormm though. Nothing happened to our house, but our rather heavy duty patio chair did get moved around.
Posts: 968 | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I can't have a cellar in this part of Florida...too much trouble preventing water seepage from the sandy soil.
My so-called "safe room" is a closet---it's the only room in the house without a window. I retreated into there at the height of Hurricane Charley, but I didn't need to...and the next hurricane 'round I didn't bother.
The only cellar I know of in these parts was dug out and built for (and maybe by) Thomas Edison.
posted
Oddly enough, the (old) house next door was built by a couple who moved out here from the midwest during the depression. They just couldn't concieve of a house without a root cellar. So they dug one. From the stories I've heard, it almost killed him digging out that cellar in adobe clay soil (like concrete when it's dry, like very thick gluey paste when it's wet).
I have no idea what shape that cellar is in now, though.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited January 23, 2010).]
posted
I think it would be cool if someone living in a high rise tried to dig a beet cellar. It would be a great way to meet the neighbors down stairs.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
