OK, KS, NE -- You're getting tornadoes today.

[Jesda]

We're getting a small piece of it here in Eastern Missouri and parts of the midwest. Just rain and thunder.

Looks to be a life-threatening tornado risk across the great plains.

[audtatious]

It's just sprinkling around here all day. Sux cuz I need to mow the front yard

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Looks like a compressor map for a turbo. Stay left of the surge line and you'll be ok.

[alms24sebring]

I heard about this on the radio last night. Sounds kinda scary. And people continue to move in the middle of tornader alley because...?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Pick your poison. The west has earthquakes, deserts, snakes and spiders that will poison you (and worst of all, hippies). North has epic snow. South has hurricanes and some tornados. North East has s*** roads, corrupt government, snow.

[Jesda]

Tornado alley kicks a**. The sirens tell me it's time to grab my camera and go outside. Like bullets, they're very specific about where they hit, so the odds of being hit are very small.


Flooding is far more destructive. We're at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi. The last major flood was 1993 and it decimated entire towns. The valley just 1 mile west of me was under 10 feet of water for months.


That private athletic club to the right with the tennis courts is within walking distance of where I live.

At the time, there was nothing out there but small office buildings, an airport with mostly charter jets and private aircraft, and farms. The flooding was extensive but destruction was minimal.



Seven years ago they built a new levee and zoned the area for retail development. Now, an Aston-Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Rolls Royce dealer is out there as well as a Mercedes-Benz museum down the street. The longest strip mall in the country (a couple miles long) opened for business and two outlet malls are developing on the otherside of highway 40.

When/if that levee breaks, the economic disaster will be HUGE. [Cue Led Zeppelin]



Tornadoes are weaksauce compared to floods and hurricanes. Tornados are like going to the city on a Friday evening and possibly getting mugged. Hurricanes and floods are like the '67 Detroit riots.

Twisters get all the headlines and scare the crap out of people because seeing a cone twisting on the ground at a bajillion mph is far more exciting than looking at things that are submerged.

[alms24sebring]

Isnt the death rate for twisters far more than a hurricane is what I was pointing out. Most hurricanes only knock over trees, rarely spawn small tornadoes, and flood the shores by the surge. Not only that but a only a few make landfall and can go years without a major one (cat 4 or 5) hitting land. Only a few people die from them, like less than 10 for weaker ones. A tornado is much more common and when 13 in one day or an F4/F5 drop, it wipes the floor clean of buildings and alot more people die. I think they are also scarier form the surprise factor and at night not being able to see. Tornadoes happen from just about every storm system that passes through. I just dont get when people say "We never knew this could happen to us". Im sorry but, you live in tornado alley...

As far as floods and earthquakes, sure I could agree that they can cost more in damage and can even kill more in some situations. I think earthquakes are one of the most destructive forces and kill the most obviously. But again, they are much less common, but when they hit they hit hard.

I dont know any numbers here Im just assuming. Specifically talking casualties, I would think that the death rate of a tornado is larger but less cost in damage compared to a hurricane. I guess I would much rather live anywhere else than be scared to death of every thunderstorm that swings through, constantly afraid to lose everything.

PS I think building all those dealers and the mall is a major mistake. If it happened once, itll happen again.

[Jesda]

The odds of being hit by a tornado are very rare. If it was that easy to get killed by one, you wouldn't have professional storm chasers eagerly trying to seek them out. It took years of filming and hundreds of intercept attempts to get enough quality footage for the movie "Tornado Alley"

In my town's recorded history, there was only one significant tornado (F4) that occurred in 1967.

They make national news because they don't often touch down in densely populated areas. Same goes for school shootings and plane crashes. Some people are scared to death of flying, but commercial aircraft almost never fall out of the sky. Sensationalist reporting feeds paranoia. Rarity contributes to the fascination.

2011 was a statistical outlier. There were just over 550 tornado-related deaths that year of which 160 were in Joplin MO. In a normal year, there's between 20 and 180.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/torn/fataltorn.html


Your average summer kills more people than a year of tornadoes.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml

You're 500,000 times more likely to get into a fatal car accident driving in Los Angeles than you are to have your home destroyed by a tornado in Iowa. Nationwide, 30,000 to 40,000 people die in car accidents. Heart disease kills almost a million Americans each year.




In another life I think I'd be a meteorologist. Of all the weather-related phenomena, tornadoes are the most fascinating, haunting, and beautiful.

[alms24sebring]

I love charts and graphs. I think the chances of death are for sure greater on other things besides weather as you explained. I guess it really varies from year to year and the location of touch down. As far as the data, I think they only count the ones that kill, not all of them. Surely the number is higher. And as far as the graph, what if people die from a flood or get pulled away by a rip current while surfing, but during a hurricane? Eh it doesnt bother me that much, whatever.

Ive always wanted to see a tornado up close or even be in one if I was underground. Its just one of those fear factors that you have to experience and appreciate mother nature. Id be crappin my pants but I would love the thrill.

[Jesda]

I think most hurricane-related deaths are due to dumb people who ignore the warnings. I bet a lot of them get electrocuted.

[alms24sebring]

and people surfing...

Ive been through a cat 3 in SC that happened to stall over us for like 12 hours. It was only fun for the first 6 of those hours. A small tornado put my uncle's restaurant out of business no more than a mile away (It was minimal damage but didnt really make any money to make repairs so he went under) . I would think twice about a cat 4. It depends on where landfall is and the location of my home and things around it. I think I would be extra cautious about a cat 5 and would probly evac no matter what unless it was just ganna skim my area.

[nissangirl74]

The west has earthquakes, deserts, snakes and spiders that will poison you

All of which are very rare occurrences (never mind that we had three rattlesnakes on our property in one summer ).

We have no hurricanes, no snowstorms, no tornadoes, no thunderstorms, and no earthquakes. We get occasional flooding during monsoon season, but it is minimal, at best. Hell, it only rains about 14 days a year here.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Looks like a compressor map for a turbo. Stay left of the surge line and you'll be ok.

Sig worthy.

[Jesda]

"I'M A TORNADO"

"SUCK MY DIIIIICK"

[alms24sebring]

posted this in another thread. NSFW language

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82560827/

Call 911?!?

[Jesda]

lol, I suppose they could have the police set off the tornado sirens to alert the 4 people who seem to live in the area