Nature's Fury

[masteff 64]

This is just utter devastation.

 

Joplin is a small city in southwestern Missouri. The current death toll is 89 and expected to rise. It's about 100 miles from where I live and I've been there or driven thru many times.

 

Notes:

1) turn off/down your sound; the audio on this has some popping

2) I apologize for the commerical if you see one, can't figure how to bypass it, but it's quick

3) it's a long video, over 7 minutes taken from helicopter

4) the large building at the beginning is the hospital, they managed to move all patients into the hallways before the tornado hit. later in the video they show several schools which were destroyed.

 

http://www.newson6.com/category/121535/video-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5878278

[lujate 578]

Joplin is about 70 miles from me. When I saw the paper this morning, I blinked in disbelief. I heard about the storm on the radio last night but did not realize just how bad it was.

[Dragon Brother 619]

I saw this on the news...terrible devastation and apparently in such a short time. Nature sure is throwing us a curve ball or two this year...

[gogoblender 3,072]

A terrifying video... and you guys are so close! It's humbling to see that with everything we build, nature can just get rid of it so quickly. So many lives here lost, I hope you guys don't have friends or relatives that were involved in this disaster.

 

 

gogo

[lujate 578]

Fortunately, I do not have close friends or relatives in the Joplin area.

 

I guess at one point today, rescuers had to take shelter from 60mph winds and 0.25 inch hail.

 

The experts say the unusually high number of tornadoes this season is just a coincidence, but it makes one start to wonder.

[gogoblender 3,072]

Lujate, did you guys get any collateral weather from the tornado?

 

 

gogo

[lujate 578]

Lujate, did you guys get any collateral weather from the tornado?

 

 

gogo

We had some wicked lightning but that was about it. Not even a heavy rain.

 

Today we had more thunder and lightning as well as heavy rain.

Edited May 24, 2011 by lujate

[gogoblender 3,072]

We have strange but lucky weather here in Montreal...I think the area's constructed on like solid bedrock or something. I've only once felt a tremor, and I think that could have even been my imagination. And as for tornadoes, I've never seen one in my life, though I do know there are areas of America where they seem to just live there 24/7 with a crowd of vehicled watchers tracking/running after them.

 

 

gogo

[chattius 2,535]

I feel sad for this people. I was told even there was a warning, most houses had no cellars so no save place to run to quickly.

 

Tornados

In germany they have different names. Alfred Wegener, who is most famous for his continental drift theory, also researched Tornados and his definitions are still used today. He was using the words Grosstrombe (tornado, at land or on water ), Kleintrombe (dustdevils), Blindtrombe (whirl cloud, like a tornado not hitting ground). We call a Tornado at land Windhose (wind trouser, the german word for trouser is related to the english word hose), at water Wasserhose (water trousers).

 

We have 'disaster papers' at firefighters. Mathematics and physics say that our area can be hit at a maximum of close to F1. A single one (mainly F0) is appearing in average every 5 years. There are no big plains where a Tornado can reach higher power than F1 here.

 

But because of the mountain hills which prevent big tornado's we different problems:

local river floodings: rain clouds are kinda trapped and release a lot of water in a rather small area

downbursts or as we call them Fallböen (Bö is a heavy pushing wind, squall?) - Rainclouds climb when reaching the hills, air is cooler the higher they climb, so they release water. If the hills were heated from sun and the air above them is dry, the raindrops may be blown into this hot dry air. The result is a massive cooldown and cold wet winds blow from up to down, pushing more rain at a higher speed into dry air, so the process is accelerating quickly. Heavy ones cool so down that you have hail in the size of pigeon eggs or even bigger. Sometimes it is as if whole rain clouds are sucked to the ground, big enough force to break trees.

[masteff 64]

The problem is when the atmosphere is ripe, we can get a string of storm cells along a 100 to 200 mile line. We can also get a couple waves of storms, so it can be bad then clear then bad again. You'll watch the radar and just watch them spawn up from seemingly nothing.

 

Tonight more severe weather is predicted. The months of May and June are the heart of tornado season.

 

Growing up in "Tornado Alley" I have a healthy respect for the weather. My grandfather actually survived a tornado as a child; one picked up and moved their house while they were inside; the rest of his life, he would go into the storm shelter at the first sign of severe storms.

 

In Tulsa, our civil defense sirens get tested every Wednesday at noon when the weather is clear. One sound for tornado, one sound for flood, and one sound for nuclear attack (a leftover precaution from the "cold war"; I've only heard it tested once or twice).

 

Ya'll may find it odd that I've seen a couple tornados in my life and yet I'll never move to California for fear of earthquakes.

 

@lujate - Howdy neighbor!

[lujate 578]

Tulsa, huh? I am the other direction, in Springfield. Tornadoes are not as bad here, but they are still a springtime ritual. It my be either luck or topography, but they always seem to change course at the last minute and go around us. I have never actually seen a tornado, but witnessed the aftermath of one in '03.

[cider_steve 26]

Is it just me, or is mother nature being a real grump of late ?

 

It seems like every week there is a major storm, big earthquake or volcano blasting away !

 

We are very lucky here in the UK, we seem to be pretty safe from all the 'biggies' that nature can throw out.

 

Mind you, an inch of snow can grind the whole country to a halt, lol !

 

It is both sad and terrifying to see the results of these storms that Masteff highlighted. First the loss of life, but then the way it cripples a whole community. Can't begin to imagine what it's like to witness first hand.

 

Steve.

[gogoblender 3,072]

Is it just me, or is mother nature being a real grump of late ?

 

 

I sometimes wonder about that, then I realize with all the almost instant reporting happening, specially with the net, it may be just a case of us "knowing" more of what's happening everywhere all at once, whereas before, word had to get around on boats crossing oceans, or, as in Krakatoa, when the disaster was enormous, it traveled quickly.

 

 

gogo

[cider_steve 26]

Is it just me, or is mother nature being a real grump of late ?

 

 

I sometimes wonder about that, then I realize with all the almost instant reporting happening, specially with the net, it may be just a case of us "knowing" more of what's happening everywhere all at once, whereas before, word had to get around on boats crossing oceans, or, as in Krakatoa, when the disaster was enormous, it traveled quickly.

 

 

gogo

 

You make some very valid points there Gogo my friend.

 

I guess these 'headline' weather occurances have happened since before man walked upright ! Where was tv in those days, eh ?

 

Also, with humans spreading more and more across the globe, there are more of us to get stuck in a bad situation and in more places too.

 

Steve.

[gogoblender 3,072]

 

 

Also, with humans spreading more and more across the globe, there are more of us to get stuck in a bad situation and in more places too.

 

Steve.

 

 

That makes sense to me. Higher populations coupled with population dispersion, mean more experiences overall to be reported, and since the emergencies are the ones that alarm us, they stick out.

 

 

gogo

[cider_steve 26]

 

 

Also, with humans spreading more and more across the globe, there are more of us to get stuck in a bad situation and in more places too.

 

Steve.

 

 

That makes sense to me. Higher populations coupled with population dispersion, mean more experiences overall to be reported, and since the emergencies are the ones that alarm us, they stick out.

 

 

gogo

 

Too true Gogo.

 

Still, not a nice experience to go through on a personal level. Hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes...........I sure don't want to meet one face to face. Scarey enough on the tv, thankyou very much.