Let the evacuations begin

[GT98]

Originally posted by SpiralDragon
er.. this might be a stupid question... but what is the diffrence between a Typhoon and a Hurican?

From what i understand goes like this:

Edit

Dictionary.com to the rescue

Hurricanes are Storms in Atlantic Ocean and Carrabean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, though I do recall seeing the weather channel call a storm in the Pacific near Mexico a Typhoon

Typhoon is a storm in the Western Pacific or Indian Ocean

Last is Cyclone which is a storm in southwestern Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean

[Greebe]

Subject: A1) What is a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical cyclone?


The terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regionally specific names for a strong "tropical cyclone". A tropical cyclone is the generic term for a non-frontal synoptic scale low-pressure system over tropical or sub-tropical waters with organized convection (i.e. thunderstorm activity) and definite cyclonic surface wind circulation (Holland 1993).

Tropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface winds of less than 17 m/s (34 kt, 39 mph) are called "tropical depressions" (This is not to be confused with the condition mid-latitude people get during a long, cold and grey winter wishing they could be closer to the equator ;-)). Once the tropical cyclone reaches winds of at least 17 m/s (34 kt, 39 mph) they are typically called a "tropical storm" and assigned a name. If winds reach 33 m/s (64 kt, 74 mph)), then they are called:

* "hurricane" (the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E)
* "typhoon" (the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline)
* "severe tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E)
* "severe cyclonic storm" (the North Indian Ocean)
* "tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Indian Ocean)

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqHED.html

[Lizzard[MPE]]

Originally posted by ZokesPro
Whoa, that CRAZY!!! So you've prolly seen a bunch of em, or at least a few. Wow, that's just insane. Did you actually SEE him get thrown??

no i didnt, we just heard about it a few minutes later. at the point it was too close we had all went inside

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Lizzard[MPE]
no i didnt, we just heard about it a few minutes later. at the point it was too close we had all went inside

Still... sounds like one hell of an experience.

[Dr Mordrid]

You have NO idea how horrifying a tornado can be.

Point of reference: tornados are measured by the Fujita scale in which an F1 is the weakest and an F5 is an Act of God.

First of all: the tornado at the end of Twister was called an F5. This is rediculous. Judging from the track width shown (about 100-150 meters) and the fact that anything at all was left of the farm, much less almost the entire house, it was more like the F2's I've experienced.

I've seen all sizes up close ranging from "small" F1's to the monster F5's and every one of 'em could cause a major stain in your underwear....though you can bet the F5's can do that from a range of 5 miles or better .

Other than the F5 I saw rip the freeway up in Texas maybe the most memorable was an F4 that hit a small town just south of our farm. This SOB ran right down the main drag tearing the hell out of everything while I was visiting a friend just outside of town.

The area feed mill (a large one) just flat exploded as if there was a bomb planted inside.

There was also a very large and old tree felled at the edge of town. Its trunk was nearly 4 feet across, but was twisted about 180 degrees until it snapped about 5 feet off the ground. The top of the tree was shredded and deposited along the twisters path.

The bottom 5 feet of its trunk and the root ball, which was ~14 feet across and ~6-8 feet deep, were torn completely out of the ground and deposited about half a mile away. We're talking something that easily weighed several tons.

The same tornado hit several farms and a trailer park on its way out of town.

The trailer park was turned into a stack of 2x4's, siding, cars and belongings. Fortunately most all of the people were at work, in school or just had time to get the hell out of the way.

One of the farms had its timber-framed barn lifted completely off the ground, chewed up in mid-air as if it were going through a meat grinder then deposited half a mile away in a heap.

This same tornado had previously hit a town about 20 miles southwest of this location then hit another town about 12 miles to the northeast. It's total track was later figured at about 35 miles.

I saw this happen with my own eyes, and it's definitely something I will NEVER forget.

Another thing you never forget is the SOUND tornados make. Can you even imagine a mix of diesel freight train, a 747 at full throttle and a AA fuel dragster running continuously a meter from your head for several minutes??

Talk about a total freakout. Your insides vibrate from the infra-sound, your eardrums are in pain and if you're close enough it feels like the air is being sucked right out of your lungs.

Tornados can also be unpredictable. Some will run their full track on the ground tearing up everything in their path. Others will pogo-stick; hitting one neighborhood, skipping several others then hitting another. They may repeat this pattern for hours. Some might hit just one house, totally flattening it but hardly damaging its neighbors.

But then you have tornados that run as doublets, triplets or more. In this situation several vortices form together then orbit each other while following the same track.

An example of a doublet was the one shown in Twister where they spun the truck that had foolishly stopped on a bridge. If this had been a real doublet the movie would have ended two minutes later with their funerals.

Damned dangerous those SOB's....

Dr. Mordrid

[Greebe]

Another thing you never forget is the SOUND tornados make. Can you even imagine a mix of diesel freight train, a 747 at full throttle and a AA fuel dragster running continuously a meter from your head for several minutes??

Ummm Doc, that is what a jet engine sounds like 1 meter away... well actually directly underneath engines #3&4 of a B-52H running full throttle. When wearing both sound absorptive foam ear plugs and hardshelled hearing protectors is so loud you can't hear yourself think and the low frequency turbulence is so powerful that you don't need to breath, it does it for you.

Actually those are worse, tornados lack the intense high frequency scream jet engines produce now that I think back on it

[Dr Mordrid]

I was adding the jets for their volume. Most of the tornadic sound is lows and infrasound. Gawd....

Dr. Mordrid

[SCompRacer]

We had an F5 that devastated Plainfield, IL back in 1990. It killed 29 persons and injured over 300. Ironically, the National Weather Service issued its only tornado warning of the day at 3:51 p.m., thirteen minutes after the tornado moved on to ravage the neighboring city of Crest Hill.

[KvHagedorn]

In 1997, a series of tornadoes passed about 10mi west of me. This became the F5 that destroyed a neigborhood in Jarrell, TX. I looked for the pic I saw in the paper that was taken from a helicopter the day after, but couldn't find it. It was the scariest picture of tornado damage I've seen. Imagine a small subdivision, about 20 brick homes on one street, the street intersecting a main road above. The main road and the street were now dirt paths.. the lawns were ripped out of the ground.. the brick homes were now concrete slabs. There was no debris. It was all picked up and deposited elsewhere.

http://www.traddstormchasingtours.com/lecture.html

http://www.vvm.com/~curtis/Jarrell/Jarrell.htm

[Jessterw]

First tornado (well it started off as a water spout) I ever had close contact with was when I was still living in Tampa, FL on MacDill AFB. I think we had three that evening, with one making a landing on the runway (luckily no jets were out or even there), and another taking off the top portion of the roof of the apartments we were in. I was probably 8.

You learn to respect forces of nature like that. I've seen tornado paths that will take out one house, but the house next door will be left relatively untouched. I've seen the aftermath of hurricanes where there's is nothing left of a whole neighborhood except for one or two houses left standing.

Looks like the current path for Ivan takes it right past Tampa Bay and into the eastern part of the panhandle. Regardless of whether it changes course, somewhere along the coast line is going to get hit hard.

[Greebe]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
I was adding the jets for their volume. Most of the tornadic sound is lows and infrasound. Gawd....

Dr. Mordrid

Gawd is right You were over embellishing the facts (typical).

I have heard all up close & personal and a tornado not only doesn't sound like that, but is vastly louder.

[Dr Mordrid]

Maybe not the ones you've been close to but the larger ones I've been VERY close to (hiding in a storm cellar within a few tens of yards of their path) had LOTS of low frequency (feel it in your guts & chest = infrasound) plus the screaming howl.

Dr. Mordrid

[Greebe]

Yeah I guess the puny little whimpy Xenia Tornado doesn't count.

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
You have NO idea how horrifying a tornado can be.

Dr. Mordrid

If a tornado can huck a two ton truck 300 feet away than I have a pretty good idea of how scary those sumbitches are.

[cjolley]

Oddly enough, while I have lived in the exact center of "Tornado Ally" for 34 years, I have never seen a tornado on the ground here.

Ive seen them in the air,
They've passed over and around our house,
I've seen them on the ground elsewhere.
But I've never seen one on the ground here.
Must be all that clean livin.

In fact, the May 3 1999 tornado (the highest wind speed ever recorded) was headed straight for our house when it turned east 10 miles south of us.
Tornadoes gain energy when that happens
Result: 45 dead, 1,800 homes desroyed, 7,000 homes damaged.
We saw the damage from the highway a few days later where it crossed I-35.
Imagine a lawn mower 300 meters wide rolling over a residential area.
Nothing but sticks left.
Simply amazing.

http://storms.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_page?survivingthestorm_may3

Chuck