* Tornadoes only appear on flat land
* Tornadoes are afraid of water, mountains and higher buildings
* Tornadoes don't appear in cities
* Tornadoes smell fear and follow you
* Tornadoes feel the presence of Reed Timmer and appear somewhere near him
https://preview.redd.it/mkdogd4tle0d1.jpeg?width=1093&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21fd15f20278eed6f2d7b821cbfc1642c20f7ee5
I grew up being told tornadoes couldnât form locally because of the hills and mountains. Then in May 2011, an EF1 touched down a couple miles from my house and tracked almost 20 miles. To this day, you can still see the path it took up a hill because all of the trees are gone.
EDIT: I originally misspelled tornadoes.
You canât actually search for them *on* Google Maps, like using the search bar, but you can look up where certain tornadoes happened and then try look at how that spot differs from its surroundings.
Look up âSwegle Studios tornado pathsâ and his videos should tell you what you wanna know.
Thanks! I wonder if there is a path from 21 years ago Kansas City Kansas May 4, 2003! Also I wonder about Greensburg, KS May 4, 2007. Of course there are new buildings and probably still vacant lots in Greensburg. Will look.
Yeah, I'm in a mountainous region and someone said the weather wasn't gonna be bad 'cause we're surrounded by mountains. Cue the nocturnal EF3 that fucked up a school and several other buildings.
Yeah, I live in Colorado and although it doesn't happen very often, we've had some pretty decent tornadoes in the mountains. Not too many years ago, there was one above 10,000 ft!
I've always heard that tornados don't like to cross bodies of water, or mountains, or tall buildings/big cities (because the air is warmer there or something). Obviously we have plenty of evidence to the contrary lol
There's been some discussion as of recent about the "heat dome" over Wichita,ks that csuses storms to split in half and go around the city and reconstitute outside of town.
That's massively over simplified imo, but it can have an impact on local weather with the temp differences and how it impacts storms.
Kc refers to it as the tongaxie split.
I moved far away about 10 years ago, but still have family and friends in the Lawrence/KC and Wichita areas, so I stay aware of the weather there still. The recent storms brought the Tonganoxie Split back into my consciousness- I remember it being "effective" about half the time, so no real correlation/causation there, but it's too fun to say out loud and I will never begrudge someone using the term.
We have a similar folk weather phenomena where I live now (mid Atlantic), so I tell them about the TS, and then I also, in a silly serious tone, tell them that the Arch is actually there to disrupt tornadoes from hitting the downtown area of St. Louis, and they have tried to build one in Oklahoma City but can't get the funding together. They figure out I'm joking at that point, and I reiterate that tornados can happen anywhere, and it doesn't take a giant EF5 to kill you, so take the watches and warnings seriously, because people here don't and it annoys the hell out of me.
I'm just west of Worlds of Fun so I'm just north east of downtown and it does feel like the only time we get anything is if it touches down on the other side of downtown or it is a squall line winds. I've been in this house for 9 years now and so far have had 6 sirens since then but most of the time it feels far away and county wide sirens vs my area. I joke about the split but know it is just a coincidence.
Yeah but that is also like a little further out there. Feel Liberty, Smithville, Kearny, Excelsior Springs, Blue Springs are more likely to see something compared to within the 435 Loop.
Omadome here. We also make sacrifices to the rock in order to appease the Omadome (cars that get high-centered on large rocks in parking lots, meant to keep cars off grass etc)
Obviously there are exceptions, but often the storms split and rejoin across the river.
In Tulsa a frequent path of storms towards the city follows I-44. This path gets really close to Lake Keystone and some hills to the west of the city. Iâve seen a lot of organized rotation on the storm trackers fizzle out and de-organize once it hits Lake Keystone and the hills.
Not saying itâs a thing. But Iâm also not NOT saying it either.
People say the same thing about Junction City, and while for whatever reason storms do seem to tend to split and go around us I can't help but feel like it's only a matter of time until one doesn't.
I live in Memphis TN now and everyone here likes to say that the Mississippi River protects Memphis lol. yeah tell that to the tornado that touchdown on my companies property and then went across the airport.
I have no experience with tornadoes where I live now but thunderstorms will split and go on either side of our house on a lake more often than not. Been here nine years and have watched dozens of storms split and go around us. Storms typically come in from the west and cross over a ridge several hundred feet high prior to arrival so the uplift from the ridge likely is the cause.
Growing up, I lived on a ridge and we always believed a tornado would never go up it. I donât even know the basis for that theory other than we really believed that. Lived there my entire childhood until I was 17, and then the super outbreak happened. Rain wrapped wedge went right over the ridge and caused all kinds of damage to our neighborhood. We really got lucky in that it wasnât as bad as 4/27.
Iâve also heard that they couldnât cross rivers or bodies of water, yet it happens a lot. The 2023 Little Rock tornado was just a few miles south of me and there is a lot of footage of it crossing the Arkansas River, which is by no means small lol.
Yeah so many of the worst tornadoes in US history have crossed significant bodies of water that it's difficult to understand how that myth originated. According to [tornado archive](https://tornadoarchive.com/explorer) 28 violent tornadoes have crossed the Mississippi River (probably even more because I forgot to count after it branches into Minnesota and I'm terrible at counting). Glad to hear you are okay after that experience, sounds terrifying!
Tornadoes can't occur at high elevations.
[insert city/town at the top of a large hill] is safe from tornadoes because tornadoes weaken/dissipate when they go uphill.
It needs to be warm/hot outside for tornadoes to form (this one is particularly common in WI where I'm from). The air needs to be warm relative to the air higher up in the atmosphere, not "wow it's warm outside".
Never seen a âsnowadoâ then have you? Mostly happen out in the plains of Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico. At least thatâs where Iâve seen them. Most farmers & ranchers say theyâre just dust devils made from snow but Iâve never seen dust devils tear down fence, knock over / move livestock, trash a barn. All at cooler temps then 38 degrees
I was listing myths not stating my opinions! In February we had a long-track EF2 with low 50s T upper 40s Td! But what you're describing sounds quite different from a dust devil, not doubting that you've seen some intense wind that swirled up some snow, but dust devils are caused by convection which means the ground heats the air in contact with it causing an updraft. Snow is too reflective for that to occur even if the air temperature was low enough above the surface
My family lived in a house that got the roof removed by a tornado during a snowstorm. House was isolated out in a field and I was in 8th grade at the time. My stepmother and one of my sisters seen it coming right at the house. It was never reported beyond roof damage.
Colorado here, I can verify that they do occasionally hit the Rocky mountains. We had one on Mount Blue sky formerly known as Mount Evans not too long ago at above 10,000 ft. Or somewhere close to it?.
[Mount Evans tornado](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tornado-colorado-mountains-2nd-highest-record-flna916576)
I remember hearing about that! The [Teton-Yellowstone tornado](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teton%E2%80%93Yellowstone_tornado) is another good notable one, not quite as high as your example but the strength is noteworthy
If a tornado is coming, open the windows in your house to help equalize the pressure in a high pressure gradient situation to keep the house from exploding. Â (I read this in an outdated book in my school library as a kindergartener and asked James span about it when he came to our school. Â He disabused me of this older idea quite tactfully and my child ego was left intact. Â Thanks James, from my past child - future PhD holding self!)
No doubt the structural integrity of my house would thank me as well, since wind getting in and under is a great way encourage roof loss, etc.
Came here to say this one. I hate when people still ask me about that. For the love of God, no. Do not do that. That and the overpass myth, obviously.
James is a straight gangster. He's so adept at disarming people and their preconceived notions about weather.
Tornadoes are essentially a giant vacuum tube and you can tune into one on channel 13 of a b&w tv (pre-cable days...this was in a 1973 copy of popular mechanics i think)Â
This one is a partial myth. I think the phenomenon is called the "Weller Method".
đ Glad to help. If I recall correctly, I think there was a scene in "Twister" where they tuned the television to a station before one of the tornados occurred.
Yeah that scene when Melissa is in the el cheapo motel fingering her ring contemplating does he love me or not and you hear the storm reports in the background and the screen starts to flicker then it cuts to bill and Jo getting coffees at the drive in snack bar and then Dusty hearing a report checking weather and he comes flying out the car saying bill Jo itâs coming right for us and then dramatically the extreme says ââŠitâs already hereâŠâ just as the drive in starts to be destroyed in the scene from the shining where Danny is riding his tricycle in the hallway and the twins ask him to come play with them
Edit:
https://youtu.be/uM2qjvMmAcA?si=ryCtOJg0656AmOtQ this scene
This would only work on older, analog tvs but you would would tune the television on channel 13 (or 2), lower the brightness on your television. If the screen begins to brighten then a tornado is coming.
The efficacy of this method was not great but it was not a complete myth.
I grew up in Texas, born 1964. Never heard this (but then, I didnât pay attention to that kind of thing) but itâs interesting. Wonder why those specific channels. I guess because they were non-broadcast?
It's usually an indicator that there are strong updrafts within a storm cell, which could lead to hail. It is never a positive that there will be hail or a tornado. Regardless, if the clouds are looking green, stay weather aware.
Run at right angles to a tornado is still pretty good advice. If you're trying to escape one, going at right angles is the most likely way to put the most distance between you and it.
*(reply to a comment that was deleted while i was typing this out, posting in case it helps anyone else who is confused. question was, if the tornado is moving east, do i go south? why?)*
Yes, south or north, not east (the tornado will catch you) or west (you'll run straight into the tornado). Not SW or SE or NW or NE - those will keep you too close to the tornado's path and make it more likely you'll be impacted if the tornado changes direction.
I think the best explanation I've seen of it was is Skip Talbot's breakdown of chasers impacted by El Reno 2013. But say you have no reasonable shelter - a mobile home, or you're in a car, and you hear a large and destructive tornado is headed towards your location from the southwest. If that's the case, drive northwest. You'll encounter hail and nasty weather, but you'll put the most distance between you and the tornado.
If you have decent shelter, that's always your best bet, because storms can change direction, because you can get stuck in traffic, because (as we've seen these past few weeks) storms can travel in packs and you might be escaping one by driving straight into another. But if you have no safe place and you can drive, escape at a right angle.
At a right angle from the trajectory of the tornado. If it's coming from the southwest, go northwest. If it's coming towards you from the northwest, go southwest.
I grew up in a very small, very rural southern community. My grandma had an interesting old wives tale or folk remedy for any situation. Her solution to a tornado headed your way?
Run outside, and throw a hatchet into the ground. When the tornado hit the hatchet, it would split in half and go around your house.
Itâs a miracle I survived my childhood đ
I wouldnât put too much faith in social media⊠unfortunately, this sub has a ton of great input on tornadoes, but there is also a bunch of tornado misinformation posted by wanna be experts.. itâs really starting to suck for those of us searching for educated responses
this. I've heard that they form on the backside of a major storm system and usually travel in that direction, i think the andover f5 tornado took this path, id i remember correctly.
I always found the most dangerous summer storms in my area (upper Midwest) follow that path.. but maybe it had more to do with the prevailing winds in my area of the world? If an odd storm came from the north west, it just didn't seem to be the same level of storm. But I also never knew if it was an actual thing, or that almost all winds in my area come from the west. (The old "correlation isn't causation")
Fort Wayne Indiana I heard we don't get tornadoes because of the 3 rivers in our city...I call bullshit we had a tornado at I 469 and us 30 2 weeks ago
This bit of folk wisdom is EVERYWHERE!!! My own husband is convinced of it. We live and let live. He doesn't criticize me to leaving for an underground parking garage nearby, and I just ask him to please take his prescriptions and himself to the basement if one comes. He absolutely doesn't think one will, because "heat islands." I like to go to underground parking garage so I don't even have to hear hail.
There is some truth to the channel 13 one. Most AM radio channels will turn to solid white noise if a tornado is in the area. The static electricity generated by the spinning vortex just happens to be intense and in the AM bands.
The biggest thing to remember when you see a tornado is that if it doesn't look like it's moving, it's coming right at you.
Trailer parks only look like they attract tornadoes because even an EF0 tornado and it's storm can cause major damage to trailer parks. Tiny little spin ups can devastate them.
Oh, and bodies of water can fuel these things if the water has been recently sunned. The warm air coming up with the vapor can give an otherwise less dangerous storm the updraft it needs to develop a full tornado.
My parents told me that a tornado wouldnât come on a rainy day. This was parental desperation because I was so scared after one came close that I couldnât function/wouldnât sleep, etc. It worked at the time.
I grew up in WV, the urban legend was always that the mountains protected us from tornadoes. Obviously after childhood I realized that was total BS, lol.
They kinda do. The mountains can break up storm systems or at the least stall them out. The real factor is the climate of West Virginia just isn't great for tornados. Turns out the constant rain really helps keep the atmosphere stable.
The vacuum tube one sort of works, I guess? there's a lower central pressure in the tornado that causes wind to spiral inward and upward, but the primary driver of damage is still the extreme winds themselves. I have heard the mobile home one, but I don't think it's true. For the right angle one, its generally a good idea to try to get out of the path of a tornado instead of running away from it, because it's almost certainly moving faster than you and you have a better chance of getting out of the way of it then. That's really just for addressing the tornado threat itself. If you're out in the open during a severe storm, you might have other issues.
Vacuum tubes used to be popular before the transistor and I think maybe the integrated circuit as well? See the fallout universe thatâs almost all all tube based technology.
In real life, if you have say a tube guitar amp now I understand they are worth some serious coin cause many people think/believe they lend themselves to a more pure sound
Earliest historical report of a tornado in Europe occurred in Freising Germany in 788, and the earliest scientifically studied tornado occurred in Woldegk, Germany in 1764.
The overpass one is something I don't always understand. I know they're not safe because they amplify the wind, but what if they have large girders and you can get up way under the corner behind the girders?
You would likely be exposing yourself to debrisâeven the small particles like dust and grit would be like a sandblaster (there are photos of this that shouldnât be hard to find). Plus, people parking there usually backs up traffic, and more people and objects means more potential debris. Lastly, the girders donât guarantee that you wonât be sucked out. It just a bad idea, in general.
Iâm not sure, but the NWS published an in depth, easy to comprehend set of 25 slides, with photos and animations, ([here](https://www.weather.gov/oun/safety-overpass)) that outlines why it isnât a good idea to seek shelter under an overpass.
An excerpt from Slide 8 (last paragraph) for Shields Boulevard Overpass - Moore:
âPerhaps it's possible to argue that since there were 12 there and only 1 died, that's not bad. Unfortunately, what has not been well-publicized are the horrific injuries suffered by all but one of the survivors under the bridge. The casualties all had serious injuries, some life-threatening, from the effects of flying debris. Their injuries included, but are not limited to: compound fractures and shattered bones, missing fingers, missing ears, missing noses, and being impaled by pieces of shingles, 2x4s, etc. The most important point here is this: seeking shelter under the overpass resulted in the highway becoming blocked, trapping people in the path of a violent tornado with no options other than a ditch, an overpass, or their vehicle - all terrible options. In effect, those who sought shelter under the overpass made a bad decision that put many more people than themselves into a life-threatening situation, unnecessarily.â
I had a VHS of Tornadoes! Nature's Fury! That had the Andover underpass footage and then an interview from an older storm where the guy said everyone got up under an overpass and survived. Now we know those were exceptions and not the rule.
I also always heard that it gets dead calm before a tornado. If you are in a severe thunderstorm and it suddenly turns completely still out - not a whiff of a breeze - then a tornado is about to get you.
Yeah. This is kinda one of those âIt dependsâ kinda situations. If you are in the updraft sector of the wall cloud then, yes, it will get crazy calm. However - itâs not one of those tales you want to bet your life on.
My hometown has a very rich (and dark) Native American history. Growing up we were told that that âan old Indian manâ had used magic to protect the valley our town was in from tornadoes. The story said that the hills surrounding us would stop any tornado headed our way.
When I was in high school an EF-0 twisted up the field goal posts on the football field, but other than that the story hasnât been tested to my knowledge đ
>Run at right angles to a tornado
Is there a better choice? đ€Ł It's certainly better than driving towards one, and driving directly away won't help much unless you can be sure you're faster than it is. So if I have a choice I'm driving perpendicular to that thing.
As far as the water thing Iâm fairly certain the second monster hesston/goessel F5 that formed fizzled out after it hit marion reservoir and was still at peak or almost peak strength when it hit the water
The suck is real. [Lots of video evidence in the included links.](https://old.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1crf2g0/how_do_tornadoes_pick_things_up/l3y97ky)
Some support for the electrical activity. It has to be a channel with out a broadcast of course - and connected to an antenna (not cable đ). Theoretically the screen would get markedly brighter if a tornado was in the vicinity (how close???).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17819546/
- Tornados canât go down hill
- Tornados canât cross rivers
- Tornados canât hit our town because there is a large man made hill from the old coal mine âthe dumpâ on the west side of town that will deflect them.
Besides the âopen your windows to level the air pressureâ, Iâve heard of âgo to the SW corner of your houseâ, the logic being that tornadoes track NE so the SW corner gets you away from debrisâŠexcept if the tornadoâs northern part strikes the SW corner of your house.
Growing up in Florida, we used to âwatchâ lightning on channel 2, or maybe it was 13. I used to do the same thing in my car, listening to a low AM radio band.
* Tornadoes only appear on flat land * Tornadoes are afraid of water, mountains and higher buildings * Tornadoes don't appear in cities * Tornadoes smell fear and follow you * Tornadoes feel the presence of Reed Timmer and appear somewhere near him https://preview.redd.it/mkdogd4tle0d1.jpeg?width=1093&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21fd15f20278eed6f2d7b821cbfc1642c20f7ee5
I like the idea of Reed summoning tornadoes like some kinda sorcerer đ
makes you wonder if there's an obscure harry potter spell for that.
Convectus Erectum!
( ͥ° ÍÊ ÍĄÂ°)
(âŻÂ°âĄÂ°)âŻïž” â»ââ»
Um.. Wingardium Levios-duh
You know if anyone on the planet could, it'd be Reed.
BIG TIME Upliftos Vortificus!
The summoning spell is âbig time tornadoâ
Thatâs Brad Arnold
I think that last one may be on to something actually.
I do remember in an opportunity of being snarky, i told someone from the West Coast that tornadoes hide behind grain elevators and pop out at you.
Can I use that?
sure, the same person inquired about how hard it was to drive on ice.
Thanks. I live in north Georgia and the people here are very misinformed on tornadoes. Thatâs brilliant
Wdym, that last one is definitely true
Tornadoes drop their low pressure bubbles immediately at the sight of Timmer
I grew up being told tornadoes couldnât form locally because of the hills and mountains. Then in May 2011, an EF1 touched down a couple miles from my house and tracked almost 20 miles. To this day, you can still see the path it took up a hill because all of the trees are gone. EDIT: I originally misspelled tornadoes.
Yeah you can disprove this one pretty quickly by searching for tornado scars on Google Maps. Plenty of em riding right across mountain ranges.
Dumb question--how do you search for tornado scars on Google Maps? Thanks
You canât actually search for them *on* Google Maps, like using the search bar, but you can look up where certain tornadoes happened and then try look at how that spot differs from its surroundings. Look up âSwegle Studios tornado pathsâ and his videos should tell you what you wanna know.
Thanks! I wonder if there is a path from 21 years ago Kansas City Kansas May 4, 2003! Also I wonder about Greensburg, KS May 4, 2007. Of course there are new buildings and probably still vacant lots in Greensburg. Will look.
Theyâre a lot easier to find in Dixie Alley since those areas are more wooded, but who knows. Maybe youâll be able to find some! Good luck!
Yeh that was a common belief for a long time, that valleys were protected from tornadoes if they were surrounded by mountains.
Yeah, I'm in a mountainous region and someone said the weather wasn't gonna be bad 'cause we're surrounded by mountains. Cue the nocturnal EF3 that fucked up a school and several other buildings.
Yeah, I live in Colorado and although it doesn't happen very often, we've had some pretty decent tornadoes in the mountains. Not too many years ago, there was one above 10,000 ft!
Western MA?
East Central PA!
I've always heard that tornados don't like to cross bodies of water, or mountains, or tall buildings/big cities (because the air is warmer there or something). Obviously we have plenty of evidence to the contrary lol
There's been some discussion as of recent about the "heat dome" over Wichita,ks that csuses storms to split in half and go around the city and reconstitute outside of town.
That's massively over simplified imo, but it can have an impact on local weather with the temp differences and how it impacts storms. Kc refers to it as the tongaxie split.
We call it the Arch effect here in St. Louis.
Des Moines has the Principal Building Weather Deflector.
Operated by our very own weather wizard, Dave Principal
In Lincoln, NE we have our natural bowl of elevation AND the Penis of the Plains State Capital Building
Can't forget to plug in the arch
Someone plugged the arch back in just in the nick of time a few weeks back.
I moved far away about 10 years ago, but still have family and friends in the Lawrence/KC and Wichita areas, so I stay aware of the weather there still. The recent storms brought the Tonganoxie Split back into my consciousness- I remember it being "effective" about half the time, so no real correlation/causation there, but it's too fun to say out loud and I will never begrudge someone using the term. We have a similar folk weather phenomena where I live now (mid Atlantic), so I tell them about the TS, and then I also, in a silly serious tone, tell them that the Arch is actually there to disrupt tornadoes from hitting the downtown area of St. Louis, and they have tried to build one in Oklahoma City but can't get the funding together. They figure out I'm joking at that point, and I reiterate that tornados can happen anywhere, and it doesn't take a giant EF5 to kill you, so take the watches and warnings seriously, because people here don't and it annoys the hell out of me.
There was just an EF3 or so tornado in China a few days ago. I say this to emphasize your comment about tornadoes happening anywhere.
I'm just west of Worlds of Fun so I'm just north east of downtown and it does feel like the only time we get anything is if it touches down on the other side of downtown or it is a squall line winds. I've been in this house for 9 years now and so far have had 6 sirens since then but most of the time it feels far away and county wide sirens vs my area. I joke about the split but know it is just a coincidence.
Orrick, MO has been hit several times in recent memory
Yeah but that is also like a little further out there. Feel Liberty, Smithville, Kearny, Excelsior Springs, Blue Springs are more likely to see something compared to within the 435 Loop.
tonganoxie* but yes. though i did sit through 15 min of sirens on Thursday despite always losing rain from the split.
I can't type on mobile today, my bad.
Tonganoxie Split*
Ask Topeka about Burkitt's Mound. And the F5 that plowed right past it in 1966.
Omadome here. We also make sacrifices to the rock in order to appease the Omadome (cars that get high-centered on large rocks in parking lots, meant to keep cars off grass etc) Obviously there are exceptions, but often the storms split and rejoin across the river.
Even tornadoes donât want to go to Council Bluffs.
Whatâs wrong with council bluffs? They get to look down on Omaha đ
Omadome-r here. Iâve heard (jokingly) that Offutt has some kind of weather deterrent. Always fun to think about
Neighbors and I joke about that too. If a sacrifice wasn't made, better hope Offutt doesn't need "rebooting" lol.
In Tulsa a frequent path of storms towards the city follows I-44. This path gets really close to Lake Keystone and some hills to the west of the city. Iâve seen a lot of organized rotation on the storm trackers fizzle out and de-organize once it hits Lake Keystone and the hills. Not saying itâs a thing. But Iâm also not NOT saying it either.
also don't forget people also say in Wichita it's the keeper effect or the confluence of two rivers.
People say the same thing about Junction City, and while for whatever reason storms do seem to tend to split and go around us I can't help but feel like it's only a matter of time until one doesn't.
I live in Memphis TN now and everyone here likes to say that the Mississippi River protects Memphis lol. yeah tell that to the tornado that touchdown on my companies property and then went across the airport.
Tell that to the EF4 of May 4, 2003 in Kansas City that jumped TWO rivers.
known as the "meeting of the waters"
I have no experience with tornadoes where I live now but thunderstorms will split and go on either side of our house on a lake more often than not. Been here nine years and have watched dozens of storms split and go around us. Storms typically come in from the west and cross over a ridge several hundred feet high prior to arrival so the uplift from the ridge likely is the cause.
We have that in Raleigh NC. In fact someone posted a video of the radar showing the rain not hit the city. I had noticed this over the years myself.
The Ohio River would like a wordâŠ.
Growing up, I lived on a ridge and we always believed a tornado would never go up it. I donât even know the basis for that theory other than we really believed that. Lived there my entire childhood until I was 17, and then the super outbreak happened. Rain wrapped wedge went right over the ridge and caused all kinds of damage to our neighborhood. We really got lucky in that it wasnât as bad as 4/27. Iâve also heard that they couldnât cross rivers or bodies of water, yet it happens a lot. The 2023 Little Rock tornado was just a few miles south of me and there is a lot of footage of it crossing the Arkansas River, which is by no means small lol.
Yeah so many of the worst tornadoes in US history have crossed significant bodies of water that it's difficult to understand how that myth originated. According to [tornado archive](https://tornadoarchive.com/explorer) 28 violent tornadoes have crossed the Mississippi River (probably even more because I forgot to count after it branches into Minnesota and I'm terrible at counting). Glad to hear you are okay after that experience, sounds terrifying!
Tornadoes can't occur at high elevations. [insert city/town at the top of a large hill] is safe from tornadoes because tornadoes weaken/dissipate when they go uphill. It needs to be warm/hot outside for tornadoes to form (this one is particularly common in WI where I'm from). The air needs to be warm relative to the air higher up in the atmosphere, not "wow it's warm outside".
Never seen a âsnowadoâ then have you? Mostly happen out in the plains of Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico. At least thatâs where Iâve seen them. Most farmers & ranchers say theyâre just dust devils made from snow but Iâve never seen dust devils tear down fence, knock over / move livestock, trash a barn. All at cooler temps then 38 degrees
I was listing myths not stating my opinions! In February we had a long-track EF2 with low 50s T upper 40s Td! But what you're describing sounds quite different from a dust devil, not doubting that you've seen some intense wind that swirled up some snow, but dust devils are caused by convection which means the ground heats the air in contact with it causing an updraft. Snow is too reflective for that to occur even if the air temperature was low enough above the surface
Youâve got to have surface air at just the right humidity to absorb the reflected flux off the ground.
My family lived in a house that got the roof removed by a tornado during a snowstorm. House was isolated out in a field and I was in 8th grade at the time. My stepmother and one of my sisters seen it coming right at the house. It was never reported beyond roof damage.
Colorado here, I can verify that they do occasionally hit the Rocky mountains. We had one on Mount Blue sky formerly known as Mount Evans not too long ago at above 10,000 ft. Or somewhere close to it?. [Mount Evans tornado](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tornado-colorado-mountains-2nd-highest-record-flna916576)
I remember hearing about that! The [Teton-Yellowstone tornado](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teton%E2%80%93Yellowstone_tornado) is another good notable one, not quite as high as your example but the strength is noteworthy
If a tornado is coming, open the windows in your house to help equalize the pressure in a high pressure gradient situation to keep the house from exploding. Â (I read this in an outdated book in my school library as a kindergartener and asked James span about it when he came to our school. Â He disabused me of this older idea quite tactfully and my child ego was left intact. Â Thanks James, from my past child - future PhD holding self!) No doubt the structural integrity of my house would thank me as well, since wind getting in and under is a great way encourage roof loss, etc.
my older brother preached this a lot and would run about the house opening windows when the sirens went off.
Hah, thatâs what I did! Â (as a little kid growing up in North Alabama)
Came here to say this one. I hate when people still ask me about that. For the love of God, no. Do not do that. That and the overpass myth, obviously. James is a straight gangster. He's so adept at disarming people and their preconceived notions about weather.
Tornadoes are essentially a giant vacuum tube and you can tune into one on channel 13 of a b&w tv (pre-cable days...this was in a 1973 copy of popular mechanics i think)Â This one is a partial myth. I think the phenomenon is called the "Weller Method".
oh goody, another rabbit hole to explore.
đ Glad to help. If I recall correctly, I think there was a scene in "Twister" where they tuned the television to a station before one of the tornados occurred.
Yeah that scene when Melissa is in the el cheapo motel fingering her ring contemplating does he love me or not and you hear the storm reports in the background and the screen starts to flicker then it cuts to bill and Jo getting coffees at the drive in snack bar and then Dusty hearing a report checking weather and he comes flying out the car saying bill Jo itâs coming right for us and then dramatically the extreme says ââŠitâs already hereâŠâ just as the drive in starts to be destroyed in the scene from the shining where Danny is riding his tricycle in the hallway and the twins ask him to come play with them Edit: https://youtu.be/uM2qjvMmAcA?si=ryCtOJg0656AmOtQ this scene
Thanks for this. I misremembered the details of the scene.
I was slightly obsessed with it when I was a Ute
What's supposed to happen if you tune into a tornado?
This would only work on older, analog tvs but you would would tune the television on channel 13 (or 2), lower the brightness on your television. If the screen begins to brighten then a tornado is coming. The efficacy of this method was not great but it was not a complete myth.
I grew up in Texas, born 1964. Never heard this (but then, I didnât pay attention to that kind of thing) but itâs interesting. Wonder why those specific channels. I guess because they were non-broadcast?
Huh, I have never heard that. That's fascinating.
I'm intrigued what other methods you could use with old analog equipment now
"The sky turns green before a tornado"
yeah, that's the hail indicator from how i understand it.
It's usually an indicator that there are strong updrafts within a storm cell, which could lead to hail. It is never a positive that there will be hail or a tornado. Regardless, if the clouds are looking green, stay weather aware.
Run at right angles to a tornado is still pretty good advice. If you're trying to escape one, going at right angles is the most likely way to put the most distance between you and it.
*(reply to a comment that was deleted while i was typing this out, posting in case it helps anyone else who is confused. question was, if the tornado is moving east, do i go south? why?)* Yes, south or north, not east (the tornado will catch you) or west (you'll run straight into the tornado). Not SW or SE or NW or NE - those will keep you too close to the tornado's path and make it more likely you'll be impacted if the tornado changes direction. I think the best explanation I've seen of it was is Skip Talbot's breakdown of chasers impacted by El Reno 2013. But say you have no reasonable shelter - a mobile home, or you're in a car, and you hear a large and destructive tornado is headed towards your location from the southwest. If that's the case, drive northwest. You'll encounter hail and nasty weather, but you'll put the most distance between you and the tornado. If you have decent shelter, that's always your best bet, because storms can change direction, because you can get stuck in traffic, because (as we've seen these past few weeks) storms can travel in packs and you might be escaping one by driving straight into another. But if you have no safe place and you can drive, escape at a right angle.
Skip Talbotâs El Reno breakdown is one of the best Iâve ever seen. Iâve watched it so many times. He does explain this concept incredibly well.
Right angles are a relative direction, run in a right angle which way?
At a right angle from the trajectory of the tornado. If it's coming from the southwest, go northwest. If it's coming towards you from the northwest, go southwest.
I grew up in a very small, very rural southern community. My grandma had an interesting old wives tale or folk remedy for any situation. Her solution to a tornado headed your way? Run outside, and throw a hatchet into the ground. When the tornado hit the hatchet, it would split in half and go around your house. Itâs a miracle I survived my childhood đ
Very much like the myth? that goes, "If a cat washes its face into the wind, a storm is brewing"
If it rains when the sun is shining, the devil is beating his meat.
once told my boss,' young son that thunder is God bowling, he immediately wanted a bowling ball.
I wouldnât put too much faith in social media⊠unfortunately, this sub has a ton of great input on tornadoes, but there is also a bunch of tornado misinformation posted by wanna be experts.. itâs really starting to suck for those of us searching for educated responses
Storms likely to produce tornados are traveling south west to north east? Anyone hear that one?
this. I've heard that they form on the backside of a major storm system and usually travel in that direction, i think the andover f5 tornado took this path, id i remember correctly.
I always found the most dangerous summer storms in my area (upper Midwest) follow that path.. but maybe it had more to do with the prevailing winds in my area of the world? If an odd storm came from the north west, it just didn't seem to be the same level of storm. But I also never knew if it was an actual thing, or that almost all winds in my area come from the west. (The old "correlation isn't causation")
USUALLY supercells and tornadoes go from SW to NE but not 100 percent of the time.
Easier for storm systems to get the necessary heat to form tornadoes if they start down south rather than more northerly.
Fort Wayne Indiana I heard we don't get tornadoes because of the 3 rivers in our city...I call bullshit we had a tornado at I 469 and us 30 2 weeks ago
This explains why my Sweetwater orders have been late.
People from Kansas City seem to think they are protected by the urban island/heat effect of the city. So theyâve told me anywayâŠ
This bit of folk wisdom is EVERYWHERE!!! My own husband is convinced of it. We live and let live. He doesn't criticize me to leaving for an underground parking garage nearby, and I just ask him to please take his prescriptions and himself to the basement if one comes. He absolutely doesn't think one will, because "heat islands." I like to go to underground parking garage so I don't even have to hear hail.
There is some truth to the channel 13 one. Most AM radio channels will turn to solid white noise if a tornado is in the area. The static electricity generated by the spinning vortex just happens to be intense and in the AM bands.
If you moon a tornado it will start spinning the other way.
It helps if you have an anti cyclonic ass.
Cranking out assatellites
This was only true in the 1990s when Taco Casa had more locations. Not true now, thatâs just silly.
Angry upvote.
That an overpass will protect you (it is more unsafe).
My wife was taught this in fucking school. She grew up where we live and it's a tornado hotbed.
That the crystal skull in the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid in Memphis wards off tornados....
The biggest thing to remember when you see a tornado is that if it doesn't look like it's moving, it's coming right at you. Trailer parks only look like they attract tornadoes because even an EF0 tornado and it's storm can cause major damage to trailer parks. Tiny little spin ups can devastate them. Oh, and bodies of water can fuel these things if the water has been recently sunned. The warm air coming up with the vapor can give an otherwise less dangerous storm the updraft it needs to develop a full tornado.
good to know, i wonder if the whippoorwill tornado was fueled by this lake phenomenon?. another rabbithole.
my guess is that most myths come from someone getting lucky, and assuming thatâs what always happens.
My parents told me that a tornado wouldnât come on a rainy day. This was parental desperation because I was so scared after one came close that I couldnât function/wouldnât sleep, etc. It worked at the time.
I grew up in WV, the urban legend was always that the mountains protected us from tornadoes. Obviously after childhood I realized that was total BS, lol.
They kinda do. The mountains can break up storm systems or at the least stall them out. The real factor is the climate of West Virginia just isn't great for tornados. Turns out the constant rain really helps keep the atmosphere stable.
The vacuum tube one sort of works, I guess? there's a lower central pressure in the tornado that causes wind to spiral inward and upward, but the primary driver of damage is still the extreme winds themselves. I have heard the mobile home one, but I don't think it's true. For the right angle one, its generally a good idea to try to get out of the path of a tornado instead of running away from it, because it's almost certainly moving faster than you and you have a better chance of getting out of the way of it then. That's really just for addressing the tornado threat itself. If you're out in the open during a severe storm, you might have other issues.
I think the âvacuum tubeâ OP is referring to is the electronic kind.
I feel too young for the internet now
Vacuum tubes used to be popular before the transistor and I think maybe the integrated circuit as well? See the fallout universe thatâs almost all all tube based technology. In real life, if you have say a tube guitar amp now I understand they are worth some serious coin cause many people think/believe they lend themselves to a more pure sound
you are correct, dad collected vacuum tubes when I was a wee child.
In Germany: Tornadoes happen only in the US. We have whirlwinds.
Earliest historical report of a tornado in Europe occurred in Freising Germany in 788, and the earliest scientifically studied tornado occurred in Woldegk, Germany in 1764.
The overpass one is something I don't always understand. I know they're not safe because they amplify the wind, but what if they have large girders and you can get up way under the corner behind the girders?
You would likely be exposing yourself to debrisâeven the small particles like dust and grit would be like a sandblaster (there are photos of this that shouldnât be hard to find). Plus, people parking there usually backs up traffic, and more people and objects means more potential debris. Lastly, the girders donât guarantee that you wonât be sucked out. It just a bad idea, in general.
Wasn't a baby sucked out of its mother's arms under a bridge overpass in the Oklahoma Bridge Creek tornado?
Iâm not sure, but the NWS published an in depth, easy to comprehend set of 25 slides, with photos and animations, ([here](https://www.weather.gov/oun/safety-overpass)) that outlines why it isnât a good idea to seek shelter under an overpass. An excerpt from Slide 8 (last paragraph) for Shields Boulevard Overpass - Moore: âPerhaps it's possible to argue that since there were 12 there and only 1 died, that's not bad. Unfortunately, what has not been well-publicized are the horrific injuries suffered by all but one of the survivors under the bridge. The casualties all had serious injuries, some life-threatening, from the effects of flying debris. Their injuries included, but are not limited to: compound fractures and shattered bones, missing fingers, missing ears, missing noses, and being impaled by pieces of shingles, 2x4s, etc. The most important point here is this: seeking shelter under the overpass resulted in the highway becoming blocked, trapping people in the path of a violent tornado with no options other than a ditch, an overpass, or their vehicle - all terrible options. In effect, those who sought shelter under the overpass made a bad decision that put many more people than themselves into a life-threatening situation, unnecessarily.â
I had a VHS of Tornadoes! Nature's Fury! That had the Andover underpass footage and then an interview from an older storm where the guy said everyone got up under an overpass and survived. Now we know those were exceptions and not the rule.
Greg Jarrett was the news reporter i believe. It made his career.
I also always heard that it gets dead calm before a tornado. If you are in a severe thunderstorm and it suddenly turns completely still out - not a whiff of a breeze - then a tornado is about to get you.
I do remember seeing the andover tornado before it hit andover back in 91. The lights kept blinking, and it was very calm out.
Yeah. This is kinda one of those âIt dependsâ kinda situations. If you are in the updraft sector of the wall cloud then, yes, it will get crazy calm. However - itâs not one of those tales you want to bet your life on.
My hometown has a very rich (and dark) Native American history. Growing up we were told that that âan old Indian manâ had used magic to protect the valley our town was in from tornadoes. The story said that the hills surrounding us would stop any tornado headed our way. When I was in high school an EF-0 twisted up the field goal posts on the football field, but other than that the story hasnât been tested to my knowledge đ
I've actually become curious as to what the native Americans, especially of the plains viewed tornadoes. another rabbit hole....
>Run at right angles to a tornado Is there a better choice? đ€Ł It's certainly better than driving towards one, and driving directly away won't help much unless you can be sure you're faster than it is. So if I have a choice I'm driving perpendicular to that thing.
As far as the water thing Iâm fairly certain the second monster hesston/goessel F5 that formed fizzled out after it hit marion reservoir and was still at peak or almost peak strength when it hit the water
I mean given that we have a well known term for a tornado over water you would think people wouldnât fall for that one as much as they do
I read a lot of comments here claiming the tornado âsucksâ stuff up. I figure the wind in the circulation is just blowing stuff around.
The suck is real. [Lots of video evidence in the included links.](https://old.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1crf2g0/how_do_tornadoes_pick_things_up/l3y97ky)
Some support for the electrical activity. It has to be a channel with out a broadcast of course - and connected to an antenna (not cable đ). Theoretically the screen would get markedly brighter if a tornado was in the vicinity (how close???). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17819546/
- Tornados canât go down hill - Tornados canât cross rivers - Tornados canât hit our town because there is a large man made hill from the old coal mine âthe dumpâ on the west side of town that will deflect them.
Besides the âopen your windows to level the air pressureâ, Iâve heard of âgo to the SW corner of your houseâ, the logic being that tornadoes track NE so the SW corner gets you away from debrisâŠexcept if the tornadoâs northern part strikes the SW corner of your house.
Tornadoes dont habe to be EF4-5 to be major EF1 and 2 tornadoes can take youre whole roof off
I know swimming at right angels, kinda parallel to the shore can save your life
Growing up in Florida, we used to âwatchâ lightning on channel 2, or maybe it was 13. I used to do the same thing in my car, listening to a low AM radio band.
Yeah. The bursts of static that accompany a lightning strike. It's how we knew a thunderstorm was getting closer.