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SEVERE WEATHER: Tornadoes Myth vs. Fact

Welcome to yet another educational blog I am putting out for everyone to read. In this blog, I will discuss about my favorite type of weather, Tornadoes. Though I don’t want death or destruction, I still long for tornadoes because I get into local severe weather and Skywarn activities. If you have an interest in severe weather and mainly tornadoes, then read this short guide on myth verses fact when it comes to tornadoes. I would like to thank the National Weather Service, Tornado Project and The Weather Channel for providing reliable information to help me with writing this article on fact vs. myth:

Facts:
• Before a tornado occurs, it can either be horribly windy and violent or very calm and eerie feeling outside. Either way, the best defense against this is not looking to see what its like but to get to a safe place immediately.
• Some tornadoes are rain-wrapped while others can be out in the beautiful day. Sometimes you can see the deadly and dangerous tornado and then right behind it is sunny and beautiful scenery.
• Green skies are often associated with tornadoes. Yes this may be true however mainly a green sky shows that there is a large possibility of a hail storm which is often associated with tornadic weather.
• Tornadoes do not move in one direction. They can move in any direction but mainly seem to move in the southwest direction. They can also travel west and northwest.

Myths:
• Opening windows will help equalize pressure in your home and help save it from being damaged by a tornado. This is not true. The force and debris factors of a tornado can rip through your home no matter what position the windows are in. If the tornado wants the windows open, it will proudly open them itself. By doing it yourself, you risk glass being shattered in your face.
• You can always see a tornado before it hits you. This is not true. Many times a tornado can be wrapped up in rain and visibility may be 0% between your sight and the tornado. Do not rely on what you can see. If there is a warning in your area, be serious about it. Treat every warning like a warning. However, some tornadoes are easy to see for quite a distance.
• If a tornado occurs, you are safe getting in water. This is not true. A tornado can strike anywhere and any place in United States and at anytime at that. Tornadoes can cross lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. A good example was the 1925 tri-state tornado that went through three states and had to of crosses the Mississippi river.
• If you tie down a mobile home, you have a better chance of surviving a tornado. This is not true. You have a better chance of surviving a tornado by abandoning a mobile home and laying in a ditch. Mobile homes are very unsafe in severe weather and like cars should be abandoned for a safer low lying area even if it’s in a ditch.

I hope you enjoyed my article of myth, fact and safety of tornadoes. Please help me by contributing your feedback whether its comments, suggestions or related stories and extra facts and myths that you would like to share with others. When the wxtopic.com eLearning center is up, I will include this on the site. Thanks again and have a great day.

Article By: Shawn J. Gossman

WxTopic.com eLearning Center
SEVERE WEATHER: Lightning

During a thunderstorm, clouds as well as the surface was spark positive and negative energies creating electrical discharges that we know as Lightning. All thunderstorms have lightning because without lightning, there can not be thunder with in the storm. More than 3 million lightning strikes occur each year all over our world. Lightning is told to be five times hotter than the sun and a single discharge could be 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are four main types of lightning to focus on. These types are:

1. Cloud to ground lightning. This happens when a negative charge from the cloud base connects with a positive charge from the Earth’s surface. The charge focuses on items such as trees, poles and small buildings.
2. Cloud to cloud lightning. This is the most common type of lightning. Opposite electrical charges in a cloud cause this form of lightning to happen. The lightning occurs with in the cloud.
3. Heat lightning. Many people believe that heat lightning has to do with because the weather is so hot. This is incorrect. Heat lightning is lightning from a distant thunderstorm where a far thunder strike can not be heard.
4. Rare ball lightning. Ball lightning is extremely rare and some experts question whether or not it is real. Ball lightning appears to act as a round ball of fire usually seen on telephone pole wires and things related.

You can detect the distance between you and lightning very easily. Simply start counting right after you see the lightning and all the way to the thunder noise. Stop at the thunder sound. The divide that number 5 (five) and that is how many miles away the lightning is. Now lets move on to safety tips for lightning weather:

• Lightning does not always strike the tallest object. I am 6’5” tall and that was always a fear of mine being so tall. So I research and found out that lightning strikes the most attractive conductor of energy but in some cases, the human is the best conductor lightning can have.
• If you out in a lightning storm, yes a vehicle offers more protection from lightning than being out in the storm itself. But do not rely on the rubber tires as a protection as they are not. It’s the insulation of your vehicle that protects you, unless you’re in a convertible, and then you lose that protection.
• What makes me laugh more than anything is in scary movie part 4, the guy says lightning doesn’t strike a place more than once and it keeps doing it. It makes me laugh because it’s not true. Lightning strikes the empire state building quite a bit even in the same place.
• Any area in the United States can get lightning. Whether it is a part of a thunderstorm or even a winter storm. But there are more common place in the US that lightning happens at. These places are the Midwest, the Gulf coast and of course Florida.
• Ignoring the sounds can be deadly. If you can hear the thunder, then you are close enough to be struck by it. Lightning in my area struck a high school student who was over 4 miles away. In result, the student lost his life from the strike of lightning. So take it seriously when you hear it.
• Recreation in the rain. Doing outdoor activities in a storm is what got that high school kid killed above. Whether is sports, fishing or golfing, by doing it during lightning storms, you have just increased your chances to die. Not many people live from lightning strikes. So why challenge 50,000 degrees?

I hope you enjoyed my blog a tutorial on lightning types, detection and safety. Please feel free to give feedback and post related stories and information. I will soon be opening up a weather eLearning center and this will be included.

Article By: Shawn Joseph Gossman

Sources: National Weather Service, Storm Prediction Center, The Weather Channel and WxTopic.com.

The middle USA could see some severe weather tonight and tomorrow including tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and the likely heavy rain. There has already been reports of tornadoes in central MO to central Illinois.

With the spring-like conditions going on this time of the year it is expected that an event like this could happen.

The start of the threat should be during after-dark hours. The Storm Prediction Center’s latest tornado possibility map shows:

Stay safe everyone and reply to report storms and comment of this storm event. Thanks.

SEPT. 20th 2007 - Methane Mike Show 

This week the subject is a living earth. The subject is obtuse but the best of Methane Mike! You can get this week’s show with an .asx file or streamed by your needs from this link of a windows media server.

Here the show free at:

http://www.podclimate.com/methanemikeshow/092007.wmv 

More free weather podcasts at: www.podcliamte.com