Tornadoes

[Greenfield Bob]

We have been having our share of tornadoes here in Indiana as of late.
I was just wordering do you them in the UK?

Bob

 

[Steve Maskery]

Bob,
No we don't get them, at least not seasonally and habitually. Very occasionally we will get a freak one and then it makes the national news. The last one was a couple of years ago, IIRC, it took out a High Street in, I think, part of Birmingham. But generally you have more chance of winning the lottery than of being caught up in a tornado over here!

Cheers
Steve

 

[Neomorph]

Steve it was July 28 last year that the Birmingham tornado hit. I remember it because I was going to be going through that area of Birmingham to my pain management clinic that day and didn't because I was feeling ill.

Has anyone else noticed that in the last couple of year that nature is really having a bad time... The tsunamis in Asia... Hurricanes like Katrina and Tornados in the UK (ok not as bad as the others but bad for the UK).

Makes you wonder if the earth is getting ready to show us something else if Indiana is now getting hammered.

 

[Gill]

Hi Bob

On the day that tornado hit Birmingham, my other half was driving through the area! Fortunately, he missed it by a few minutes.

It's a part of the world I know well, having lived nearby a few years ago. The impact was much more serious than seems to have been reported, although it was nothing like as devastating as some of the tornadoes in the US. Most of the stricken buildings weren't insured because it's a rather impoverished area; as a result, many are still uninhabitable.

Gill

 

[Neomorph]

That's one thing that the UK doesn't do as well as the US... help families of natural disasters.

 

[Greenfield Bob]

It seems like there has been a lot of bad weather all over the world.
Maybe we are going to get paid back for some of the things we have done to our home here on Earth. Scary.

Bob

 

[Neomorph]

It seems like there has been a lot of bad weather all over the world.
Maybe we are going to get paid back for some of the things we have done to our home here on Earth. Scary.

Bob

The problem is the fact we is we know little about phases of weather we go through. This may not be "global warming" at all... and in fact if global warming does melt the poles it could trigger a repair event that will freeze them again. Have you heard of the "Atlantic Conveyer" current which warms us in the UK? It brings the warmth from the equator via a current that streams to the north... hits the freshwater from the north pole and drops its salinity which makes the current drop to the sea floor then stream south again. Scientific study has show that this heat conveyor system has shut off in the past and will do so again and if it does the UK and Europe will get a LOT colder. There is a better explanation here.

Another non-global warning even that we are apparently due for is a magnetic polar shift. This can have an effect on weather too and is nothing to do with global warming. A slightly more worrying effect is magnetic reversal which would mean our compasses would point south. Doesn't sound likely does it but apparrently it's happened several times in the past and currently the pole is shifting across the Canadian arctic at 40km/hour. The current magnetic strength has been dipping too. Now should this reversal happen it would mean weather would get rather spectacular and skin cancer would probably increase as our magnetic shield that protects us from the suns rays would go gaga for a while.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it, whether man is responsible or whether this is just a natural "phase" the planet is going through. :?

I still think the Earth has got a lot of surprises in store for us!

 

[mudman]

Bob,
No we don't get them, at least not seasonally and habitually. Very occasionally we will get a freak one and then it makes the national news. The last one was a couple of years ago, IIRC, it took out a High Street in, I think, part of Birmingham. But generally you have more chance of winning the lottery that of being caught up in a tornado over here!

Cheers
Steve

Errm, well actually we get morethan the US. The UK has the most tornadoes by area of any country in the world. :shock: It's just that ours are rather weedy in comparison (usually).

 

[Steve Maskery]

!

You learn something new every day.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Chris Knight]

It's all those bloomin' butterflies!

 

[mudman]

Oh all right, if you take into account the size of our respective nations, then you end up with the US having 1,098 tornadoes per year and the UK having, erm, well, 33.

 

[Taffy Turner]

I have seen quite a few tornadoes here in the UK, albeit very small ones. A good place to see them in in hay fields on a hot day. Quite often you will see a small tornado start and gather strength, picking up the dry hay as it goes. They eventually just peter out, and drop the hay in a clump (on one particular occasion one picked up quite a large amount of hay from our field and dropped in in next door's field - it took me over an hour to retrieve it all).

I saw quite a large one at a horse show in Peterborough - that was large enough to pick up plastic garden furniture, deckchairs etc that were left outside people's horseboxes. It dumped everything in a field about half a mile away. The look on the faces of people returning to their horsebox to find their chairs and tables had mysteriously teleported from where they had left them to a mixed up pile in the next field was priceless!!!!

Gary

 

[Greenfield Bob]

Last night more bad weather, this time hail. Indianapolis had golf ball size hail, a lot of cars had their windows knocked out. Where I live we just had pea size.

Bob

 

[Neomorph]

Last night more bad weather, this time hail. Indianapolis had golf ball size hail, a lot of cars had their windows knocked out. Where I live we just had pea size.

Bob

And I'm betting God didn't shout "FOURRRRR" either... :wink:

 

[SammyQ]

Taffy, don't those small ones count as "zephyrs"???

Sam

 

[Neomorph]

I thought a Zephyr was a warm breeze... but looking at dictionary.com it says that a Zephyr is...

1. The west wind.
2. A gentle breeze.
3. Any of various soft light fabrics, yarns, or garments.
4. Something that is airy, insubstantial, or passing.
5. A crappy old car.

OK... the last one I added as a friend used to own one. :wink:

Interesting to note that what we think we know isn't always the correct definition. I still remember aguing with a friend about the word "Several" thinking it meant "seven items". God knows where I got that from...

Never knew a zephyr could mean something to do with garments though... and still don't :lol: ... and item four sounds almost like a ... fa** err...

 

[Richard in Smithville]

We had a small tornado tear through a local drive in theater a few years back. Didn't do too much but it did damage one of the screens. It was showing "Twister". My mum and dad watched the tornado blow around Smithville and my old boss found his neighbors barn roof in his front yard.

 

[Neomorph]

I don't remember seeing a tornado but I do remember a bad storm we had when I was a kid. I used to be into CB back before they were legal in this country and had a dipole aerial. After the storm had passed the top part of the aerial had turned into a javelin and had impaled itself deep into a neighbours lawn.

Just imagine the damage it could have imparted to a human being. It was only light aluminium but it was impaled to a third of its length! :shock: