Tornado Warning!

[Denise]

As my state is getting pounded tonight, it brought me to thinking...(ouch).

Anyhow, what are the unanswered questions about tornadoes? It seems to me that we can tell when they are forming and why they are forming. I've heard people talk about having an earlier warning system etc. So can any weather fans tell me what the researchers into tornados hope to learn and how they would apply that knowledge? Thanks!

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

Originally posted by Denise
As my state is getting pounded tonight, it brought me to thinking...(ouch).

Anyhow, what are the unanswered questions about tornadoes? It seems to me that we can tell when they are forming and why they are forming. I've heard people talk about having an earlier warning system etc. So can any weather fans tell me what the researchers into tornados hope to learn and how they would apply that knowledge? Thanks!

Not sure if this will help:

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/basics/twist0.htm

stay safe

[Brown]

Originally posted by Denise
Anyhow, what are the unanswered questions about tornadoes? Why are tornadoes attracted to trailer parks?

This sounds like a joke (and in fact, Tim Kazurinski told it as a joke on "Saturday Night Live"), but the question can be the basis for a good discussion of issue analysis, innumeracy and bias.

It is very true that tornadoes often do cause extensive damage in trailer parks. Does that mean that the parks attract the storms? Or does it mean that trailer homes are more fragile and are more likely to be damaged by high winds? Or does it mean that we hear about trailer park damage because that's where the local TV reporters go to get footage of the most spectacular debris and destruction?

[arcticpenguin]

Or maybe more of the land of the free and the home of the brave is covered with trailer parks than we either realize or would like to admit.

[UnrepentantSinner]

The NOAA website (http://www.noaa.gov/) apart from being generally fascinating contains the National Weather Service page that will provide mucho information.

Basically Doppler Radar which can measure potential rotation based on wind speed and direction gives weather observers (observers watch weather as it occurs, forcasters make predictions based on observations and modeling) the opportunity to call a possible tonado and initate a warning faster than when they had to rely on direct observation of a funnel cloud.

The do tonadic research at Texas Tech. I'll try and find the departmental webpage and edit it in.

- Found it. http://www.wind.ttu.edu/