i am terrified about tornado's, every storm sends me into a panic, could a tornado person teach me?
i need to know how one forms, the most likely signs that can let me know to worry or to tell me not to… what the sky will look like the sounds that can help….what to watch for! what site can tell me if there is a watch or warning…..i live in a trailer house so i know that it dangerous to be here when there is one…but i also worry for my family and two cats (they are like sisters to me) i am almost 16 so yes i will be starting high school here..we had one more tords the end of 7th grade…so maybe 2006-07 so it was not that long ago and i heard our town had saw 4 tornados or funnels that were sited…ever since that i have been very scared of storms…but i have had a bit of a problem with them when i was lil and watched twister….are there any shows that can help me out here to? like real live stuff that ant like the day after tommarow and creepy stuff like that? if i remember the right there was a show called tornado chasers or sumtin? would that help? i told myself not to watch creepy stuff like that from no on too….bad fake movies about weather!
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3 comments
Jennifer on August 12, 2010 at 9:17 pm
well u can go n look @ weather.com it like kinda best tell whether there a tornado or not and dont b arfaird god here 4 u
Shandroid on August 12, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Try this site:
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html
My boys are very scared of tornadoes too! They are unpredictable, but fortunately, very few of us will ever have to endure trying to survive a devastating tornado. Don’t let your fear get the best of you. Just prepare as much as you can!
J. on August 12, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Having seen a few actual tornadoes, and numerous funnel clouds in person up fairly close too. They should be respected for their power, but your chances of experiencing them to the extent I have is a long shot. No, I do not chase storms, I just happen to live in a region that is prone to them. Some parts of the world rarely if ever see any. By my reckoning, you are far more likely to be in a car crash than have actual problems with a tornado, and according to Weather Service statistics, lighting is a much more dangerous weather phenomena and people do survive being struck by lightning every year too.
The reality is tornadoes are actually only truly scary if they are bearing down on you. The chances of that happening are very slight. Learning in classes, reading scientific books and studying about how they form, where in the storm they form, and what things have to be present for them to form helps understand them and understanding them makes them less scary, and you might actually get to the point where you want to see one from a distance just to watch and apreciate the power of nature. It is a natural process after all.
Just remember that if you are in a Watch area, it only means conditions are right for the possibility with no guarantee of them appearing. A warning means they are in the area of the warning, and the radar technology is good enough to pinpoint within a mile or two, or less of where they see them on radar.. Often you can see them with plenty of time to take cover. Taking a "SkyWarn" spotting class might help a lot to better understand what you need to see as a tornado because rain shafts, shelf clouds, and scud clouds often get mistakes for wall clouds and funnels.
http://www.skywarn.org/
Shelf clouds are the banded clouds that look ominous, and they can have destructive winds ahead of their approach. It is rare a funnelcloud or tornado appears here, but they do on occaission. Hail can color the clouds a green color similar to the greens used by Yahoo, and that would usually appear behind the shelf cloud after it has passed.
The wall cloud is a low hanging cloud at the back end of the storm, and most funnel clouds appear here. A wall cloud will appear only when the winds are right to create it. It is a product of turbulence and upper level winds from multiple directions. Just because a funnel cloud appears does not mean it will extend to the ground to become a tornado. Funnels hang down from the wall cloud, and will rotate depending on how much wind sheer and turbulence are present. Slow ones bear watching because they can change in an instant, and fast ones usually mean trouble.
The sirens don’t help calm anyone, and with the sensationalizing the media presents with the storm chasers is a little beyond the pale. Faster heart rates when the sirens are blowing is normal. Ear muffs might help- once you hear the siren. Those sirens are supposed to sound for other serious reasons too, so it is a really good idea to get to a radio or to the TV weather in a sheltered area to find out the reason.
Watching them from a distance is a bit mesmerizing, so know which way you need to move if you have to,