Can we prevent tornadoes?

davenn

so many weird things in that post...
least of which is the upper atmosphere thing.
dont really think tornadoes need oxygen to flourish

Tornadoes form in the LOWER atmosphere usually within the first 1000 metres give or take a bit
If you have ever seen tornadoes form you would realise that

The only way to stop a tornado from forming would be to stop the storm cell from forming.
Considering the energy involved in a major storm cell it would require the energy release of a respectable nuke/or equilivelent to disperse it.
Unfortunately that is going to do just as much if not more human, property and enviromental damage as what the storm/tornado would do anyway

Dave

DaveC426913

Among the host of reasons it's flawed, is a simple one. Depleting oxygen from a tornado would have no effect on it. Not sure why you think it would.

SmoothJazzMan

Tornados are hot and cold air! Air is oxygen! If we eliminate its ability to create this energy, there is no tornado. The key is to sto it from generating more of it early!

davenn

you mis-understand

tornadoes will form in any atmosphere, doesnt have to be oxygen/nitrogen as with our atmosphere. Their formation has nothing to do with the basic makeup of the atmosphere.


Dave

DaveC426913

For example, tornadoes (dust devils) form quite happily on Mars, whose atmosphere contains no oxygen at all.

davenn

Do some reading up on the formation of thunder storm cells --- most important to understand that! :)

Then carry that reading on to the next stage as to the reasons why some thunder storm cells produce tornadoes and some dont. The conditions required within the stormcell that need to be just right to produce a tornado

on a side note.... I also really dont think you grasp the magnitude of what you are suggesting about depleating a "gas" from a given sized area. How do you think you could deplete the gas of say 10 cubic kilometres ( the avg sized storm cell) without all the surrounding "gas" in the area rushing in to fill the void.... that in itseld if going to produce very strong winds into that void

Dave

davenn

nice example ... dave :)


D

Hobin

I've read through this thread, and I wonder if some people might be going about this the wrong way. As some have pointed out, the amount of energy involved is huge; direct intervention will probably not be feasible for at least quite some time. However, there are other ways to minimize damage caused by tornadoes. The most obvious ones have already been mentioned: better warning systems, and making infrastructure more 'tornado-resistant'.

Something else I've been thinking about is this: how about redirecting the tornado to a less populated area? (Preferably, a completely unpopulated area.) I suspect this would be much easier than trying to weaken a tornado directly, for the same reason deflecting a flying object is easier than stopping it (although a tornado is admittedly much more complex). If the local weather (in the path of the tornado) significantly affects it's direction and force, trying to affect the tornado indirectly seems conceivable.

Unfortunately, most of what I said is only blabbering because, as has also been said, we don't know that much about how tornadoes work. And let's not forget that redirecting a tornado to less populated areas doesn't exactly make everyone happy and those unhappy people would likely want compensation, which makes this more expensive.

SW VandeCarr

Makes sense so far.

Too bad you couldn't stay on the rails. How in the world do you redirect a tornado? Do you put on your orange and yellow uniform and point to the right (or left you're in the UK where these things are pretty rare.)?

Bold mine.

Yes indeed. Let us not forget.

Hobin

I don't know how to do such a thing specifically, that was sort of the point. I think it might be easier to try to change the direction/force of a tornado by modifying some variables in its path, instead of directly trying to affect the tornado. Obviously, I haven't tried any of this out on any tornadoes nearby, nor do I even know whether we even have the equipment to try any of this right now (I think not).

davenn

Again as I commented to the other poster....

read up on how thunderstorm cells are formed and what conditions are required within a storm cell to allow it to produce a tornado. Once you have some of those basic understandings you will realise the massive energy releases are involved in a large storm cell and how futile our attempts would be to try and dissapate the storm without doing severe damage in the process.
Altho the total ins and outs of tornado formation may not be completely understood, they are understood well enough to predict which storm cells are likely to produce a tornado. That can be and is done relatively successfully. Us storm chasers do it every spring and summer in the mid-west USA and other countries.

It really still boils down to building structures that can either withstand the tornado onslaught ( probably easier to build structures to withstand big earthquakes!!) or try to improve warning times for people to get to shelters for their protection.
But unfortunately good warning times for tornadoes are the same as for earthquakes ....
ie. when the tornado/quake is some distance from an urban area, early warning can be good. But if the tornado forms within a few km's or over (likewise with a quake right under) an urban area there can be no early warning.


cheers
Dave

Evo

What I don't understand is why buildings in areas prone to tornadoes are not required to have underground shelters?

I live in Kansas, and moved from a house with a basement with a concrete sheltered space only a few feet wide that would provide the most safety, to an apartment that doesn't even have a basement. We have an excellent tornado warning system, but most of the buildings have no basement shelter. What good does a tornado siren do if I have no shelter to go to? Why isn't there a law that makes at least one shelter per apartment complex mandatory? If a tornado hit here, I'd be toast. The same for most small businesses. There is no place to go.

chemisttree

I guess they figure you can ride it out in your clothes dryer. I've never heard of anyone that was killed that sought out the clothes dryer refuge.