Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Skydancer on July 28, 2005, 06:52:57 PM

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Skydancer on July 28, 2005, 06:52:57 PM

T4 tornado today in Birmingham. Not half a mile from my home! Too close for comfort!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2005/07/28/tornado_feature.shtml

:eek:

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Toad on July 28, 2005, 07:06:11 PM

The thing about tornados is... they usually don't hurt very many people.

We have them on the Great Plains regularly every Spring. Yep, a few people die and sometimes the material damage is large.

But as an "end of the world" unstoppable force, they rank somewhere down with getting hit by lightning.

If one gets you, it's very long odds and just your unlucky day.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Holden McGroin on July 28, 2005, 07:16:57 PM

No mobile homes in England... is there?

Tornados only hit mobile home parks.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Wolfala on July 28, 2005, 07:28:17 PM

Went to college in Champaign Illinois - we were in a shooting gallery and had a tornado tear bellybutton through 3 days ago. Had several while I was in school and sent 1/2 a dozzen mattresses flying past my apartment.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Skydancer on July 29, 2005, 02:15:45 AM

Poor buggers waking up with no house or roof today! Theres an army of roofers of to workwith smiles on their faces this morning.

I'm glad I don't live in a place where these things are a regular occurance. Must be a real pain in the behind to have to keep re building.

Pretty spectacular stuff though for a Brit. Not what you'd expect to see every day.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Fishu on July 29, 2005, 02:21:20 AM

Meh.. and I haven't even had an actual thunderstorm this year :(

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: lazs2 on July 29, 2005, 06:32:23 AM

then how do you explain your mood.... ice bear attacks?

lazs

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Swoop on July 29, 2005, 07:02:00 AM

I didnt know you were an ice bear Lazs.

(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/209_1081438631_swoop.gif)

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Ripper29 on July 29, 2005, 09:44:24 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Holden McGroin
No mobile homes in England... is there?

Tornados only hit mobile home parks.

Actually the current belief in the scientific community is that tornados are actually spawned in trailer parks......:D

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: lazs2 on July 29, 2005, 02:29:38 PM

swoop... I probly have more in common with ice bears that with fishu.

lazs

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: rshubert on July 29, 2005, 02:36:28 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Ripper29
Actually the current belief in the scientific community is that tornados are actually spawned in trailer parks......:D

You're close.  Tornados are attracted to trailer parks by the fact that a house trailer is a long, aluminum box shape.  This same shape is known in electronics as a "waveguide", an antenna-like device that guides radar and other high-frequency signals.

Antenna.  Get it?  The shape of the house trailer actually PULLS the spinning tornado (300mph winds, gotta be generating lots of electricity, you can see the lightning after all) toward the trailer park.  Why, with HUNDREDS of trailers, the attraction must be incredible.  The tornado destroys the trailers, then wanders back up into the clouds, never to harm anything again.

That's my theory, and I am sticking to it.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Replicant on July 29, 2005, 02:48:50 PM

Quite a good photo:
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/in_pictures_enl_1122654800/img/1.jpg)

Do those in the US mostly have wooden built houses?  These modern British houses have brick, but the newer they are, the poorer they're built.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: rshubert on July 29, 2005, 03:37:14 PM

Most newer houses in the US are stick-built, with wooden frames covered by either wood siding, vinyl siding, or a facade of bricks, or a mixture.  Homes built before the 1950's could be of masonry construction or stick-built.

But none of that really matters to the tornados.  They will blow just about anything down.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Gh0stFT on July 29, 2005, 03:52:30 PM

Skydancer thanks for the info, a few days ago aprox 80km to the
East (lake constace) we had a Tornado too (aprox F2).
One of my hobbys is Stormchasing & photographing them, and today
we had a huge storm day again with hail warning, a coldfront is hitting
us again, ive made some pics from the incomming wallcloud,
like in this older thread (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=154235&highlight=Storm).
But i have to prepaire the new today pics for the web first.

R
Gh0stFT

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Skydancer on July 29, 2005, 05:06:46 PM

No probs.

Was an unusual thing to see over here. Not good for those living in the path but spectacular nonetheless.

Title: Tornado's in Birmingham.
Post by: Gh0stFT on August 01, 2005, 08:00:58 AM

CNN reporting Tornados injure 34 across Europe (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/29/freak.weather/index.html)

...and tomorrow the next storm hitting SW Germany, looks like alot rain this time.
Main impact will be central and south Swiss though.
Days for stormchasing.