Tornado Watch

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Hey gang!

Our county is under tornado watch until 8:00 PM.

I got caught in the rain with no umbrella this morning. Gonna happen again, maybe.


UPDATE: Tornado video from Springfield

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I may ride it out here at MIT rather than go home in the thick of it.

All of my hanging planters at home are probably going to be toast, though.

[ron_newman]

I hope your windows are closed.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

My housemate is at home, so maybe he'll shut them.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Remember that in case of ACTUAL tornado, you want your windows open. Pressure differences blow out windows and cause more damage than the rain does...

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

This turns out not to be the case. From NOAA: Forget about the old notion of opening windows to equalize pressure; the tornado will blast open the windows for you! http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what "blast open" is supposed to mean in that context. The force of the tornado will raise the sash? Really?

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I think it means that the force of the wind will break the glass. Did you read the reports from the hospital in Joplin that was hit? There was glass everywhere.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I'm thinking I'd rather open my window, if the tornado is likely to "blast it open" anyway. I'm skeptical of this particular debunking.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I parse that explanation as "opening your windows will not prevent them from being broken if the tornado actually hits you" rather than "It will be better for the windows if you don't open them".

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

This helped me a little bit:

http://www.tornadoproject.com/myths/myths.htm

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

The Mythbusters also addressed this (http://www.mythbusters.com/four-tornado-myths-to-avoid.html), in their usual excellent fashion. (They did an episode where they put a to-scale and to-code house in the path of the world's most powerful hurricane simulator and it turns out even in a tiny house the windows just don't take up enough surface area to change the air pressure regardless of how open or closed they are - but stuff is less likely to get in/go out if they're closed, so.)

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

that's mostly from flying cows :)

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