Myths About Tornadoes
One of the most alarming aspects of these phenomena is their randomness, almost as if they had vindictive personalities.
Explains Stu Ostro, who serves as Project SafeSide's expert resource for meteorological science, "Tornadoes are by their very nature mercurial. They'll appear suddenly and take out one house here, but leave its neighbors and the houses across the street untouched."
Beyond the mistakenly-held belief that tornadoes occur only in "Tornado Alley," the corridor that runs north from Texas to Nebraska and on east to Indiana, there are many mis-perceptions about these storms. Consider the following tornado myths:
True or
False?
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Tornadoes are always visible from a great distance.
False! They can be hidden in heavy rainfall.
Tornadoes cause houses to explode from changes in air pressure.
False! Homes are damaged by strong winds, not air pressure changes.
By opening the windows, you can balance the pressure inside and outside your home so a tornado will not do damage.
False! The force of a tornado can rip through a structure, whether the windows are open or not. One should not open the windows when a tornado threatens – this could actually make the situation worse.
The best place to be during a tornado is generally in the southwest corner of the basement.
False! This used to be a safety rule based on the idea that debris would usually not be deposited there, but this has now been rethought. The current best advice is to move to a protected interior room on the lowest floor of the building, as far as possible from exterior walls and windows.
Tornadoes cannot cross water.
False! A waterspout is a type of tornado that actually forms on water, and tornadoes that form on land can cross bodies of water such as rivers and lakes. Tornadoes, especially the more violent ones, can also travel up and down hillsides. Therefore, a belief that your location is protected by a river or ridge could prove to be a dangerously invalid one.
A tornado is always accompanied or preceded by a funnel cloud.
False! Especially in the early stages, a tornado can be causing damage on the ground even though a visible funnel cloud is not present. Likewise, if you see a funnel cloud but it does not appear to be "touching down," a tornadic circulation may nonetheless be in contact with the ground.
Downward-bulging clouds mean tornadoes are on the way.
Not
necessarily! This may be the case, especially with those
which show evidence of a rotating motion, but many of
these clouds are not associated with tornadoes and may be
completely harmless.
Information gatered from Weather.com
