Now that we are in the severe storm season, and since train-watching is primarily an outdoor activity, I though it might be helpful to have a list of things we can do to be safe from the weather. The provided information is from the NWS.
How Powerful is Lightning?
Each spark of lightning can reach over five miles in length, soar to temperatures of approximately 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and contain 100 million electrical volts.
How Lightning Develops Between The Cloud And The Ground
A moving thunderstorm gathers another pool of positively charged particles along the ground that travel with the storm. As the differences in charges continue to increase, positively charged particles rise up taller objects such as trees, houses, and telephone poles. Have you ever been under a storm and had your hair stand up? Yes, the particles also can move up you! This is one of nature’s warning signs that says you are in the wrong place, and you may be a lightning target!
The negatively charged area in the storm will send out a charge toward the ground called a stepped leader. It is invisible to the human eye, and moves in steps in less than a second toward the ground. When it gets close to the ground, it is attracted by all these positively charged objects, and a channel develops. You see the electrical transfer in this channel as lightning. There may be several return strokes of electricity within the established channel that you will see as flickering lightning.
Thunder
The lightning channel heats rapidly to 50,000 degrees. The rapid expansion of heated air causes the thunder. Since light travels faster than sound in the atmosphere, the sound will be heard after the lightning. If you see lightning and hear thunder at the same time, that lightning is in your neighborhood!
good advice. especially for those like me who bike a good distance to reach the yards. makeshift shelters are a must-know for me if i get caught in a storm on my way to or from Altoona. i had a close call once. i was on my way home with a storm moving in from the West, like they usually do. it was pretty close when i left altoona and the wind was really picking up when i was headed back. but made it home just in time. thanks for the tips!
Closest call I’ve had was when I was camping in South Dakota. We were 2/3 the way up a ‘mountain’ and heading down. Several peoplw in the group wondered if we ‘really needed, seriously’ to get down from our site. Our guide was in the process of explaining about lightning safety when a bolt hit a tree about 60’ from where we were standing. He finished his speech by pointing and saying “That’s why!”
I think it was a famous golfer who gave the best advice for dealing with lightning - “Hold a one iron up in the air. Even God can’t hit a one iron…” [;)]
On the topic of tornados - they aren’t exactly predictable, but they don’t hit like a “bolt out of the blue,” either. Pay heed to weather advisories and watch the sky. A weather radio (especially one with S.A.M.E. capability - you can be alerted to hazards in your area) is a must at home, and a good idea if you are out. Some scanners include weather with S.A.M.E.
If faced with a tornado, underground is the best place to be. Solidly built buildings (masonry) are a second choice. A new building trend in tornado alley is to include “safe rooms,” which are built more solidly than the rest of the house. If it was my place (and didn’t have a basement), my bathroom would have reinforced concrete walls and ceiling and a substantial door.
If you are caught on the road, consider your options carefully. Tornados take unpredictable paths and what looks like an out could turn into a trap. Vehicles are not a good shelter for tornados. You are better off seeking shelter in a ditch or culvert. The experts recommend using highway overpasses, but given the choice of an overpass and open ground, I’ll take the overpass…
The “traditional” path for a tornado is SW to NE, but that is far from hard and fast. If you can see the funnel, you may be in danger. Even if it’s just from the lightning and/or the softball sized hail…
The really dangerous thing about a tornado isn’t the wind, as such. It’s the debris, and tornados carry lots of it, from small rocks to lumber, to mail that ends up 70 miles away. Survivors regularly speak of getting “sandpapered.”
Larry, I’ve heard other experts say that that’s not such a good choice. Highway overpasses have a tendency to funnel the wind (no pun intended) and make it even stronger than it would be on open ground.
Larry was correct regarding the ditch or culvert solution for when you are out in a vehicle, and you are correct about the ‘funnel’ effect from the overpass. However, Larry is correct when he says he would take the overpass instead of open ground, because one could hide between the girders of the bridge to escape the flying debris. But he better hang on!!
Exactly right, Brian. Nobody should ever hide under an overpass during a tornado. As you said, winds will be funneled through the overpass. In addition, people aren’t safe from debris under an overpass either. It can get funneled under there with the winds. Don’t let the fact that the news reporters that took the famous Kansas Turnpike video survived make you think that you’re safe under an overpass. You’re absolutely not! I’m not saying that a ditch is perfectly safe, but it is a better option than an overpass.
Willy, I disagree. I would take the overpass instead of a ditch anyday. Up betewwn the beams of the bridge you would be fairly safe from the debris. Lying in a ditch waiting for a car to land on me is not my idea of safety.
And don’t forget what happened to the Wicked Witch of the East!
…If I ever must make that choice as a tornado approaches…and my choices are just an open ditch or a substantial highway overpass…{structual steel and concrete}, I will choose a spot under that highway bridge…Wedged in against a steel beam and the floor of the overpass as best as one can…Not out in the open where one could become airborne with debris or smashed by some object being landed on your position, etc…Not even a debate which one…{For me}.
I imagine that the reason why the experts don’t recommend it is that sometimes the bridge has an enclosed superstructure/smooth underside- no place to hide from the wind in that case. I must admit, given the choice of a ditch or a typical freeway overpass, I’d choose the latter as well (as long as the girders are exposed!).
Since everyone is being so disagreeable, I guess I’ll bring in the information that Roger Edwards - One of the best meteorologists at the Storm Prediction Center - has put on his tornado safety page.
Q: "I’ve seen a video of people running under a bridge to ride out a tornado. Is that safe?"
A: "Absolutely not! Stopping under a bridge to take shelter from a tornado is a very dangerous idea, for several reasons:
1. Deadly flying debris can still be blasted into the spaces between bridge and grade -- and impaled in any people hiding there.
1. Even when strongly gripping the girders (if they exist), people may be blown loose, out from under the bridge and into the open -- possibly well up into the tornado itself. Chances for survival are not good if that happens.
1. The bridge itself may fail, peeling apart and creating large flying objects, or even collapsing down onto people underneath. The structural integity of many bridges in tornado winds is unknown -- even for those which may look sturdy.
1. Whether or not the tornado hits, parking on traffic lanes is illegal and dangerous to yourself and others. It creates a potentially deadly hazard for others, who may plow into your vehicle at full highway speeds in the rain, hail, and/or dust. Also, it can trap people in the storm's path against their will, or block emergency vehicles from saving lives.
The people in that infamous video were extremely fortunate not to have been hurt or killed. They were actually not inside the tornado vortex itself, but instead in a surface inflow jet – a small belt of intense wind flowing into the base of the tornado a few dozen yards to their south. Even then, flying debris could have caused serious injury or death. More recently, on 3 May 1999, two people were killed and several ot
Willy - I don’t think anyone is really being disagreeable - most of us would rather not have to make the choice presented, preferring instead to watch the whole thing from a safe distance.
If there is one thing that cannot be disputed it’s that tornado behavior is unpredictable. What would be a perfectly good safe haven in one circumstance might prove a death trap in another. I mentioned a culvert in an earlier post - under the right circumstances debris could be blown through a culvert wreaking havoc with anyone who took shelter there.
During the Flint tornado of 1953 (yes, I was alive - a tornado also struck my hometown during that same outbreak - I have a picture of it that my uncle took) basements were not safe - a number of victims took shelter there, to no avail.
Just about everyone will certainly agree that the only two safe places during a tornado are under ground in an established tornado shelter, and someplace else.
I have read several accounts and discussions about this phenomenon. The so-called, “bolt out of the blue” lightning that can strike when there is no storm around is wierd. But this ball lightning is really bizarre. Apparently it is for real, but there is no certain and settled explanation of its cause, and also, no reliable set of rules for its behavior. It seems like it can do anything. Google: ball lightning.
…I have commented on Ball Lightning in another thread just in the last day or two from personal family experience some years ago.
And I don’t disagree with many comments from “experts” in above posts but if the decision is as I stated above and it’s for me or my family I will still choose the spot under the upper road service hopefully upagainst a steel beam hiding us as best as we can. That’s where I would take my chances. No question.