Disclaimer: Do not try this without training.
Our Tom Fox caught the back of the tornado-producing storm as it passed State Highway 67 west of Cleburne Wednesday night.
Each spring and summer, dozens of tornadoes are reported across North Texas and neighboring Oklahoma, causing residents to huddle around weather radios and television sets to learn the storms? projected paths.
While much of the information broadcast through the media comes from the meteorologists at the National Weather Service?s Fort Worth office, the NWS? Mark Fox said science has not evolved to the point where tornadoes can be tracked solely using computers.
?We can see inside the storms and we can have a pretty good indication of what is going on, but one of the limitations of radar is that we can?t see below a couple thousand feet,? Fox said. ?We are just looking at super cells; those are pretty easy to see on radar. But those only give you a 10 to 15 percent chance of having a tornado.?
To complement the work done by Fox and his fellow meteorologists, the NWS uses storm spotters to let them know what is going on at the ground level.
?They let us know if we are in the 10 to 15 percent chance that will produce a tornado, or if we are in the 85 to 90 percent that won?t,? Fox said. ?It is going to be the spotters that fill in the blanks.?
Many local storm chasers were on hand recently in Plano for Ham-Com, one of the largest amateur radio conventions in the country. Use of amateur, or ham, radios is common in the storm-spotting community since they are not reliant on any external power sources or communications lines, said B.J. Evans, a Kaufman resident who has been chasing storms for 17 years.
Evans said he began going after tornadoes for the adrenaline rush, but said there is a greater goal shared by storm spotters.
Brad Loper
An American flag flaps in the wind near Plaza Towers Elementary School Tuesday, May 21, 2013 in Moore, Okla., one day after a major tornado rolled through the Oklahoma City area, injuring scores and killing at least two dozen people.
?We are trying to save lives and save property,? Evans said. ?If a tornado comes down, we may not have a choice on the property but we want to ensure lives have been saved.?
Each storm spotter has a designated area he or she is assigned to when severe thunderstorms are expected. Evans is responsible for the Interstate 20 corridor from Grand Prairie east through Lancaster and Hutchins. While some spotters remain in their area once a storm has passed, others, such as Evans, chase the storm to continue gathering information for the NWS.
The most recent tornado to hit Evans? assigned area occurred in April 2012, when hundreds of homes from Lancaster to Forney were damaged and 18-wheelers were thrown around like rag dolls along I-20. Evans said he got within about 120 yards of the tornado as it was crossing northern Lancaster, adding that it was one of the craziest tornadoes he had encountered in his 17 years.
Evans said people without proper training should not chase storms, adding that the NWS offers classes each year to train people on what to look for, as well as the dangers of tornadoes. He said those following a storm must always know where to seek cover if a tornado is heading for them, but added it is not always easy to predict the path of a storm until it is too late.
Even with the proper training, however, storms are still unpredictable and can result in expert storm chasers being killed.
Late last month, nationally known storm chaser Tim Samaras was killed by the 2.6-mile wide tornado that struck El Reno, Okla. Samaras, one of the leading experts on tornado research and star of the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers, was killed when the tornado he was following struck his chase vehicle. Also killed were Samaras? son and his long-time chasing partner.
While the dangers of storm chasing can be minimized, they can never be completely removed. Still, until science evolves to the point where meteorologists can see everything from their office, storm spotters will continue to be required to keep the public safe, Fox said.
?It is a good partnership that works,? Fox said. ?The things that we can see, they can?t see; and what they see on the ground we will never see from behind our computers.?
Source: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2013/jun/13/adrenaline-rush-north-texas-storm-chaser-tornado/
gavin degraw gavin degraw alec time 100 bob beckel anna paquin warren buffett
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন