Tornado Chasing: How to Track a Tornado

(Page 2 of 2)

May/June 1971
By John Krill 
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There is always the possibility, of course, that a person turning on his TV set, switching to Channel 2 and finding an already—glowing screen could unknowingly darken out the twister's signal. To avoid this possibility, Weller insists that—for tornado detection—a set always be tuned to Channel 13 and have its screen properly darkened before it is switched to Channel 2. Using such a technique, Weller says, makes the system foolproof.

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This home detection of twisters gives as much as 30 minutes warning, depending on how far away the tornado was when the TV set was turned on. As the storm roars away or exhausts itself, the brightness of the TV's screen will dim accordingly.

Though few tornadoes have a life history longer than an hour, they are the most violent and destructive winds known to man. While a twister advances along its path at a speed of only 25 to 40 miles per hour, the funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground from the base of a thundercloud rotates at a speed of 500 miles per hour.

Twisters may be born at any moment of the day or night but they are most common during the hours closely following the warmest temperatures of the day. Fifty two percent of these violent storms have been recorded between the hours of 3 to 7 p.m., 82% roar into existence between noon and midnight and the most tornado-dangerous hours are from 4 to 6 p.m.

Tornadoes occur in many parts of the world and in all of our states but the central part of the U.S. spawns more twisters than any other geographical area.

An average of slightly, over 200 deaths due to tornadoes occur annually in the U.S. but the chances of a tornado striking any particular place are extremely small. This is due to the fact that the path of the average twister is only 16 miles long and less than a quarter-mile wide. Since tornadoes are purely local storms, watching for them during critical periods by means of the Weller method can now pinpoint them with an accuracy hitherto unknown.

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  • Chris 1/20/2009 12:14:57 PM

    This article is exciting and helpful, although it would be really great if, instead of just saying Channel 13, there would be an explanation of what Channel 13 is to Des Moines TV viewers, what makes it the special one to tune into to darken the screen, because of course up here in Canada channels are different. We had a sever tornado here a decade or so ago, and that info would be very helpful.
    Interesting and helpful article, thanks.
    c

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