Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Tornado Alley: Do we have a solution?

Tornado Alley: Do we have a solution?
-Paige E. Murdock

Tornado Alley is the part of America where most of the warm and cool air currents collide and form funnels of terror. Most tornados in the United States form around Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota and South Dakota; that's Tornado Alley.  Most of them devour everything in their path with no mercy. Depending on how massive, destructive, and how fast their wind speeds are, we can classify them and place them into groups. We call it the Fujita Damage Scale.
Tornados at all scales are terrifying to a lot of us. We barely have enough time to evacuate once these devils are spotted. How are we supposed to fight back when they are bigger, stronger, and faster than us? Some theories might have a chance to take a strike but not that much of one. The biggest tornado I've virtually seen is the Moore EF5 tornado of May 20, 2013 (youtube.com). Tornados are different sizes depending on how much cool and warm air currents come in, therefore the currents are giving them strength to demolish buildings and areas to a certain amount. The Moore EF5 was overwhelmingly gigantic and monstrous. 

The problem is, we don't have a sure-fire way of stopping tornados and not to mention right on time.
We've got a mildly considerate theory from physicist Rongjia Tao, he plans to build enormous walls in specific areas within Tornado Alley. He says they need to be around 150 feet wide and 1,000 feet tall. He presented his idea in March (2014), leading his theory by explaining why tornados form. (Read more about Rongjia's theory at http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/02/25/giant-walls-tornado-alley/5808887/

"If we build three east-west great walls in the American Midwest .... one in North Dakota, one along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma to the east, and the third one in south Texas and Louisiana, we will diminish the tornado threats in the Tornado Alley forever" Rongjia Tao of Temple University

1 comment:

  1. When I lived in Denver there were a couple of small tornados, and one hit a mall by my friend's house. No one was hurt, but it did damage to the building and a bunch of cars. It was scary because the sky gets very dark and the clouds start swirling around in circles. Most summers I would hear tornado sirens go off, but none of them got close enough to me to be worried. I'm glad tornados are rare in Utah!

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