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Speaker 1: to you Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
Speaker 1: Clark reporting from the eye of the Tornado, which is
Speaker 1: why it's quiet and calm. Oh wait, that's a hurricane. Uh.
Speaker 1: And there's Charles that you took Bryant and Jerry's over there,
Speaker 1: and the section howdy sir, how are you? I'm good. Um.
Speaker 1: I should say right off the bat that my wife
Speaker 1: Emily is kind of obsessed with tornadoes from her childhood
Speaker 1: growing up in Ohio, which we'll talk about Tornado Alley,
Speaker 1: but some people put parts of Ohio and Tornado Alley. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some people do. My family did. Yeh. Was it like
Speaker 1: a thing growing up tornado aware at the end of
Speaker 1: tornado Alley, right, I mean you'd see them, so the
Speaker 1: tornado might come knock and then here's what we'll do. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and we did it plenty of times. Go down in
Speaker 1: the basement for practice or tornadoes all right, Yeah, sure, no,
Speaker 1: Ohio is definitely at the end of Tornado Alley. I
Speaker 1: know if you look at the map, it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like most of it is. Well it depends on what map. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: if you look at the Clark family map and apparently
Speaker 1: the Seneboguan family map, it's on Tornado Alley. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: she's still obsessed with tornadoes and the movie Twister. Every
Speaker 1: time it's on, she'll watch whatever part of it is on.
Speaker 1: It's a good one. But I think also you you
Speaker 1: may you could make the argument that Twister kind of
Speaker 1: um cinematizes tornadoes. You think you maybe it's a little
Speaker 1: although there are some parts where it's like you should
Speaker 1: not be telling people to do this, like out running
Speaker 1: a tornado. Yeah, that's a good thing to not do.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact. Well, we saw I watched
Speaker 1: there was some video going around the other day of
Speaker 1: a lady who survived the tornado that went through. I
Speaker 1: think she was a FedEx driver at a convenience store
Speaker 1: and it's just like this camera footage and she kind
Speaker 1: of ducks behind a soda machine and you just see
Speaker 1: it go through and just wreck everything. And then she
Speaker 1: walks out and I told Emily, I was like, this
Speaker 1: is your worst nightmare, and she said yes. I said,
Speaker 1: but it's also you're your deepest desire. Oh it's like
Speaker 1: that for her. Huh. I think so, she said, if
Speaker 1: I know I could survive it, I think it might
Speaker 1: be my deepest desire to like get through a tornado
Speaker 1: going right over me. So that's herb session runs deep.
Speaker 1: So you've seen that footage of those people under an
Speaker 1: overpass for the video, Like the tornado appears to go
Speaker 1: right over the overpass the underpass. What's the difference. I
Speaker 1: think if you're going over the road below, you're on
Speaker 1: the overpass, if you're underneath the overpass underpass, Okay, I think,
Speaker 1: all right, yeah, I'm sure some highways civil engineer, so
Speaker 1: um chuck uh. There are plenty things that Emily should
Speaker 1: do and shouldn't do if she's going to survive that
Speaker 1: tornado that she secretly really wants to experience. All right,
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of myths associated with tornadoes, Like
Speaker 1: I grew up, you didn't grow up with tornadoes. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean Georgia has tornadoes here and there here there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like it seems like I've seen them in the in
Speaker 1: the North Georgia Mountains before. Like I remember one time
Speaker 1: when I went to go drive to go camping, there
Speaker 1: had been a recent tornado and there were some houses
Speaker 1: that were just toothpicks. Yes, as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I think there was a bad one in Ringold, you remember,
Speaker 1: which is a little north of here Um and you,
Speaker 1: me and I were driving through and it was like
Speaker 1: pines that you could see where it crossed the highway
Speaker 1: because there was this a swath of pine trees, like
Speaker 1: you said, there has just been crushed like toothpicks on
Speaker 1: one side and then on the other side, but then
Speaker 1: not further up and not further south. It was pretty neat,
Speaker 1: but it was also like, oh yeah, like a bunch
Speaker 1: of people died here. It is definitely weird when you
Speaker 1: see like a house will be splintered in the next
Speaker 1: door neighbors is fine, Yes, it's just so like creepy.
Speaker 1: It is very random. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty pretty creepy.
Speaker 1: Were you and you me on your way to Dollywood
Speaker 1: by any chance? That's it's entirely possible. I just figured
Speaker 1: anytime you get in a car and head north, you're
Speaker 1: probably going to Dollywood Point or North you me, okay. So, um,
Speaker 1: we're talking tornadoes, and there's tons of myths and legends
Speaker 1: associated with them, some of them even um discussed and
Speaker 1: put put out there by scientists, as we'll see. But
Speaker 1: one of the big ones, it's pretty sad one, is
Speaker 1: the idea that tornadoes seek out, um, mobile home parks.
Speaker 1: Trailer parks. Yeah, that's sort of the old joke, you
Speaker 1: know it is, and uh it's pretty grim joke. But
Speaker 1: the weird thing is is it appears to be true
Speaker 1: that trailer parks are likelier to be hit by tornadoes
Speaker 1: than immobile homes, homes on foundations, neighborhood subdivisions, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Well, I think it's probably correct to say
Speaker 1: it might appear that way for several reasons. Go ahead, yeah,
Speaker 1: well yeah, Well one reason is that, um, there there's
Speaker 1: clearly a media bias when it comes to showing tornado
Speaker 1: footage because uh, they tend to show the most damage
Speaker 1: on the six o'clock news. That is absolutely true. So
Speaker 1: mobile home is way more likely to be completely destroyed
Speaker 1: than like, ah, a concrete house, let's say. And and
Speaker 1: the reasons why they're pretty obvious, but they're worth mentioning.
Speaker 1: And mobile home is made out of much more lightweight
Speaker 1: material than UH, immobile home. Is that what you would
Speaker 1: call it? I would say, I don't want to call
Speaker 1: it a permanent foundation. Nice. And that leads us to
Speaker 1: number two. Number two is that a mobile home is
Speaker 1: by definition, usually not anchored to the ground through a
Speaker 1: foundation like a permanent structure. It's like a home, all right.
Speaker 1: And so you put those two things together. When a
Speaker 1: tornado comes through UH, it creates horrible devastation, not just
Speaker 1: to the mobile homes, but to the people inside. And
Speaker 1: you're much more likely to die in a tornado if
Speaker 1: you live in a mobile home than in a permanent structure. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It says here that a larger building could possibly would
Speaker 1: stand up to a hundred miles an hour on UH
Speaker 1: for wind, whereas fifty five could be really devastating in
Speaker 1: a mobile home. Yeah. And so people in mobile homes
Speaker 1: in the United States are ten to twenty more ten
Speaker 1: to twenty times likelier to be killed in a tornado
Speaker 1: than someone who lives in a permanent foundation home. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I said concrete house earlier, Um, I didn't mean
Speaker 1: brick house, I mean eat house. Yeah, because they have
Speaker 1: one in my neighborhood like a cinder block house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's concrete house, but a brick house to that counts.
Speaker 1: Those concrete houses are built like a brick house. Uh.
Speaker 1: The other thing that we found out is UM Purdue
Speaker 1: University at one point did a little research and found
Speaker 1: out that tornadoes, Uh, you're more than likely gonna find
Speaker 1: a tornado what they call a transition zone where you
Speaker 1: may be transition from a more dense city area to
Speaker 1: a more rural area where the land changes. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they produced studied tornadoes and Indiana specifically from nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: two twelve and found that they are um much likelier
Speaker 1: to touch down in these transition zones. Right, But that
Speaker 1: doesn't explain why. They just were able to say, yes,
Speaker 1: this happens more frequently, and it just so happens that
Speaker 1: these are places where mobile home parks and trailer parks
Speaker 1: are likelier to be Yeah. There usually not like in
Speaker 1: the middle of the city. So they were saying that
Speaker 1: it is actually likely or for a mobile home to
Speaker 1: be hit more by a tornado, possibly because it's right
Speaker 1: there in the spot where they would they would hit. Um.
Speaker 1: But again, we don't know why I have a pet
Speaker 1: theory here, I think that we don't well, it's clear
Speaker 1: we don't understand tornadoes yet very well enough, and not
Speaker 1: just us scientists too. Um. And I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that we're gonna learn about tornadoes as we
Speaker 1: understand them more and more is that they're guided or
Speaker 1: attracted to static electricity. Mobile homes tend to be made
Speaker 1: out of more metal than brick or wood homes or
Speaker 1: concrete homes, and so would generate more static electricity, and
Speaker 1: um could possibly serve as kind of almost a beacon
Speaker 1: to a tornado that would attract it. That's my guess.
Speaker 1: And then, um, do you also remember back in I
Speaker 1: don't remember when it wasn't I couldn't find it on
Speaker 1: the web, but either in by Anna or k ro
Speaker 1: which if you live outside of Georgia it's Vienna or Cairo. Um,
Speaker 1: there was a mobile home factory that got hit by
Speaker 1: a tornado. I think I do remember that. You remember,
Speaker 1: made pretty big news because everybody's like irony and the
Speaker 1: old joke. So that's my pet theory. Static electricity off
Speaker 1: of mobile homes attracts tornadoes. Did you come up with
Speaker 1: that all all in your lonesome Yeah? Used my nogging
Speaker 1: pretty good, thanks man. Uh. Should we move on to
Speaker 1: the underpass overpass quandary? Yeah? Um, you will hear. You
Speaker 1: probably have heard, because the the rationale used to be, Hey,
Speaker 1: if you're out on the highway, get out of your
Speaker 1: car and run under that overpass or underpass and huddle.
Speaker 1: Makes total sense. Or or drive your car under there
Speaker 1: and sit there. Yeah, and drive your car under and
Speaker 1: then run up to the part where the overpass meets
Speaker 1: the underpass and just wedge yourself in as much as
Speaker 1: you can. The safest place ever where skateboard or spray
Speaker 1: paint exactly. Yeah, and smoke marijuana for the first time.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it makes total senses. Are extraordinarily sturdy concrete structures,
Speaker 1: and anybody who knows anything about tornadoes knows that you
Speaker 1: want to be in a concrete structure. But the caveat
Speaker 1: is that you want that thing to be an enclosed
Speaker 1: concrete structure, either in some sort of concrete walls with
Speaker 1: a concrete roof or underground or something like that. And
Speaker 1: an overpass or underpass is actually a tornado uh frenzy
Speaker 1: whipping machine. It actually will do the opposite. It's one
Speaker 1: of the worst places you can go. Yeah. It creates
Speaker 1: what they call a wind tunnel effect, so that the
Speaker 1: wind and the underpass is stronger than the wind on
Speaker 1: the ground or above it. Yeah. It funnels the wind
Speaker 1: through and increases its velocity, so the wind is actually
Speaker 1: faster in the underpass. And with that wind, as you know,
Speaker 1: comes uh all kinds of debris that will impale your
Speaker 1: body without even feeling bad about it. Yeah, it gets
Speaker 1: whipped up by that wind tunnel. And then when the
Speaker 1: tornado passes, that debris that's in the air is going
Speaker 1: to suddenly like shift and come back for a second
Speaker 1: glancing blow if you're lucky. Yeah. I was just thinking
Speaker 1: when you said to hide all the way up at
Speaker 1: the very tip top that if the tornado was going
Speaker 1: parallel and like literally was as if it was going
Speaker 1: down the highway above you, Uh, that maybe there is
Speaker 1: something to that, But tornadoes are so wide, it's not
Speaker 1: like it's as wide as that street. Well. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and the this article also makes the point that just
Speaker 1: the part of the funnel that touches the ground is
Speaker 1: not the only place where there's winds. There's high winds
Speaker 1: all around the tornado as well. You just don't necessarily
Speaker 1: see them and that video there we talked about the
Speaker 1: very famous video of the people taking shelter underneath and
Speaker 1: overpass and filming it as the tornado goes by overhead.
Speaker 1: Apparently they were being subjected to um something called an
Speaker 1: inflow jet, uh, surface inflow jet, which was wind whipping
Speaker 1: off the ground toward the tornado. So they weren't actually
Speaker 1: in the path of the tornado. The tornado is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty close, like thirty over and to them they were like,
Speaker 1: it was the tornado, but it actually wasn't. Had it
Speaker 1: been the tornado, they may not have survived. And they
Speaker 1: were actually very lucky to have survived anyway. So um,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people point to them and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what you should do. See And that's a
Speaker 1: total anomaly that those people survived. Right, You can't take
Speaker 1: one video and say this is the standard. Exactly these
Speaker 1: people lived, even though it's amazing. Yeah, although they did
Speaker 1: say the um the FedEx driver was super smart for
Speaker 1: wedging herself between two soda machines. Oh yeah, although I
Speaker 1: could she could have been squashed by those two. Well
Speaker 1: it worked out for her. Yeah, let's just say that
Speaker 1: There's one other problem with taking shelter under an overpass too, um,
Speaker 1: is when you park your car around there, it's gonna
Speaker 1: get kicked up by the tornado and possibly land on
Speaker 1: its side in the middle of the road, so that
Speaker 1: when the tornado passes and the paramedics need to get
Speaker 1: through there to get to rescue people, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a hard time with your car on its side in
Speaker 1: the middle of the road because you left it right
Speaker 1: in the path of the tornado. Yeah. Plus there's a
Speaker 1: problem with people. Well, we'll we'll get we'll get to
Speaker 1: trying to outrun a tornado here in a minute, all right,
Speaker 1: should we take a break. Let's take a break, man,
Speaker 1: all right, Josh. There's another old thing that you've probably
Speaker 1: heard growing up in Toledo, which is, uh, if you
Speaker 1: see a tornado or you know a tornado's coming, um,
Speaker 1: open up your windows so it can just pass on through.
Speaker 1: Makes total sense. Yeah, not necessarily passed through. But uh, like,
Speaker 1: was it de pressurized the home maybe? Yeah? So um uh,
Speaker 1: tornado is driven by low pressure winds, right or a
Speaker 1: low pressure front. Um. And the idea was that if
Speaker 1: the pressure was higher in your house than the tornado
Speaker 1: outside your house would explode. And it was actually this
Speaker 1: is what scientists told people to do for many years.
Speaker 1: He said, go open your windows. I remember that. I
Speaker 1: don't remember us ever opening our windows, but I remember
Speaker 1: it was like I should you shouldn't use kind of thing. Um.
Speaker 1: And the problem is is that ways tear like a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of time windows when you need to be
Speaker 1: taking shelter somewhere. Um. And then secondly, it does absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, it can. It can have
Speaker 1: even different effects than if you left the window closed. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wonder if um that started because they didn't know
Speaker 1: much about it, and they would say, well, that house
Speaker 1: looks like it exploded. Um, because they do look like
Speaker 1: it they exploded, but they didn't. Have you ever seen
Speaker 1: one up close? What the wreckage? Yeah? Well just driving
Speaker 1: by it like you know, like a house. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like on the on the road, and then the house
Speaker 1: was beside the road. But I didn't like walk through it.
Speaker 1: You was telling me once about when she was a
Speaker 1: kid down south, um, that there was a neighborhood that
Speaker 1: just got just leveled. And she was actually talking about
Speaker 1: how it just insane it is when you're seeing a
Speaker 1: house that's standing, but everything around it's like totally destroyed.
Speaker 1: But she was like, this is like it was unnerving
Speaker 1: just the destruction, like seeing houses like that because you know,
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be solid and safe. Yeah, they're not
Speaker 1: supposed to look like they exploded or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Although if you've ever done house construction and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: I remember, I don't know I had this idea I
Speaker 1: had that I don't I don't think I knew how
Speaker 1: houses were built. And then once I sort of did
Speaker 1: a little bit and I was like, oh man, this
Speaker 1: is just there's just a bunch of wood, you know.
Speaker 1: So I mean it makes sense, but it is very
Speaker 1: distressing to see that turned into toothpicks. Um. So if
Speaker 1: you did go to the trouble of opening all of
Speaker 1: the windows in your house right and the tornado came
Speaker 1: through and it didn't actually level your house, because that's
Speaker 1: the other thing with opening the windows. The tornado could
Speaker 1: care less about the lower high pressure which is gonna
Speaker 1: level your house if it wants to see if it
Speaker 1: gets in the way. Um, But if you if it
Speaker 1: did just pass by enough that it didn't level your
Speaker 1: house and the windows are open, it could conceivably blow
Speaker 1: the roof off the sucker because because those windows are open,
Speaker 1: apparently the the the tornado actually raises the pressure in
Speaker 1: the house upward somehow, and then gusts can lift the
Speaker 1: roof right off. And they did this. They figured this
Speaker 1: out by doing tests. And I looked everywhere to find
Speaker 1: out who conducted this test and how they did it.
Speaker 1: Couldn't find anything that thing. Maybe I was always just
Speaker 1: wondered though, And they were like, we performed tests, right,
Speaker 1: trust me. How do you blow the roof off of
Speaker 1: a house and a test? Yeah, or simulated tornado? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you cut on a smaller scale. But does it does
Speaker 1: it graduate upward? I don't know. I'm thinking to me,
Speaker 1: I'm off today. No, you're not. I feel off. Oh,
Speaker 1: you're right on. I gave blood for the first time
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Oh. I thought you about to say, like
Speaker 1: an hour ago, you saw it. That's the first time
Speaker 1: you've ever given blood in your life? Really? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: you're like, man, I waited way too long. You're gonna
Speaker 1: start giving blood too much. Probably you're gonna be like,
Speaker 1: take my platelets, take up. I'll be like Peggy Hill,
Speaker 1: what happened to her. Oh she got into a blood
Speaker 1: donating contest with her next door neighbor min basically to
Speaker 1: see who was the most generous. That's pretty funny, and
Speaker 1: she really went overboard. Did you eat some nutter butters
Speaker 1: and have some juice nutter butters and uh a little
Speaker 1: welch is um? Yeah? See. I used to not give
Speaker 1: us blood blood as much because I was severely needle phobic.
Speaker 1: But um, needles have gotten so much smaller now. Ay
Speaker 1: and um, if you get you know someone who does
Speaker 1: how to do it properly, it's really not that bad.
Speaker 1: Oh No, it wasn't bad at all. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: really am ashamed that I waited this long in my life.
Speaker 1: For years, years, honestly years, I was under the impression
Speaker 1: that you couldn't give blood if you had a tattoo.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that old thing. Yeah. And then um, I
Speaker 1: met you me and she was like, why why don't
Speaker 1: you donate blood? Yeah? She's like, what's your problems? Right?
Speaker 1: And I told her and she's like, no, that's not
Speaker 1: true at all. Right, and then and then three or
Speaker 1: four years five years later, six years later, I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do it. Well, you can make up
Speaker 1: for it now. And hey people out there, you might
Speaker 1: have some Josh Clark blood pump into your body soon.
Speaker 1: How about that? Pretty neat? What were you? I can't
Speaker 1: remember your blood type? It was? It was you and
Speaker 1: Jerry were the same positive beat. So am I We
Speaker 1: have the same type, so a positive. I love that
Speaker 1: Jerry speaks especially quietly. Can you make sure you edit
Speaker 1: yourself out? Okay? Yeah, because you were both a positive
Speaker 1: remember that because you made the joke I had the
Speaker 1: same that you're a positive person or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's a good way to remember it. Jerry would have
Speaker 1: known that we have the same blood type as she
Speaker 1: came to our live show. Um, Jerry could get some
Speaker 1: Josh blood. Do you know how upsetting that would be
Speaker 1: for you? What if one you had to rely on
Speaker 1: the other to live? Yeah, if like Jerry cut herself
Speaker 1: and got some blood and it turned out to be mine,
Speaker 1: if she cut herself. Uh, should we move to the bathtub, sir?
Speaker 1: Let's um the old I'm gonna call it an old
Speaker 1: wives tale that go get in the bathtub because that's
Speaker 1: a really safe place in your home to withstand the tornado.
Speaker 1: Because bathtubs are strong and and thick, and they're not.
Speaker 1: Though you were talking about houses being made of like
Speaker 1: wood and drywall, A bathtubs just like a fiber lass
Speaker 1: shell around a two by four frame. What's your bathtub
Speaker 1: depends on what kind of bathtub you do. If you
Speaker 1: have like an old cloth footed iron tub, that's what
Speaker 1: I got. I could withstand anything and that thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: so most people don't have that. They have and you think,
Speaker 1: like you're getting in a bathtub, you're like, oh, this
Speaker 1: thing is pretty sturdy. But really, if you if you
Speaker 1: could pick it up, it's just fireglass around two by fours.
Speaker 1: You're like, I've kicked a hole in the five bathtubs.
Speaker 1: It's easy. I'm on at least five. Uh. So the
Speaker 1: logic is is that it's heavy, uh and sturdy. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of this logic came out
Speaker 1: from the day when bathtubs were sturdier than they are now.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, But either way, it's not it's
Speaker 1: only a good idea if that bathtub happens to be
Speaker 1: in a safe part of your home. Precisely right, So,
Speaker 1: in a safe party of your home is a room
Speaker 1: with no exterior facing walls, no exterior facing windows obviously. Um,
Speaker 1: if your bathtub is in a bathroom with an exterior
Speaker 1: facing wall or exterior facing window, is that superfluouced I
Speaker 1: need to say that, Um, just do not get in
Speaker 1: your bathtub because that wall in that room is very
Speaker 1: likely to be ripped apart by a tornado, even if
Speaker 1: the rest of the house isn't. So you want to
Speaker 1: go as much into the center of your house as
Speaker 1: possible and as windowless a room as possible, say like
Speaker 1: a closet inside your house, So surrounded by as many
Speaker 1: rooms as possible. So, if you have a bathtub and
Speaker 1: a kill dungeon, go to the kill dungeon you set. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you have a don't have a bathtub in there.
Speaker 1: If you have a cloth at tub and the kill dungeon,
Speaker 1: then you're you're golden. You could just go ahead and
Speaker 1: take a bath, so chuck. Another legend about tornadoes seems
Speaker 1: to be that they avoid cities. Yeah, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of like the same thing as the mobile home thing.
Speaker 1: If my theory is incorrect. Um, where it just seems
Speaker 1: that way. The reason why is because there's way more
Speaker 1: rural area in the United States than there is city. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even though most people live in cities. They're packed in there,
Speaker 1: which is why we're all stressed out. That's right, of
Speaker 1: the population in the US lives in urban centers. But
Speaker 1: it happens Oklahoma City. Um in what year was this
Speaker 1: two they had? They had one, one, two, huge, right,
Speaker 1: and e F five And that is based on the
Speaker 1: Fujita tornado scale. Could have sworn. We did a show
Speaker 1: in tornadoes. I specifically remember saying that tornado is formed
Speaker 1: because there's this a horizontal columns swirling air that eventually
Speaker 1: like moves down and becomes vertical, and that's your tornado. Well,
Speaker 1: we did a very in the early days of the
Speaker 1: five minute episodes. We did one about being in the
Speaker 1: eye of the tornado. You know what it might have been?
Speaker 1: Can it really rain frogs maybe? Or did we talk
Speaker 1: about water spots separately or was that the same episode
Speaker 1: that was the one where you predicted Sharknado, which I
Speaker 1: got nothing for. So Oklahoma City in n nine was
Speaker 1: an e F five, which is the strongest possible tornado
Speaker 1: on the tornado scale. I was looking into the Fogita scale.
Speaker 1: So apparently Theodore Foujita made up the scale like out
Speaker 1: a whole cloth basically without doing real investigation into it.
Speaker 1: He just said, I'm teddy Fujita. Yeah, I would I
Speaker 1: say with tornado, but he said, like, we'll say, n
Speaker 1: F five is like this. But he didn't actually go
Speaker 1: out and compare the wind speeds to the level of destruction.
Speaker 1: He didn't do that that leg work. Who is he
Speaker 1: and why did we listen to him? Apparently everybody liked
Speaker 1: the name of his scale because they went out and
Speaker 1: adjusted it. So it's been since adjusted to where it
Speaker 1: now actually reflects reality a lot better thing. But in
Speaker 1: F five is as as like you said, it's as
Speaker 1: bad as it gets, um, and the it can just
Speaker 1: keep getting worse and worse. There's no F six or
Speaker 1: F seven or anything like that. But um, it's like
Speaker 1: an F five plus. Even the even the minimum F
Speaker 1: five though, is mind boggling in its destruction. So that
Speaker 1: went through Oklahoma City in nineteen, which is clearly a
Speaker 1: biggest city, did a billion dollars with a damage and
Speaker 1: killed thirty six people. So that, yeah, that's pretty devastating
Speaker 1: for a city. Yeah. And then two thousand thirteen, like
Speaker 1: you said, another one hit, Uh, twenty five people were
Speaker 1: killed and that was both in the city and UH
Speaker 1: in the suburbs outside the city. But we had one
Speaker 1: in Atlanta in two thousand eight. Yeah, I remember where
Speaker 1: I was because it was the day before my birthday.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was yeah, and um, the day before
Speaker 1: the IDEs of March. I was at UH in Kirkwood
Speaker 1: having pizza with Emily and Justin and Emily sister Sarah
Speaker 1: and a. You know, it was like a bad storm clearly,
Speaker 1: but Emily said, oh my god, it's raining sideways and
Speaker 1: we looked out the window and the rain was blowing sideways.
Speaker 1: The wind was blowing so hard, and we were just like, man,
Speaker 1: that's crazy, let's get another beer. Um. And I guess
Speaker 1: if we were in Kirkwood, Cabbage Town is less than
Speaker 1: like three miles away, and that's where it hit, was
Speaker 1: one of the places it hit, and the cotton mill offs,
Speaker 1: so like less than a few miles away. Tornadoes were
Speaker 1: wrecking the city and we were just in there drinking
Speaker 1: and eating pizza. And we didn't until the next day
Speaker 1: how many miles away. I mean, it had to be
Speaker 1: what a couple of miles. Yeah, it doesn't It might
Speaker 1: have been less than that from there to there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh pm to a little research because you kept
Speaker 1: drinking and don't remember it. That's right. It was a
Speaker 1: super cell moved in the heart of downtown Atlanta, and
Speaker 1: this is during the that's right SEC basketball tournament, and
Speaker 1: it blew the windows out in the west in yeah,
Speaker 1: the Peachtree Plaza Hotel, and they put plywood up over
Speaker 1: the windows and left it there for like a year
Speaker 1: and a half. It was longer than that, because I
Speaker 1: remember driving and saying and I remember reading why it
Speaker 1: took so long was because they were specialty windows when
Speaker 1: it was built back in the seventies or whatever. I
Speaker 1: remember thinking like, how hard could it be to construct
Speaker 1: new glass? I totally forgot about that. Like two years
Speaker 1: later it was. And like, for those of you who
Speaker 1: don't live in Atlanta aren't familiar, this building is basically
Speaker 1: like the icon of the Atlanta Skyline, sort of the
Speaker 1: center tall building. Yeah, very very tall, cylindrical building with
Speaker 1: like a revolving restaurant on the top. It's impossible the
Speaker 1: miss and it was dotted with plywood for two years.
Speaker 1: Totally forgot about that. So the SEC basketball tournament was
Speaker 1: going on at the Georgia Dome and there was an
Speaker 1: NBA game being played, and I think you know, stuff
Speaker 1: like happened in the Georgia Dome. They had to stop
Speaker 1: the game for a minute. Crazy. Yeah, hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: miles an hour in f two not to ad. Not
Speaker 1: too shabby. That's respectable for a city tornado, all right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and thankfully only one person lost their life in that one,
Speaker 1: um which, if you think about it, is pretty remarkable
Speaker 1: considering how you know a lot of people in the area.
Speaker 1: Um So you've got Oklahoma City has been hit twice terribly. Atlanta,
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City seen plenty of tornadoes, same with Dallas.
Speaker 1: In Miami, did not know about the Miami hurricane, although
Speaker 1: it makes sense because that's the name of no, not
Speaker 1: the hurricane and tornado. Yeah, that's what I My brain
Speaker 1: just got zapped. Well, what are you going to say
Speaker 1: about the hurricanes? Oh, the University of Miami. Yeah right,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't a hurricane, it was a tornado. I
Speaker 1: can believe a hurricane in Miami tornado. That's the one
Speaker 1: I have trouble in there named the University of Miami
Speaker 1: Severe Weather System. Right. I think we should definitely take
Speaker 1: a break and we'll be back with more unbelievable facts.
Speaker 1: Right after this, Chuck, I remember specifically, um, believing that
Speaker 1: tornadoes were totally indigenous to North America. They only happened here.
Speaker 1: It seems like you only hear about them here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but apparently they do happen elsewhere. The reason
Speaker 1: why most people think they only happened here is because
Speaker 1: in North America we have something like I should say,
Speaker 1: in the United States, not even just North America, but
Speaker 1: in the United States we get about fourteen hundred reported
Speaker 1: tornadoes a year. That's a lot of tornadoes. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: by comparison, Europe sees about three d and that's all
Speaker 1: of Europe. And um, apparently tornadoes do happen on every
Speaker 1: continent except the Antarctica. But the reason that it seems
Speaker 1: like they happen here only is because they happen so
Speaker 1: much more frequently here than elsewhere. Yeah, apparently South America
Speaker 1: has favorable conditions for tornadoes, and in between, Argentina and
Speaker 1: Brazil especially, they have the right kind of storms to
Speaker 1: produce tornadoes. But again, it doesn't happen as much right
Speaker 1: as the United States now. And so the other aspect
Speaker 1: of it, we go back to that same thing with
Speaker 1: them the news covering trailer parks. It's um, a very
Speaker 1: small proportion of tornadoes are actually like considered dangerous, something
Speaker 1: like two or violent, I think is what they're called,
Speaker 1: right uh, or week or strong. It was the three
Speaker 1: percent of violent violent. So if you have three hundred
Speaker 1: tornadoes a year, right, um, and only three percent of violent,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna make news quite as often as if
Speaker 1: you have four hundred tornadoes per year and three percent
Speaker 1: of violent, it's gonna seem like there's tornadoes that are
Speaker 1: just wrecking America all the time. Um. And then apparently
Speaker 1: also the United States specifically and parts of Canada. But
Speaker 1: the US is in a very unique position for tornado
Speaker 1: for in formation, right, and we have that thing called
Speaker 1: tornado Alley, and tornado Alley just so happens to fit
Speaker 1: very nicely over what's also known as the Great Plains,
Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. Specifically we are talking uh whereas here
Speaker 1: central Texas head northward, northward, northward, the W is not
Speaker 1: silent northward to in northern Iowa. Uh. And from central
Speaker 1: Kansas and Nebraska east to western Ohio. That's what you're
Speaker 1: talking about, uh. And that is tornado Alley. That doesn't
Speaker 1: count floor to Apparently Florida is um a little bit
Speaker 1: of its own tornado alley. Apparently in Miami too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like we said, Georgia, you know, we'll have them
Speaker 1: here and there. Yeah, yeah, because there's a tornado alley
Speaker 1: where they um. Okay, So if you look at the
Speaker 1: Great Plains right, it's it's relatively flat, so it allows
Speaker 1: cool air to come down from Canada and it hits
Speaker 1: warm air coming up from the Gulf, and they meet
Speaker 1: and they form this front, this wedge that creates tornado
Speaker 1: Alley itself. Because where those two things meet, that's where
Speaker 1: the type of storms that can produce tornadoes are formed,
Speaker 1: and so it forms basically, uh east west or southwest
Speaker 1: northeast line, and that essentially is tornado Alley. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: as far as weather conditions, we mentioned some of these
Speaker 1: other countries that do have those conditions. But the difference
Speaker 1: is in a place like the Bay of Bengal, it's
Speaker 1: just a much narrower window of time that these conditions exist,
Speaker 1: whereas the United States. I mean, when it's tornado season,
Speaker 1: it's it's a much wider uh, I mean it's several months,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Oh? Yeah, it's throughout the summer. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: starting in late spring, depending on where you are. And
Speaker 1: then I think in Florida what they call Dixie Alley.
Speaker 1: Dixie Alley, is that what they call it. That's what
Speaker 1: it said. It doesn't even make sense. I don't associate
Speaker 1: Florida with Dixie you know, well, of course not. It's
Speaker 1: its own thing. It is very much its own thing. Um,
Speaker 1: Dixie Alley. Yeah, they they experienced tornadoes more in the
Speaker 1: fall late fall. Yeah, because they're not in the heart
Speaker 1: of Tornado Alley. No, they're their own thing. They're their
Speaker 1: own thing. Um. So then, Chuck, I feel like we've
Speaker 1: really dispelled a lot of myths here, busted them, if
Speaker 1: you will, probably saved some lives. We should say, rather
Speaker 1: than just like, yeah, you're ten of twenty times likelier
Speaker 1: to die in a mobile home um, and just leave
Speaker 1: it at that. If you do live in a mobile
Speaker 1: home community, after you're listening to this episode, I want
Speaker 1: you to get on your laptop or your tablet or
Speaker 1: your PC or go to the mobile home community office
Speaker 1: and say where is the nearest tornado shelter? Because the
Speaker 1: thing that you should do if you live in a
Speaker 1: mobile home community is leave that mobile home community. When
Speaker 1: a tornado warning has been issued tornado watch no warning
Speaker 1: warning means that it's been seen, watches the weather is
Speaker 1: likely to produce him. Yeah, and I think those goods.
Speaker 1: They should just come up with better terms for that.
Speaker 1: Uh look out, it's a tornado should be the should
Speaker 1: replace uh warning? Yeah, or just like well, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: pretty good. I'll go with that. Thanks. Um, what what
Speaker 1: about getting in your car? Because if the average tornado
Speaker 1: goes thirty miles an hour and the fastest ever tornado
Speaker 1: on record is only seventy three, man, I'll bet that
Speaker 1: is you would think, Man, just get in your car,
Speaker 1: because I can go a D in my pickup truck.
Speaker 1: I can can outrun the vast I'd go up to eight.
Speaker 1: I could outrun the fastest tornado ever in history easily.
Speaker 1: I do that every day on the highway. Well, you
Speaker 1: could conceivably in your truck, be okay, But what about
Speaker 1: those people who have, like, uh, a m C Gremlin.
Speaker 1: They probably can't go a D in that thing and
Speaker 1: their toasts. No, that is not the point, my friend.
Speaker 1: The point is you can't. You shouldn't try to outrun
Speaker 1: a tornado, even if you can drive faster than one.
Speaker 1: Because tornadoes, while sort of predictable and that they usually
Speaker 1: follow a straight line, you never know what they're gonna do. Um.
Speaker 1: That's why you'll see one house spared while the others destroyed. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they're very wide, so they'll be her off course
Speaker 1: and before you know it, you are in the path
Speaker 1: of the tornado, not out running the tornado. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: can veer, they can um stop touching the ground and
Speaker 1: then make contacting in right like you said, right in
Speaker 1: front of you or right around you. Um, and they
Speaker 1: will backtrack. There are certain conditions that tornado will double
Speaker 1: back over its path and then go forward again. And
Speaker 1: that just happens like out of nowhere. They're extremely unpredictable.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you you don't know that you're driving in
Speaker 1: the right direction, even if initially you are. And then secondly, um,
Speaker 1: apparently is it Noah or the National Weather Service that says,
Speaker 1: I think in all caps, do not get in your
Speaker 1: car and try to outrun a tornado. It's a CDC
Speaker 1: for some weird reason. That's not that's not a disease,
Speaker 1: is it? Like the Center for Disease Control and Injury Prevention. Now,
Speaker 1: though because maybe that would the injury prevention would account
Speaker 1: for that. But they do say that the least desirable
Speaker 1: place to be during the tornadoes in your vehicle, it
Speaker 1: should be the centers for disease control and injury prevention.
Speaker 1: But don't ask us about gun violence. Uh. In Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: the l Reno tornado in two thousand thirteen, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was the one that hit Oklahoma City. Oh was it?
Speaker 1: This is a talking about unpredictability. This thing, within sixty
Speaker 1: seconds went from being a mile wide to two point
Speaker 1: six miles wide. Uh. And it's the one the widest
Speaker 1: one ever recorded. Uh in Tornado, United States, well, probably
Speaker 1: all of tornado history. Man, nothing makes me think of
Speaker 1: humans as just like fleas on the face of the
Speaker 1: planet than tornadoes. This is crazy. Whether it comes out
Speaker 1: of nowhere, picks up everything where we do and like
Speaker 1: work for and strive for, and just kicks it into nothingness,
Speaker 1: that's all natural disasters. To me. It's just like a
Speaker 1: big reminder, like, hey, humans, when you're long gone, brust
Speaker 1: you off my should there will still be earthquakes and tsunamis.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a feature of the planet. Uhent of
Speaker 1: people killed in tornadoes, uh, are in their vehicles at
Speaker 1: the time, which doesn't necessarily mean they're trying to outrun it,
Speaker 1: but um, you know it's no small beans, no don't.
Speaker 1: And apparently in that the one in Oklahoma, there were
Speaker 1: a couple of notable storm chasers that even have like
Speaker 1: really great safe track records that were killed and they
Speaker 1: people thought, you know, because these people were killed, that
Speaker 1: might be a real signal like they can't outrun tornadoes,
Speaker 1: nor should you try? Yeah? Is Bill Paxton and Helen
Speaker 1: Hunt ruined it for things? I like that movie? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I liked it. It was a cute movie. It kind
Speaker 1: of holds up, actually doesn't really the special effects remarkably
Speaker 1: hold up. That's very surprising because that was like mid nineties, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And there was another tornado movie that I did not see,
Speaker 1: just a couple of years ago. Uh, Into the Storm.
Speaker 1: I think it looked really bad, although it had the
Speaker 1: great Matt Walsh. What about nice paycheck for you, Mr
Speaker 1: wallsh No, but he you know, he's relief, sure nice,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm sure he did just fine on that one.
Speaker 1: Um did you see San Andreas? Uh? I saw about
Speaker 1: it and the other sixt I fast forwarded through. I
Speaker 1: fast forwarded through everything except for all the devastation. That's
Speaker 1: like the only part I cared about. Oh so it
Speaker 1: was six non devastation. That ratio is off, agreed. Huh,
Speaker 1: that's disappointing because I kind of wanted to see it.
Speaker 1: It looked like it would be kind of interesting. It's
Speaker 1: Hollywood drec well, not that many disaster flicks aren't. Although
Speaker 1: Towering Inferno that was a great movie, straight up great movie.
Speaker 1: Same with them The Poseidon Adventure, Oh my god, the
Speaker 1: boat that I was about to call it the boat
Speaker 1: that flipped upside down. But the original Yeah, definitely not
Speaker 1: the remakes. Why did they even bother? No? Actually, now
Speaker 1: i'm thinking about it, Disaster flicks were good movies in
Speaker 1: the seventies. Airport great? Was it just Airport? And then
Speaker 1: Airport seventy seven was the sequel? I think so. I
Speaker 1: think they made like three or four after that too.
Speaker 1: They don't make them like that anymore, my friend. Now, well,
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about tornadoes, we've got
Speaker 1: a mess of articles on how stuff works about them.
Speaker 1: You can type the word tornado or at an e
Speaker 1: before you pluralize it in the search bar at how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com and it will bring up great stuff.
Speaker 1: Since I said search parts time for listener mail, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call this Josh's pick for listener mail because you
Speaker 1: picked it, yes, said japan Centric. Well your favorite places, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll explain all right. Um, hey, guys that just listened
Speaker 1: to the show on nostalgia and then, although I'm a
Speaker 1: big Hodgman van h Japan is perhaps not the place
Speaker 1: for him. Um. I find it fascinating that I'm living
Speaker 1: in Japan, where the feeling of nostalgia is one of
Speaker 1: the most treasured emotional experiences. The Japanese word for it
Speaker 1: is you want to say it, I have to see
Speaker 1: it in running, but I can pronounce it, uh not sukashi, notasukashi.
Speaker 1: And um that was actually why I picked this, because
Speaker 1: I was telling you you mean that we did one
Speaker 1: on nostalgias. It's like he talked about not Sukashi right, Well,
Speaker 1: here we are, uh not sukashi. Is that she eat
Speaker 1: It's so close that it almost sounds like an extended
Speaker 1: eye because you don't want it right, but you don't
Speaker 1: want to make it like right right right, But it's
Speaker 1: like it's like just a little extra something on that
Speaker 1: I I love it. Uh. That place connotes a feeling
Speaker 1: of pleasant sorrow and sometimes a beauty. An interesting example
Speaker 1: is cherry blossom season. The season just commence here, and
Speaker 1: I'm told that one of the reasons Japanese love the
Speaker 1: season so much is it it's so short lived, lasting
Speaker 1: only about two weeks each year. Uh. The short lived
Speaker 1: beauty cultivates the pleasant sadness feeling even when the trees
Speaker 1: are in full blue. And my friends indulge in pre
Speaker 1: nostalgia knowing that we'll all end soon, and this adds
Speaker 1: to their enjoyment and depth of the experience. That's really lovely,
Speaker 1: isn't it. If this sounds a bit overboard, I should
Speaker 1: mention that cherry blossom viewing feels somewhat like a spectator
Speaker 1: sport here, and droves of people turn out for picnics
Speaker 1: under the trees with their high end cameras ready to
Speaker 1: capture the perfect photo. Also found it interesting that one
Speaker 1: of the positive outcomes of nostalgia you mentioned is that
Speaker 1: it reminds us that life is worth living in light
Speaker 1: of the extremely long work hours and brutal commutes on
Speaker 1: rush hour trains. No wonder Japanese really foster nostalgia to
Speaker 1: remind them of life's simple joys. I think she's onto
Speaker 1: something here. By the way I lived uh. I moved
Speaker 1: to Tokyo last September and discovered your podcast last fall.
Speaker 1: Living here involves lots of walking and train time. Your
Speaker 1: podcasts are perfect entertainment as I'm moving about the city.
Speaker 1: That is from Rebecca, Texan living in Tokyo. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1: That's a great email, Rebecca, appreciate it. So you've experienced
Speaker 1: that feeling that's a cashi Yeah, yeah, and nostalgia. Do
Speaker 1: you toast and say that out loud and now you
Speaker 1: go come pile when you okay? Uh? Not takashi is
Speaker 1: you're just quietly shedding into your think about something very
Speaker 1: lovely from when you were child. Would just feel those
Speaker 1: big dummies in Japan look at Yeah, he's toasting something
Speaker 1: that's sad. Uh No, No, it's not like that. I
Speaker 1: think it's um. I don't. I'm not an expert on
Speaker 1: not takashi, but I think it's not quite nostalgia. It's
Speaker 1: just it's very close to it. It's just something there's
Speaker 1: just something more. It's more of like an investigation on
Speaker 1: nostalgia more of a relishing kind of thing. Interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love Japan. I hope to go one day. You
Speaker 1: will love it, I mean, you'll absolutely love it. Just
Speaker 1: an amazing place. You've gotta get Emily on board for
Speaker 1: that flight. It's a pain. And when you come back,
Speaker 1: depending on what direction you're traveling, where you're flying from,
Speaker 1: you are nuts from jet leg for like two weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it always seems like you're just, uh, you don't even
Speaker 1: know which way is up for more for like two weeks,
Speaker 1: just like when is this gonna end? In like the
Speaker 1: first five days? Just go buy in this haze that
Speaker 1: you're not even aware of. Crazy, Yeah, Japan. If you
Speaker 1: want to get in touch with us, you can tweet
Speaker 1: to us at s by sk podcast. You can join
Speaker 1: us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
Speaker 1: at home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
Speaker 1: it how stuff Works dot com