August, 2012
Can major cities and urban areas diffuse tornadoes and
divert severe storms? Do cities maintain some
type of inherent force or pressure/temperature gradient or specific humidity or
magnetic potential which helps to divert tornadoes and severe storms? I ask for at least a couple of reasons.
The first reason for the question was the storm which I
watched progress on the television weather maps on the night of July 7th,
2012. As the apparently severe storm
quickly moved in a due southeasterly direction from the Lehigh
Valley (Penn.)
to the Philadelphia region, the storm seemed to
be heading directly towards southern New Jersey
where I was preparing to depart on a roadtrip with family members to the Boston area. The storm appeared particularly voracious and
the likelihood of tornadoes with the storm was reported to be immense –
according to the reports as I recall them.
It appeared that we would have been best advised to wait awhile and let
the storm blow over. For whatever the
reason, however, as soon as the storm reached the Philadelphia City limits (or so it seemed on
the weather maps), the storm dissipated and the stronger cells appeared to
divert around the city. What remained of
the stronger portions of the storm were then on new headings and not on a
collision path with our location.
The second reason that I ask the question is that it appears,
at least with tornadic storms, anyhow, that these types of storms do not
typically manifest themselves in larger metropolitan areas – I am aware that
there are widely-reported exceptions, of course. But it is an interesting correlation worthy
of research or inspection, in my humble opinion. I am aware that many will say it is all a
matter of chance as to where tornadoes touchdown, but… Nevertheless, why it is that these storms do
not typically touchdown in larger metro areas is worthy of further inquiry – if
possible, in my opinion.
Another reason I ask was The Weather Channel’s television
show “It Could Happen Tomorrow,” which aired in the east at 2 o’clock P.M. EST
on August 13th, 2012. It
spoke about a hypothetical tornado striking the Washington, D.C.
metro area. You know…, it was one of
those typical doomsday type of hypothetical shows. But the timing of the airing of the show as I
was pondering the subject question inspired me to post this blog entry.
Again, as I had been thinking on the storm that had been
heading for us in South Jersey which apparently was diverted by the City of
Philadelphia and the concurrent airing of that tornado disaster show seemed to
confirm for me that this blog was probably worth writing to pose the question
that I believe is probably worth posing: Can cities divert tornadoes and severe
storms? Is anyone else asking these
types of questions; most notably the nation’s established tornado
researchers? Or, are the established
tornado researchers too vested in their typical paradigms regarding tornado
research to consider such possibly avant-garde theories which they probably
dismiss as a matter of mere chance? This
last question concerning paradigms also appears as another question probably
worth posing as well; again, in my humble opinion. And while many may say that this blog entry and
its presented question is ‘probably’ a display of improper logic, I would
counter that maybe some skewed logic might be necessary to answer the questions
concerning the formation of tornadoes.
AVT
The Finger of God – A Tornado
July 7th, 2012 Forecast
It Could Happen Tomorrow
Why don't tornadoes hit cities more often?
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