April 25, 2016 • 43 mins
Tornadoes can make mincemeat out of houses, people, cars, you name it. So do you know what to do - and what not to do - when there's one headed your way?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start
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ten percent off squar Space. Set your website apart. Welcome
to you Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
(00:25):
Clark reporting from the eye of the Tornado, which is
why it's quiet and calm. Oh wait, that's a hurricane. Uh.
And there's Charles that you took Bryant and Jerry's over there,
and the section howdy sir, how are you? I'm good. Um.
I should say right off the bat that my wife
Emily is kind of obsessed with tornadoes from her childhood
(00:50):
growing up in Ohio, which we'll talk about Tornado Alley,
but some people put parts of Ohio and Tornado Alley. Yeah,
some people do. My family did. Yeh. Was it like
a thing growing up tornado aware at the end of
tornado Alley, right, I mean you'd see them, so the
tornado might come knock and then here's what we'll do. Well, yeah,
(01:12):
and we did it plenty of times. Go down in
the basement for practice or tornadoes all right, Yeah, sure, no,
Ohio is definitely at the end of Tornado Alley. I
know if you look at the map, it doesn't look
like most of it is. Well it depends on what map. Yeah, Um,
if you look at the Clark family map and apparently
the Seneboguan family map, it's on Tornado Alley. Yeah. So
(01:34):
she's still obsessed with tornadoes and the movie Twister. Every
time it's on, she'll watch whatever part of it is on.
It's a good one. But I think also you you
may you could make the argument that Twister kind of
um cinematizes tornadoes. You think you maybe it's a little
(01:54):
although there are some parts where it's like you should
not be telling people to do this, like out running
a tornado. Yeah, that's a good thing to not do.
As a matter of fact. Well, we saw I watched
there was some video going around the other day of
a lady who survived the tornado that went through. I
think she was a FedEx driver at a convenience store
and it's just like this camera footage and she kind
(02:15):
of ducks behind a soda machine and you just see
it go through and just wreck everything. And then she
walks out and I told Emily, I was like, this
is your worst nightmare, and she said yes. I said,
but it's also you're your deepest desire. Oh it's like
that for her. Huh. I think so, she said, if
I know I could survive it, I think it might
be my deepest desire to like get through a tornado
(02:37):
going right over me. So that's herb session runs deep.
So you've seen that footage of those people under an
overpass for the video, Like the tornado appears to go
right over the overpass the underpass. What's the difference. I
think if you're going over the road below, you're on
the overpass, if you're underneath the overpass underpass, Okay, I think,
(03:00):
all right, yeah, I'm sure some highways civil engineer, so
um chuck uh. There are plenty things that Emily should
do and shouldn't do if she's going to survive that
tornado that she secretly really wants to experience. All right,
(03:21):
And there's a lot of myths associated with tornadoes, Like
I grew up, you didn't grow up with tornadoes. Well,
I mean Georgia has tornadoes here and there here there, Yeah,
Like it seems like I've seen them in the in
the North Georgia Mountains before. Like I remember one time
when I went to go drive to go camping, there
had been a recent tornado and there were some houses
that were just toothpicks. Yes, as a matter of fact,
(03:44):
I think there was a bad one in Ringold, you remember,
which is a little north of here Um and you,
me and I were driving through and it was like
pines that you could see where it crossed the highway
because there was this a swath of pine trees, like
you said, there has just been crushed like toothpicks on
one side and then on the other side, but then
not further up and not further south. It was pretty neat,
(04:04):
but it was also like, oh yeah, like a bunch
of people died here. It is definitely weird when you
see like a house will be splintered in the next
door neighbors is fine, Yes, it's just so like creepy.
It is very random. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty pretty creepy.
Were you and you me on your way to Dollywood
by any chance? That's it's entirely possible. I just figured
(04:26):
anytime you get in a car and head north, you're
probably going to Dollywood Point or North you me, okay. So, um,
we're talking tornadoes, and there's tons of myths and legends
associated with them, some of them even um discussed and
put put out there by scientists, as we'll see. But
one of the big ones, it's pretty sad one, is
(04:47):
the idea that tornadoes seek out, um, mobile home parks.
Trailer parks. Yeah, that's sort of the old joke, you
know it is, and uh it's pretty grim joke. But
the weird thing is is it appears to be true
that trailer parks are likelier to be hit by tornadoes
(05:08):
than immobile homes, homes on foundations, neighborhood subdivisions, that kind
of thing. Well, I think it's probably correct to say
it might appear that way for several reasons. Go ahead, yeah,
well yeah, Well one reason is that, um, there there's
clearly a media bias when it comes to showing tornado
(05:29):
footage because uh, they tend to show the most damage
on the six o'clock news. That is absolutely true. So
mobile home is way more likely to be completely destroyed
than like, ah, a concrete house, let's say. And and
the reasons why they're pretty obvious, but they're worth mentioning.
And mobile home is made out of much more lightweight
(05:52):
material than UH, immobile home. Is that what you would
call it? I would say, I don't want to call
it a permanent foundation. Nice. And that leads us to
number two. Number two is that a mobile home is
by definition, usually not anchored to the ground through a
foundation like a permanent structure. It's like a home, all right.
(06:16):
And so you put those two things together. When a
tornado comes through UH, it creates horrible devastation, not just
to the mobile homes, but to the people inside. And
you're much more likely to die in a tornado if
you live in a mobile home than in a permanent structure. Yeah.
It says here that a larger building could possibly would
stand up to a hundred miles an hour on UH
(06:38):
for wind, whereas fifty five could be really devastating in
a mobile home. Yeah. And so people in mobile homes
in the United States are ten to twenty more ten
to twenty times likelier to be killed in a tornado
than someone who lives in a permanent foundation home. Yeah.
And I said concrete house earlier, Um, I didn't mean
(06:58):
brick house, I mean eat house. Yeah, because they have
one in my neighborhood like a cinder block house. Yeah,
it's concrete house, but a brick house to that counts.
Those concrete houses are built like a brick house. Uh.
The other thing that we found out is UM Purdue
University at one point did a little research and found
(07:20):
out that tornadoes, Uh, you're more than likely gonna find
a tornado what they call a transition zone where you
may be transition from a more dense city area to
a more rural area where the land changes. Yeah, and
they produced studied tornadoes and Indiana specifically from nineteen fifty
(07:41):
two twelve and found that they are um much likelier
to touch down in these transition zones. Right, But that
doesn't explain why. They just were able to say, yes,
this happens more frequently, and it just so happens that
these are places where mobile home parks and trailer parks
are likelier to be Yeah. There usually not like in
the middle of the city. So they were saying that
(08:02):
it is actually likely or for a mobile home to
be hit more by a tornado, possibly because it's right
there in the spot where they would they would hit. Um.
But again, we don't know why I have a pet
theory here, I think that we don't well, it's clear
we don't understand tornadoes yet very well enough, and not
(08:23):
just us scientists too. Um. And I think one of
the things that we're gonna learn about tornadoes as we
understand them more and more is that they're guided or
attracted to static electricity. Mobile homes tend to be made
out of more metal than brick or wood homes or
concrete homes, and so would generate more static electricity, and
(08:45):
um could possibly serve as kind of almost a beacon
to a tornado that would attract it. That's my guess.
And then, um, do you also remember back in I
don't remember when it wasn't I couldn't find it on
the web, but either in by Anna or k ro
which if you live outside of Georgia it's Vienna or Cairo. Um,
(09:06):
there was a mobile home factory that got hit by
a tornado. I think I do remember that. You remember,
made pretty big news because everybody's like irony and the
old joke. So that's my pet theory. Static electricity off
of mobile homes attracts tornadoes. Did you come up with
that all all in your lonesome Yeah? Used my nogging
pretty good, thanks man. Uh. Should we move on to
(09:29):
the underpass overpass quandary? Yeah? Um, you will hear. You
probably have heard, because the the rationale used to be, Hey,
if you're out on the highway, get out of your
car and run under that overpass or underpass and huddle.
Makes total sense. Or or drive your car under there
and sit there. Yeah, and drive your car under and
(09:52):
then run up to the part where the overpass meets
the underpass and just wedge yourself in as much as
you can. The safest place ever where skateboard or spray
paint exactly. Yeah, and smoke marijuana for the first time.
It's uh, it makes total senses. Are extraordinarily sturdy concrete structures,
and anybody who knows anything about tornadoes knows that you
(10:15):
want to be in a concrete structure. But the caveat
is that you want that thing to be an enclosed
concrete structure, either in some sort of concrete walls with
a concrete roof or underground or something like that. And
an overpass or underpass is actually a tornado uh frenzy
(10:35):
whipping machine. It actually will do the opposite. It's one
of the worst places you can go. Yeah. It creates
what they call a wind tunnel effect, so that the
wind and the underpass is stronger than the wind on
the ground or above it. Yeah. It funnels the wind
through and increases its velocity, so the wind is actually
faster in the underpass. And with that wind, as you know,
(10:56):
comes uh all kinds of debris that will impale your
body without even feeling bad about it. Yeah, it gets
whipped up by that wind tunnel. And then when the
tornado passes, that debris that's in the air is going
to suddenly like shift and come back for a second
glancing blow if you're lucky. Yeah. I was just thinking
(11:17):
when you said to hide all the way up at
the very tip top that if the tornado was going
parallel and like literally was as if it was going
down the highway above you, Uh, that maybe there is
something to that, But tornadoes are so wide, it's not
like it's as wide as that street. Well. Yeah, and
and the this article also makes the point that just
(11:38):
the part of the funnel that touches the ground is
not the only place where there's winds. There's high winds
all around the tornado as well. You just don't necessarily
see them and that video there we talked about the
very famous video of the people taking shelter underneath and
overpass and filming it as the tornado goes by overhead.
Apparently they were being subjected to um something called an
(12:01):
inflow jet, uh, surface inflow jet, which was wind whipping
off the ground toward the tornado. So they weren't actually
in the path of the tornado. The tornado is like, yeah,
pretty close, like thirty over and to them they were like,
it was the tornado, but it actually wasn't. Had it
been the tornado, they may not have survived. And they
(12:22):
were actually very lucky to have survived anyway. So um,
but a lot of people point to them and they're like, yeah,
that's exactly what you should do. See And that's a
total anomaly that those people survived. Right, You can't take
one video and say this is the standard. Exactly these
people lived, even though it's amazing. Yeah, although they did
say the um the FedEx driver was super smart for
(12:42):
wedging herself between two soda machines. Oh yeah, although I
could she could have been squashed by those two. Well
it worked out for her. Yeah, let's just say that
There's one other problem with taking shelter under an overpass too, um,
is when you park your car around there, it's gonna
(13:03):
get kicked up by the tornado and possibly land on
its side in the middle of the road, so that
when the tornado passes and the paramedics need to get
through there to get to rescue people, they're gonna have
a hard time with your car on its side in
the middle of the road because you left it right
in the path of the tornado. Yeah. Plus there's a
problem with people. Well, we'll we'll get we'll get to
(13:25):
trying to outrun a tornado here in a minute, all right,
should we take a break. Let's take a break, man,
(13:51):
all right, Josh. There's another old thing that you've probably
heard growing up in Toledo, which is, uh, if you
see a tornado or you know a tornado's coming, um,
open up your windows so it can just pass on through.
Makes total sense. Yeah, not necessarily passed through. But uh, like,
was it de pressurized the home maybe? Yeah? So um uh,
(14:13):
tornado is driven by low pressure winds, right or a
low pressure front. Um. And the idea was that if
the pressure was higher in your house than the tornado
outside your house would explode. And it was actually this
is what scientists told people to do for many years.
He said, go open your windows. I remember that. I
(14:34):
don't remember us ever opening our windows, but I remember
it was like I should you shouldn't use kind of thing. Um.
And the problem is is that ways tear like a
tremendous amount of time windows when you need to be
taking shelter somewhere. Um. And then secondly, it does absolutely nothing.
As a matter of fact, it can. It can have
even different effects than if you left the window closed. Yeah.
(14:56):
I wonder if um that started because they didn't know
much about it, and they would say, well, that house
looks like it exploded. Um, because they do look like
it they exploded, but they didn't. Have you ever seen
one up close? What the wreckage? Yeah? Well just driving
by it like you know, like a house. Yeah, yeah,
like on the on the road, and then the house
(15:17):
was beside the road. But I didn't like walk through it.
You was telling me once about when she was a
kid down south, um, that there was a neighborhood that
just got just leveled. And she was actually talking about
how it just insane it is when you're seeing a
house that's standing, but everything around it's like totally destroyed.
But she was like, this is like it was unnerving
just the destruction, like seeing houses like that because you know,
(15:39):
they're supposed to be solid and safe. Yeah, they're not
supposed to look like they exploded or anything like that.
Although if you've ever done house construction and stuff like that,
I remember, I don't know I had this idea I
had that I don't I don't think I knew how
houses were built. And then once I sort of did
a little bit and I was like, oh man, this
is just there's just a bunch of wood, you know.
(16:03):
So I mean it makes sense, but it is very
distressing to see that turned into toothpicks. Um. So if
you did go to the trouble of opening all of
the windows in your house right and the tornado came
through and it didn't actually level your house, because that's
the other thing with opening the windows. The tornado could
care less about the lower high pressure which is gonna
(16:24):
level your house if it wants to see if it
gets in the way. Um, But if you if it
did just pass by enough that it didn't level your
house and the windows are open, it could conceivably blow
the roof off the sucker because because those windows are open,
apparently the the the tornado actually raises the pressure in
(16:44):
the house upward somehow, and then gusts can lift the
roof right off. And they did this. They figured this
out by doing tests. And I looked everywhere to find
out who conducted this test and how they did it.
Couldn't find anything that thing. Maybe I was always just
wondered though, And they were like, we performed tests, right,
(17:07):
trust me. How do you blow the roof off of
a house and a test? Yeah, or simulated tornado? Yeah,
you cut on a smaller scale. But does it does
it graduate upward? I don't know. I'm thinking to me,
I'm off today. No, you're not. I feel off. Oh,
you're right on. I gave blood for the first time
on Sunday. Oh. I thought you about to say, like
an hour ago, you saw it. That's the first time
(17:31):
you've ever given blood in your life? Really? Yeah, And
you're like, man, I waited way too long. You're gonna
start giving blood too much. Probably you're gonna be like,
take my platelets, take up. I'll be like Peggy Hill,
what happened to her. Oh she got into a blood
donating contest with her next door neighbor min basically to
see who was the most generous. That's pretty funny, and
(17:54):
she really went overboard. Did you eat some nutter butters
and have some juice nutter butters and uh a little
welch is um? Yeah? See. I used to not give
us blood blood as much because I was severely needle phobic.
But um, needles have gotten so much smaller now. Ay
and um, if you get you know someone who does
(18:16):
how to do it properly, it's really not that bad.
Oh No, it wasn't bad at all. I'm like, I
really am ashamed that I waited this long in my life.
For years, years, honestly years, I was under the impression
that you couldn't give blood if you had a tattoo.
Oh yeah, that old thing. Yeah. And then um, I
met you me and she was like, why why don't
(18:37):
you donate blood? Yeah? She's like, what's your problems? Right?
And I told her and she's like, no, that's not
true at all. Right, and then and then three or
four years five years later, six years later, I was like,
all right, let's do it. Well, you can make up
for it now. And hey people out there, you might
have some Josh Clark blood pump into your body soon.
How about that? Pretty neat? What were you? I can't
(18:57):
remember your blood type? It was? It was you and
Jerry were the same positive beat. So am I We
have the same type, so a positive. I love that
Jerry speaks especially quietly. Can you make sure you edit
yourself out? Okay? Yeah, because you were both a positive
remember that because you made the joke I had the
same that you're a positive person or something like that.
It's a good way to remember it. Jerry would have
(19:19):
known that we have the same blood type as she
came to our live show. Um, Jerry could get some
Josh blood. Do you know how upsetting that would be
for you? What if one you had to rely on
the other to live? Yeah, if like Jerry cut herself
and got some blood and it turned out to be mine,
if she cut herself. Uh, should we move to the bathtub, sir?
(19:41):
Let's um the old I'm gonna call it an old
wives tale that go get in the bathtub because that's
a really safe place in your home to withstand the tornado.
Because bathtubs are strong and and thick, and they're not.
Though you were talking about houses being made of like
(20:01):
wood and drywall, A bathtubs just like a fiber lass
shell around a two by four frame. What's your bathtub
depends on what kind of bathtub you do. If you
have like an old cloth footed iron tub, that's what
I got. I could withstand anything and that thing. Okay,
so most people don't have that. They have and you think,
like you're getting in a bathtub, you're like, oh, this
thing is pretty sturdy. But really, if you if you
could pick it up, it's just fireglass around two by fours.
(20:25):
You're like, I've kicked a hole in the five bathtubs.
It's easy. I'm on at least five. Uh. So the
logic is is that it's heavy, uh and sturdy. Um.
And I think a lot of this logic came out
from the day when bathtubs were sturdier than they are now.
I agree with you, But either way, it's not it's
(20:45):
only a good idea if that bathtub happens to be
in a safe part of your home. Precisely right, So,
in a safe party of your home is a room
with no exterior facing walls, no exterior facing windows obviously. Um,
if your bathtub is in a bathroom with an exterior
facing wall or exterior facing window, is that superfluouced I
(21:07):
need to say that, Um, just do not get in
your bathtub because that wall in that room is very
likely to be ripped apart by a tornado, even if
the rest of the house isn't. So you want to
go as much into the center of your house as
possible and as windowless a room as possible, say like
a closet inside your house, So surrounded by as many
(21:28):
rooms as possible. So, if you have a bathtub and
a kill dungeon, go to the kill dungeon you set. Yeah,
if you have a don't have a bathtub in there.
If you have a cloth at tub and the kill dungeon,
then you're you're golden. You could just go ahead and
take a bath, so chuck. Another legend about tornadoes seems
to be that they avoid cities. Yeah, but it's kind
(21:51):
of like the same thing as the mobile home thing.
If my theory is incorrect. Um, where it just seems
that way. The reason why is because there's way more
rural area in the United States than there is city. Yeah,
even though most people live in cities. They're packed in there,
which is why we're all stressed out. That's right, of
(22:14):
the population in the US lives in urban centers. But
it happens Oklahoma City. Um in what year was this
two they had? They had one, one, two, huge, right,
and e F five And that is based on the
Fujita tornado scale. Could have sworn. We did a show
(22:35):
in tornadoes. I specifically remember saying that tornado is formed
because there's this a horizontal columns swirling air that eventually
like moves down and becomes vertical, and that's your tornado. Well,
we did a very in the early days of the
five minute episodes. We did one about being in the
eye of the tornado. You know what it might have been?
(22:57):
Can it really rain frogs maybe? Or did we talk
about water spots separately or was that the same episode
that was the one where you predicted Sharknado, which I
got nothing for. So Oklahoma City in n nine was
an e F five, which is the strongest possible tornado
(23:19):
on the tornado scale. I was looking into the Fogita scale.
So apparently Theodore Foujita made up the scale like out
a whole cloth basically without doing real investigation into it.
He just said, I'm teddy Fujita. Yeah, I would I
say with tornado, but he said, like, we'll say, n
F five is like this. But he didn't actually go
(23:41):
out and compare the wind speeds to the level of destruction.
He didn't do that that leg work. Who is he
and why did we listen to him? Apparently everybody liked
the name of his scale because they went out and
adjusted it. So it's been since adjusted to where it
now actually reflects reality a lot better thing. But in
F five is as as like you said, it's as
(24:03):
bad as it gets, um, and the it can just
keep getting worse and worse. There's no F six or
F seven or anything like that. But um, it's like
an F five plus. Even the even the minimum F
five though, is mind boggling in its destruction. So that
went through Oklahoma City in nineteen, which is clearly a
biggest city, did a billion dollars with a damage and
(24:26):
killed thirty six people. So that, yeah, that's pretty devastating
for a city. Yeah. And then two thousand thirteen, like
you said, another one hit, Uh, twenty five people were
killed and that was both in the city and UH
in the suburbs outside the city. But we had one
in Atlanta in two thousand eight. Yeah, I remember where
I was because it was the day before my birthday.
(24:48):
Oh yeah, it was yeah, and um, the day before
the IDEs of March. I was at UH in Kirkwood
having pizza with Emily and Justin and Emily sister Sarah
and a. You know, it was like a bad storm clearly,
but Emily said, oh my god, it's raining sideways and
we looked out the window and the rain was blowing sideways.
The wind was blowing so hard, and we were just like, man,
(25:10):
that's crazy, let's get another beer. Um. And I guess
if we were in Kirkwood, Cabbage Town is less than
like three miles away, and that's where it hit, was
one of the places it hit, and the cotton mill offs,
so like less than a few miles away. Tornadoes were
wrecking the city and we were just in there drinking
(25:31):
and eating pizza. And we didn't until the next day
how many miles away. I mean, it had to be
what a couple of miles. Yeah, it doesn't It might
have been less than that from there to there. Yeah,
and uh pm to a little research because you kept
drinking and don't remember it. That's right. It was a
super cell moved in the heart of downtown Atlanta, and
(25:51):
this is during the that's right SEC basketball tournament, and
it blew the windows out in the west in yeah,
the Peachtree Plaza Hotel, and they put plywood up over
the windows and left it there for like a year
and a half. It was longer than that, because I
remember driving and saying and I remember reading why it
took so long was because they were specialty windows when
it was built back in the seventies or whatever. I
(26:13):
remember thinking like, how hard could it be to construct
new glass? I totally forgot about that. Like two years
later it was. And like, for those of you who
don't live in Atlanta aren't familiar, this building is basically
like the icon of the Atlanta Skyline, sort of the
center tall building. Yeah, very very tall, cylindrical building with
like a revolving restaurant on the top. It's impossible the
(26:36):
miss and it was dotted with plywood for two years.
Totally forgot about that. So the SEC basketball tournament was
going on at the Georgia Dome and there was an
NBA game being played, and I think you know, stuff
like happened in the Georgia Dome. They had to stop
the game for a minute. Crazy. Yeah, hundred and thirty
(26:57):
miles an hour in f two not to ad. Not
too shabby. That's respectable for a city tornado, all right, Yeah,
and thankfully only one person lost their life in that one,
um which, if you think about it, is pretty remarkable
considering how you know a lot of people in the area.
Um So you've got Oklahoma City has been hit twice terribly. Atlanta,
(27:20):
Salt Lake City seen plenty of tornadoes, same with Dallas.
In Miami, did not know about the Miami hurricane, although
it makes sense because that's the name of no, not
the hurricane and tornado. Yeah, that's what I My brain
just got zapped. Well, what are you going to say
about the hurricanes? Oh, the University of Miami. Yeah right,
(27:41):
but it wasn't a hurricane, it was a tornado. I
can believe a hurricane in Miami tornado. That's the one
I have trouble in there named the University of Miami
Severe Weather System. Right. I think we should definitely take
a break and we'll be back with more unbelievable facts.
Right after this, Chuck, I remember specifically, um, believing that
(28:27):
tornadoes were totally indigenous to North America. They only happened here.
It seems like you only hear about them here. Yeah,
you know, but apparently they do happen elsewhere. The reason
why most people think they only happened here is because
in North America we have something like I should say,
(28:47):
in the United States, not even just North America, but
in the United States we get about fourteen hundred reported
tornadoes a year. That's a lot of tornadoes. Yeah. Um,
by comparison, Europe sees about three d and that's all
of Europe. And um, apparently tornadoes do happen on every
continent except the Antarctica. But the reason that it seems
(29:09):
like they happen here only is because they happen so
much more frequently here than elsewhere. Yeah, apparently South America
has favorable conditions for tornadoes, and in between, Argentina and
Brazil especially, they have the right kind of storms to
produce tornadoes. But again, it doesn't happen as much right
(29:30):
as the United States now. And so the other aspect
of it, we go back to that same thing with
them the news covering trailer parks. It's um, a very
small proportion of tornadoes are actually like considered dangerous, something
like two or violent, I think is what they're called,
right uh, or week or strong. It was the three
(29:53):
percent of violent violent. So if you have three hundred
tornadoes a year, right, um, and only three percent of violent,
that's not gonna make news quite as often as if
you have four hundred tornadoes per year and three percent
of violent, it's gonna seem like there's tornadoes that are
just wrecking America all the time. Um. And then apparently
(30:15):
also the United States specifically and parts of Canada. But
the US is in a very unique position for tornado
for in formation, right, and we have that thing called
tornado Alley, and tornado Alley just so happens to fit
very nicely over what's also known as the Great Plains,
that's right. Uh. Specifically we are talking uh whereas here
(30:40):
central Texas head northward, northward, northward, the W is not
silent northward to in northern Iowa. Uh. And from central
Kansas and Nebraska east to western Ohio. That's what you're
talking about, uh. And that is tornado Alley. That doesn't
count floor to Apparently Florida is um a little bit
(31:03):
of its own tornado alley. Apparently in Miami too. Yeah,
but like we said, Georgia, you know, we'll have them
here and there. Yeah, yeah, because there's a tornado alley
where they um. Okay, So if you look at the
Great Plains right, it's it's relatively flat, so it allows
cool air to come down from Canada and it hits
warm air coming up from the Gulf, and they meet
(31:25):
and they form this front, this wedge that creates tornado
Alley itself. Because where those two things meet, that's where
the type of storms that can produce tornadoes are formed,
and so it forms basically, uh east west or southwest
northeast line, and that essentially is tornado Alley. Yeah. And
(31:48):
as far as weather conditions, we mentioned some of these
other countries that do have those conditions. But the difference
is in a place like the Bay of Bengal, it's
just a much narrower window of time that these conditions exist,
whereas the United States. I mean, when it's tornado season,
it's it's a much wider uh, I mean it's several months,
(32:10):
isn't it. Oh? Yeah, it's throughout the summer. Yeah, yeah,
starting in late spring, depending on where you are. And
then I think in Florida what they call Dixie Alley.
Dixie Alley, is that what they call it. That's what
it said. It doesn't even make sense. I don't associate
Florida with Dixie you know, well, of course not. It's
its own thing. It is very much its own thing. Um,
(32:31):
Dixie Alley. Yeah, they they experienced tornadoes more in the
fall late fall. Yeah, because they're not in the heart
of Tornado Alley. No, they're their own thing. They're their
own thing. Um. So then, Chuck, I feel like we've
really dispelled a lot of myths here, busted them, if
you will, probably saved some lives. We should say, rather
than just like, yeah, you're ten of twenty times likelier
(32:54):
to die in a mobile home um, and just leave
it at that. If you do live in a mobile
home community, after you're listening to this episode, I want
you to get on your laptop or your tablet or
your PC or go to the mobile home community office
and say where is the nearest tornado shelter? Because the
(33:15):
thing that you should do if you live in a
mobile home community is leave that mobile home community. When
a tornado warning has been issued tornado watch no warning
warning means that it's been seen, watches the weather is
likely to produce him. Yeah, and I think those goods.
They should just come up with better terms for that.
(33:36):
Uh look out, it's a tornado should be the should
replace uh warning? Yeah, or just like well, yeah, that's
pretty good. I'll go with that. Thanks. Um, what what
about getting in your car? Because if the average tornado
goes thirty miles an hour and the fastest ever tornado
(33:56):
on record is only seventy three, man, I'll bet that
is you would think, Man, just get in your car,
because I can go a D in my pickup truck.
I can can outrun the vast I'd go up to eight.
I could outrun the fastest tornado ever in history easily.
I do that every day on the highway. Well, you
(34:17):
could conceivably in your truck, be okay, But what about
those people who have, like, uh, a m C Gremlin.
They probably can't go a D in that thing and
their toasts. No, that is not the point, my friend.
The point is you can't. You shouldn't try to outrun
a tornado, even if you can drive faster than one.
Because tornadoes, while sort of predictable and that they usually
(34:39):
follow a straight line, you never know what they're gonna do. Um.
That's why you'll see one house spared while the others destroyed. Uh.
And they're very wide, so they'll be her off course
and before you know it, you are in the path
of the tornado, not out running the tornado. Yeah, they
can veer, they can um stop touching the ground and
then make contacting in right like you said, right in
(35:01):
front of you or right around you. Um, and they
will backtrack. There are certain conditions that tornado will double
back over its path and then go forward again. And
that just happens like out of nowhere. They're extremely unpredictable.
So yeah, you you don't know that you're driving in
the right direction, even if initially you are. And then secondly, um,
(35:22):
apparently is it Noah or the National Weather Service that says,
I think in all caps, do not get in your
car and try to outrun a tornado. It's a CDC
for some weird reason. That's not that's not a disease,
is it? Like the Center for Disease Control and Injury Prevention. Now,
though because maybe that would the injury prevention would account
(35:44):
for that. But they do say that the least desirable
place to be during the tornadoes in your vehicle, it
should be the centers for disease control and injury prevention.
But don't ask us about gun violence. Uh. In Oklahoma,
the l Reno tornado in two thousand thirteen, Yeah, that
was the one that hit Oklahoma City. Oh was it?
(36:04):
This is a talking about unpredictability. This thing, within sixty
seconds went from being a mile wide to two point
six miles wide. Uh. And it's the one the widest
one ever recorded. Uh in Tornado, United States, well, probably
all of tornado history. Man, nothing makes me think of
humans as just like fleas on the face of the
(36:24):
planet than tornadoes. This is crazy. Whether it comes out
of nowhere, picks up everything where we do and like
work for and strive for, and just kicks it into nothingness,
that's all natural disasters. To me. It's just like a
big reminder, like, hey, humans, when you're long gone, brust
you off my should there will still be earthquakes and tsunamis.
(36:45):
You know, it's a feature of the planet. Uhent of
people killed in tornadoes, uh, are in their vehicles at
the time, which doesn't necessarily mean they're trying to outrun it,
but um, you know it's no small beans, no don't.
And apparently in that the one in Oklahoma, there were
(37:06):
a couple of notable storm chasers that even have like
really great safe track records that were killed and they
people thought, you know, because these people were killed, that
might be a real signal like they can't outrun tornadoes,
nor should you try? Yeah? Is Bill Paxton and Helen
Hunt ruined it for things? I like that movie? Yeah,
(37:30):
I liked it. It was a cute movie. It kind
of holds up, actually doesn't really the special effects remarkably
hold up. That's very surprising because that was like mid nineties, right. Yeah.
And there was another tornado movie that I did not see,
just a couple of years ago. Uh, Into the Storm.
I think it looked really bad, although it had the
(37:50):
great Matt Walsh. What about nice paycheck for you, Mr
wallsh No, but he you know, he's relief, sure nice,
But yeah, I'm sure he did just fine on that one.
Um did you see San Andreas? Uh? I saw about
(38:12):
it and the other sixt I fast forwarded through. I
fast forwarded through everything except for all the devastation. That's
like the only part I cared about. Oh so it
was six non devastation. That ratio is off, agreed. Huh,
that's disappointing because I kind of wanted to see it.
It looked like it would be kind of interesting. It's
Hollywood drec well, not that many disaster flicks aren't. Although
(38:38):
Towering Inferno that was a great movie, straight up great movie.
Same with them The Poseidon Adventure, Oh my god, the
boat that I was about to call it the boat
that flipped upside down. But the original Yeah, definitely not
the remakes. Why did they even bother? No? Actually, now
i'm thinking about it, Disaster flicks were good movies in
the seventies. Airport great? Was it just Airport? And then
(39:02):
Airport seventy seven was the sequel? I think so. I
think they made like three or four after that too.
They don't make them like that anymore, my friend. Now, well,
if you want to know more about tornadoes, we've got
a mess of articles on how stuff works about them.
You can type the word tornado or at an e
before you pluralize it in the search bar at how
Stuff Works dot com and it will bring up great stuff.
(39:26):
Since I said search parts time for listener mail, I'm
gonna call this Josh's pick for listener mail because you
picked it, yes, said japan Centric. Well your favorite places, right, yeah,
I'll explain all right. Um, hey, guys that just listened
to the show on nostalgia and then, although I'm a
(39:47):
big Hodgman van h Japan is perhaps not the place
for him. Um. I find it fascinating that I'm living
in Japan, where the feeling of nostalgia is one of
the most treasured emotional experiences. The Japanese word for it
is you want to say it, I have to see
it in running, but I can pronounce it, uh not sukashi, notasukashi.
(40:08):
And um that was actually why I picked this, because
I was telling you you mean that we did one
on nostalgias. It's like he talked about not Sukashi right, Well,
here we are, uh not sukashi. Is that she eat
It's so close that it almost sounds like an extended
eye because you don't want it right, but you don't
want to make it like right right right, But it's
(40:29):
like it's like just a little extra something on that
I I love it. Uh. That place connotes a feeling
of pleasant sorrow and sometimes a beauty. An interesting example
is cherry blossom season. The season just commence here, and
I'm told that one of the reasons Japanese love the
season so much is it it's so short lived, lasting
only about two weeks each year. Uh. The short lived
(40:51):
beauty cultivates the pleasant sadness feeling even when the trees
are in full blue. And my friends indulge in pre
nostalgia knowing that we'll all end soon, and this adds
to their enjoyment and depth of the experience. That's really lovely,
isn't it. If this sounds a bit overboard, I should
mention that cherry blossom viewing feels somewhat like a spectator
sport here, and droves of people turn out for picnics
under the trees with their high end cameras ready to
(41:13):
capture the perfect photo. Also found it interesting that one
of the positive outcomes of nostalgia you mentioned is that
it reminds us that life is worth living in light
of the extremely long work hours and brutal commutes on
rush hour trains. No wonder Japanese really foster nostalgia to
remind them of life's simple joys. I think she's onto
something here. By the way I lived uh. I moved
(41:35):
to Tokyo last September and discovered your podcast last fall.
Living here involves lots of walking and train time. Your
podcasts are perfect entertainment as I'm moving about the city.
That is from Rebecca, Texan living in Tokyo. Thanks a lot.
That's a great email, Rebecca, appreciate it. So you've experienced
that feeling that's a cashi Yeah, yeah, and nostalgia. Do
you toast and say that out loud and now you
(41:58):
go come pile when you okay? Uh? Not takashi is
you're just quietly shedding into your think about something very
lovely from when you were child. Would just feel those
big dummies in Japan look at Yeah, he's toasting something
that's sad. Uh No, No, it's not like that. I
think it's um. I don't. I'm not an expert on
(42:18):
not takashi, but I think it's not quite nostalgia. It's
just it's very close to it. It's just something there's
just something more. It's more of like an investigation on
nostalgia more of a relishing kind of thing. Interesting. Yeah,
I love Japan. I hope to go one day. You
will love it, I mean, you'll absolutely love it. Just
(42:41):
an amazing place. You've gotta get Emily on board for
that flight. It's a pain. And when you come back,
depending on what direction you're traveling, where you're flying from,
you are nuts from jet leg for like two weeks. Yeah,
it always seems like you're just, uh, you don't even
know which way is up for more for like two weeks,
just like when is this gonna end? In like the
first five days? Just go buy in this haze that
(43:04):
you're not even aware of. Crazy, Yeah, Japan. If you
want to get in touch with us, you can tweet
to us at s by sk podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at
how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
at home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
(43:27):
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
it how stuff Works dot com
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ten percent off squar Space. Set your website apart. Welcome
to you Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
(00:25):
Clark reporting from the eye of the Tornado, which is
why it's quiet and calm. Oh wait, that's a hurricane. Uh.
And there's Charles that you took Bryant and Jerry's over there,
and the section howdy sir, how are you? I'm good. Um.
I should say right off the bat that my wife
Emily is kind of obsessed with tornadoes from her childhood
(00:50):
growing up in Ohio, which we'll talk about Tornado Alley,
but some people put parts of Ohio and Tornado Alley. Yeah,
some people do. My family did. Yeh. Was it like
a thing growing up tornado aware at the end of
tornado Alley, right, I mean you'd see them, so the
tornado might come knock and then here's what we'll do. Well, yeah,
(01:12):
and we did it plenty of times. Go down in
the basement for practice or tornadoes all right, Yeah, sure, no,
Ohio is definitely at the end of Tornado Alley. I
know if you look at the map, it doesn't look
like most of it is. Well it depends on what map. Yeah, Um,
if you look at the Clark family map and apparently
the Seneboguan family map, it's on Tornado Alley. Yeah. So
(01:34):
she's still obsessed with tornadoes and the movie Twister. Every
time it's on, she'll watch whatever part of it is on.
It's a good one. But I think also you you
may you could make the argument that Twister kind of
um cinematizes tornadoes. You think you maybe it's a little
(01:54):
although there are some parts where it's like you should
not be telling people to do this, like out running
a tornado. Yeah, that's a good thing to not do.
As a matter of fact. Well, we saw I watched
there was some video going around the other day of
a lady who survived the tornado that went through. I
think she was a FedEx driver at a convenience store
and it's just like this camera footage and she kind
(02:15):
of ducks behind a soda machine and you just see
it go through and just wreck everything. And then she
walks out and I told Emily, I was like, this
is your worst nightmare, and she said yes. I said,
but it's also you're your deepest desire. Oh it's like
that for her. Huh. I think so, she said, if
I know I could survive it, I think it might
be my deepest desire to like get through a tornado
(02:37):
going right over me. So that's herb session runs deep.
So you've seen that footage of those people under an
overpass for the video, Like the tornado appears to go
right over the overpass the underpass. What's the difference. I
think if you're going over the road below, you're on
the overpass, if you're underneath the overpass underpass, Okay, I think,
(03:00):
all right, yeah, I'm sure some highways civil engineer, so
um chuck uh. There are plenty things that Emily should
do and shouldn't do if she's going to survive that
tornado that she secretly really wants to experience. All right,
(03:21):
And there's a lot of myths associated with tornadoes, Like
I grew up, you didn't grow up with tornadoes. Well,
I mean Georgia has tornadoes here and there here there, Yeah,
Like it seems like I've seen them in the in
the North Georgia Mountains before. Like I remember one time
when I went to go drive to go camping, there
had been a recent tornado and there were some houses
that were just toothpicks. Yes, as a matter of fact,
(03:44):
I think there was a bad one in Ringold, you remember,
which is a little north of here Um and you,
me and I were driving through and it was like
pines that you could see where it crossed the highway
because there was this a swath of pine trees, like
you said, there has just been crushed like toothpicks on
one side and then on the other side, but then
not further up and not further south. It was pretty neat,
(04:04):
but it was also like, oh yeah, like a bunch
of people died here. It is definitely weird when you
see like a house will be splintered in the next
door neighbors is fine, Yes, it's just so like creepy.
It is very random. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty pretty creepy.
Were you and you me on your way to Dollywood
by any chance? That's it's entirely possible. I just figured
(04:26):
anytime you get in a car and head north, you're
probably going to Dollywood Point or North you me, okay. So, um,
we're talking tornadoes, and there's tons of myths and legends
associated with them, some of them even um discussed and
put put out there by scientists, as we'll see. But
one of the big ones, it's pretty sad one, is
(04:47):
the idea that tornadoes seek out, um, mobile home parks.
Trailer parks. Yeah, that's sort of the old joke, you
know it is, and uh it's pretty grim joke. But
the weird thing is is it appears to be true
that trailer parks are likelier to be hit by tornadoes
(05:08):
than immobile homes, homes on foundations, neighborhood subdivisions, that kind
of thing. Well, I think it's probably correct to say
it might appear that way for several reasons. Go ahead, yeah,
well yeah, Well one reason is that, um, there there's
clearly a media bias when it comes to showing tornado
(05:29):
footage because uh, they tend to show the most damage
on the six o'clock news. That is absolutely true. So
mobile home is way more likely to be completely destroyed
than like, ah, a concrete house, let's say. And and
the reasons why they're pretty obvious, but they're worth mentioning.
And mobile home is made out of much more lightweight
(05:52):
material than UH, immobile home. Is that what you would
call it? I would say, I don't want to call
it a permanent foundation. Nice. And that leads us to
number two. Number two is that a mobile home is
by definition, usually not anchored to the ground through a
foundation like a permanent structure. It's like a home, all right.
(06:16):
And so you put those two things together. When a
tornado comes through UH, it creates horrible devastation, not just
to the mobile homes, but to the people inside. And
you're much more likely to die in a tornado if
you live in a mobile home than in a permanent structure. Yeah.
It says here that a larger building could possibly would
stand up to a hundred miles an hour on UH
(06:38):
for wind, whereas fifty five could be really devastating in
a mobile home. Yeah. And so people in mobile homes
in the United States are ten to twenty more ten
to twenty times likelier to be killed in a tornado
than someone who lives in a permanent foundation home. Yeah.
And I said concrete house earlier, Um, I didn't mean
(06:58):
brick house, I mean eat house. Yeah, because they have
one in my neighborhood like a cinder block house. Yeah,
it's concrete house, but a brick house to that counts.
Those concrete houses are built like a brick house. Uh.
The other thing that we found out is UM Purdue
University at one point did a little research and found
(07:20):
out that tornadoes, Uh, you're more than likely gonna find
a tornado what they call a transition zone where you
may be transition from a more dense city area to
a more rural area where the land changes. Yeah, and
they produced studied tornadoes and Indiana specifically from nineteen fifty
(07:41):
two twelve and found that they are um much likelier
to touch down in these transition zones. Right, But that
doesn't explain why. They just were able to say, yes,
this happens more frequently, and it just so happens that
these are places where mobile home parks and trailer parks
are likelier to be Yeah. There usually not like in
the middle of the city. So they were saying that
(08:02):
it is actually likely or for a mobile home to
be hit more by a tornado, possibly because it's right
there in the spot where they would they would hit. Um.
But again, we don't know why I have a pet
theory here, I think that we don't well, it's clear
we don't understand tornadoes yet very well enough, and not
(08:23):
just us scientists too. Um. And I think one of
the things that we're gonna learn about tornadoes as we
understand them more and more is that they're guided or
attracted to static electricity. Mobile homes tend to be made
out of more metal than brick or wood homes or
concrete homes, and so would generate more static electricity, and
(08:45):
um could possibly serve as kind of almost a beacon
to a tornado that would attract it. That's my guess.
And then, um, do you also remember back in I
don't remember when it wasn't I couldn't find it on
the web, but either in by Anna or k ro
which if you live outside of Georgia it's Vienna or Cairo. Um,
(09:06):
there was a mobile home factory that got hit by
a tornado. I think I do remember that. You remember,
made pretty big news because everybody's like irony and the
old joke. So that's my pet theory. Static electricity off
of mobile homes attracts tornadoes. Did you come up with
that all all in your lonesome Yeah? Used my nogging
pretty good, thanks man. Uh. Should we move on to
(09:29):
the underpass overpass quandary? Yeah? Um, you will hear. You
probably have heard, because the the rationale used to be, Hey,
if you're out on the highway, get out of your
car and run under that overpass or underpass and huddle.
Makes total sense. Or or drive your car under there
and sit there. Yeah, and drive your car under and
(09:52):
then run up to the part where the overpass meets
the underpass and just wedge yourself in as much as
you can. The safest place ever where skateboard or spray
paint exactly. Yeah, and smoke marijuana for the first time.
It's uh, it makes total senses. Are extraordinarily sturdy concrete structures,
and anybody who knows anything about tornadoes knows that you
(10:15):
want to be in a concrete structure. But the caveat
is that you want that thing to be an enclosed
concrete structure, either in some sort of concrete walls with
a concrete roof or underground or something like that. And
an overpass or underpass is actually a tornado uh frenzy
(10:35):
whipping machine. It actually will do the opposite. It's one
of the worst places you can go. Yeah. It creates
what they call a wind tunnel effect, so that the
wind and the underpass is stronger than the wind on
the ground or above it. Yeah. It funnels the wind
through and increases its velocity, so the wind is actually
faster in the underpass. And with that wind, as you know,
(10:56):
comes uh all kinds of debris that will impale your
body without even feeling bad about it. Yeah, it gets
whipped up by that wind tunnel. And then when the
tornado passes, that debris that's in the air is going
to suddenly like shift and come back for a second
glancing blow if you're lucky. Yeah. I was just thinking
(11:17):
when you said to hide all the way up at
the very tip top that if the tornado was going
parallel and like literally was as if it was going
down the highway above you, Uh, that maybe there is
something to that, But tornadoes are so wide, it's not
like it's as wide as that street. Well. Yeah, and
and the this article also makes the point that just
(11:38):
the part of the funnel that touches the ground is
not the only place where there's winds. There's high winds
all around the tornado as well. You just don't necessarily
see them and that video there we talked about the
very famous video of the people taking shelter underneath and
overpass and filming it as the tornado goes by overhead.
Apparently they were being subjected to um something called an
(12:01):
inflow jet, uh, surface inflow jet, which was wind whipping
off the ground toward the tornado. So they weren't actually
in the path of the tornado. The tornado is like, yeah,
pretty close, like thirty over and to them they were like,
it was the tornado, but it actually wasn't. Had it
been the tornado, they may not have survived. And they
(12:22):
were actually very lucky to have survived anyway. So um,
but a lot of people point to them and they're like, yeah,
that's exactly what you should do. See And that's a
total anomaly that those people survived. Right, You can't take
one video and say this is the standard. Exactly these
people lived, even though it's amazing. Yeah, although they did
say the um the FedEx driver was super smart for
(12:42):
wedging herself between two soda machines. Oh yeah, although I
could she could have been squashed by those two. Well
it worked out for her. Yeah, let's just say that
There's one other problem with taking shelter under an overpass too, um,
is when you park your car around there, it's gonna
(13:03):
get kicked up by the tornado and possibly land on
its side in the middle of the road, so that
when the tornado passes and the paramedics need to get
through there to get to rescue people, they're gonna have
a hard time with your car on its side in
the middle of the road because you left it right
in the path of the tornado. Yeah. Plus there's a
problem with people. Well, we'll we'll get we'll get to
(13:25):
trying to outrun a tornado here in a minute, all right,
should we take a break. Let's take a break, man,
(13:51):
all right, Josh. There's another old thing that you've probably
heard growing up in Toledo, which is, uh, if you
see a tornado or you know a tornado's coming, um,
open up your windows so it can just pass on through.
Makes total sense. Yeah, not necessarily passed through. But uh, like,
was it de pressurized the home maybe? Yeah? So um uh,
(14:13):
tornado is driven by low pressure winds, right or a
low pressure front. Um. And the idea was that if
the pressure was higher in your house than the tornado
outside your house would explode. And it was actually this
is what scientists told people to do for many years.
He said, go open your windows. I remember that. I
(14:34):
don't remember us ever opening our windows, but I remember
it was like I should you shouldn't use kind of thing. Um.
And the problem is is that ways tear like a
tremendous amount of time windows when you need to be
taking shelter somewhere. Um. And then secondly, it does absolutely nothing.
As a matter of fact, it can. It can have
even different effects than if you left the window closed. Yeah.
(14:56):
I wonder if um that started because they didn't know
much about it, and they would say, well, that house
looks like it exploded. Um, because they do look like
it they exploded, but they didn't. Have you ever seen
one up close? What the wreckage? Yeah? Well just driving
by it like you know, like a house. Yeah, yeah,
like on the on the road, and then the house
(15:17):
was beside the road. But I didn't like walk through it.
You was telling me once about when she was a
kid down south, um, that there was a neighborhood that
just got just leveled. And she was actually talking about
how it just insane it is when you're seeing a
house that's standing, but everything around it's like totally destroyed.
But she was like, this is like it was unnerving
just the destruction, like seeing houses like that because you know,
(15:39):
they're supposed to be solid and safe. Yeah, they're not
supposed to look like they exploded or anything like that.
Although if you've ever done house construction and stuff like that,
I remember, I don't know I had this idea I
had that I don't I don't think I knew how
houses were built. And then once I sort of did
a little bit and I was like, oh man, this
is just there's just a bunch of wood, you know.
(16:03):
So I mean it makes sense, but it is very
distressing to see that turned into toothpicks. Um. So if
you did go to the trouble of opening all of
the windows in your house right and the tornado came
through and it didn't actually level your house, because that's
the other thing with opening the windows. The tornado could
care less about the lower high pressure which is gonna
(16:24):
level your house if it wants to see if it
gets in the way. Um, But if you if it
did just pass by enough that it didn't level your
house and the windows are open, it could conceivably blow
the roof off the sucker because because those windows are open,
apparently the the the tornado actually raises the pressure in
(16:44):
the house upward somehow, and then gusts can lift the
roof right off. And they did this. They figured this
out by doing tests. And I looked everywhere to find
out who conducted this test and how they did it.
Couldn't find anything that thing. Maybe I was always just
wondered though, And they were like, we performed tests, right,
(17:07):
trust me. How do you blow the roof off of
a house and a test? Yeah, or simulated tornado? Yeah,
you cut on a smaller scale. But does it does
it graduate upward? I don't know. I'm thinking to me,
I'm off today. No, you're not. I feel off. Oh,
you're right on. I gave blood for the first time
on Sunday. Oh. I thought you about to say, like
an hour ago, you saw it. That's the first time
(17:31):
you've ever given blood in your life? Really? Yeah, And
you're like, man, I waited way too long. You're gonna
start giving blood too much. Probably you're gonna be like,
take my platelets, take up. I'll be like Peggy Hill,
what happened to her. Oh she got into a blood
donating contest with her next door neighbor min basically to
see who was the most generous. That's pretty funny, and
(17:54):
she really went overboard. Did you eat some nutter butters
and have some juice nutter butters and uh a little
welch is um? Yeah? See. I used to not give
us blood blood as much because I was severely needle phobic.
But um, needles have gotten so much smaller now. Ay
and um, if you get you know someone who does
(18:16):
how to do it properly, it's really not that bad.
Oh No, it wasn't bad at all. I'm like, I
really am ashamed that I waited this long in my life.
For years, years, honestly years, I was under the impression
that you couldn't give blood if you had a tattoo.
Oh yeah, that old thing. Yeah. And then um, I
met you me and she was like, why why don't
(18:37):
you donate blood? Yeah? She's like, what's your problems? Right?
And I told her and she's like, no, that's not
true at all. Right, and then and then three or
four years five years later, six years later, I was like,
all right, let's do it. Well, you can make up
for it now. And hey people out there, you might
have some Josh Clark blood pump into your body soon.
How about that? Pretty neat? What were you? I can't
(18:57):
remember your blood type? It was? It was you and
Jerry were the same positive beat. So am I We
have the same type, so a positive. I love that
Jerry speaks especially quietly. Can you make sure you edit
yourself out? Okay? Yeah, because you were both a positive
remember that because you made the joke I had the
same that you're a positive person or something like that.
It's a good way to remember it. Jerry would have
(19:19):
known that we have the same blood type as she
came to our live show. Um, Jerry could get some
Josh blood. Do you know how upsetting that would be
for you? What if one you had to rely on
the other to live? Yeah, if like Jerry cut herself
and got some blood and it turned out to be mine,
if she cut herself. Uh, should we move to the bathtub, sir?
(19:41):
Let's um the old I'm gonna call it an old
wives tale that go get in the bathtub because that's
a really safe place in your home to withstand the tornado.
Because bathtubs are strong and and thick, and they're not.
Though you were talking about houses being made of like
(20:01):
wood and drywall, A bathtubs just like a fiber lass
shell around a two by four frame. What's your bathtub
depends on what kind of bathtub you do. If you
have like an old cloth footed iron tub, that's what
I got. I could withstand anything and that thing. Okay,
so most people don't have that. They have and you think,
like you're getting in a bathtub, you're like, oh, this
thing is pretty sturdy. But really, if you if you
could pick it up, it's just fireglass around two by fours.
(20:25):
You're like, I've kicked a hole in the five bathtubs.
It's easy. I'm on at least five. Uh. So the
logic is is that it's heavy, uh and sturdy. Um.
And I think a lot of this logic came out
from the day when bathtubs were sturdier than they are now.
I agree with you, But either way, it's not it's
(20:45):
only a good idea if that bathtub happens to be
in a safe part of your home. Precisely right, So,
in a safe party of your home is a room
with no exterior facing walls, no exterior facing windows obviously. Um,
if your bathtub is in a bathroom with an exterior
facing wall or exterior facing window, is that superfluouced I
(21:07):
need to say that, Um, just do not get in
your bathtub because that wall in that room is very
likely to be ripped apart by a tornado, even if
the rest of the house isn't. So you want to
go as much into the center of your house as
possible and as windowless a room as possible, say like
a closet inside your house, So surrounded by as many
(21:28):
rooms as possible. So, if you have a bathtub and
a kill dungeon, go to the kill dungeon you set. Yeah,
if you have a don't have a bathtub in there.
If you have a cloth at tub and the kill dungeon,
then you're you're golden. You could just go ahead and
take a bath, so chuck. Another legend about tornadoes seems
to be that they avoid cities. Yeah, but it's kind
(21:51):
of like the same thing as the mobile home thing.
If my theory is incorrect. Um, where it just seems
that way. The reason why is because there's way more
rural area in the United States than there is city. Yeah,
even though most people live in cities. They're packed in there,
which is why we're all stressed out. That's right, of
(22:14):
the population in the US lives in urban centers. But
it happens Oklahoma City. Um in what year was this
two they had? They had one, one, two, huge, right,
and e F five And that is based on the
Fujita tornado scale. Could have sworn. We did a show
(22:35):
in tornadoes. I specifically remember saying that tornado is formed
because there's this a horizontal columns swirling air that eventually
like moves down and becomes vertical, and that's your tornado. Well,
we did a very in the early days of the
five minute episodes. We did one about being in the
eye of the tornado. You know what it might have been?
(22:57):
Can it really rain frogs maybe? Or did we talk
about water spots separately or was that the same episode
that was the one where you predicted Sharknado, which I
got nothing for. So Oklahoma City in n nine was
an e F five, which is the strongest possible tornado
(23:19):
on the tornado scale. I was looking into the Fogita scale.
So apparently Theodore Foujita made up the scale like out
a whole cloth basically without doing real investigation into it.
He just said, I'm teddy Fujita. Yeah, I would I
say with tornado, but he said, like, we'll say, n
F five is like this. But he didn't actually go
(23:41):
out and compare the wind speeds to the level of destruction.
He didn't do that that leg work. Who is he
and why did we listen to him? Apparently everybody liked
the name of his scale because they went out and
adjusted it. So it's been since adjusted to where it
now actually reflects reality a lot better thing. But in
F five is as as like you said, it's as
(24:03):
bad as it gets, um, and the it can just
keep getting worse and worse. There's no F six or
F seven or anything like that. But um, it's like
an F five plus. Even the even the minimum F
five though, is mind boggling in its destruction. So that
went through Oklahoma City in nineteen, which is clearly a
biggest city, did a billion dollars with a damage and
(24:26):
killed thirty six people. So that, yeah, that's pretty devastating
for a city. Yeah. And then two thousand thirteen, like
you said, another one hit, Uh, twenty five people were
killed and that was both in the city and UH
in the suburbs outside the city. But we had one
in Atlanta in two thousand eight. Yeah, I remember where
I was because it was the day before my birthday.
(24:48):
Oh yeah, it was yeah, and um, the day before
the IDEs of March. I was at UH in Kirkwood
having pizza with Emily and Justin and Emily sister Sarah
and a. You know, it was like a bad storm clearly,
but Emily said, oh my god, it's raining sideways and
we looked out the window and the rain was blowing sideways.
The wind was blowing so hard, and we were just like, man,
(25:10):
that's crazy, let's get another beer. Um. And I guess
if we were in Kirkwood, Cabbage Town is less than
like three miles away, and that's where it hit, was
one of the places it hit, and the cotton mill offs,
so like less than a few miles away. Tornadoes were
wrecking the city and we were just in there drinking
(25:31):
and eating pizza. And we didn't until the next day
how many miles away. I mean, it had to be
what a couple of miles. Yeah, it doesn't It might
have been less than that from there to there. Yeah,
and uh pm to a little research because you kept
drinking and don't remember it. That's right. It was a
super cell moved in the heart of downtown Atlanta, and
(25:51):
this is during the that's right SEC basketball tournament, and
it blew the windows out in the west in yeah,
the Peachtree Plaza Hotel, and they put plywood up over
the windows and left it there for like a year
and a half. It was longer than that, because I
remember driving and saying and I remember reading why it
took so long was because they were specialty windows when
it was built back in the seventies or whatever. I
(26:13):
remember thinking like, how hard could it be to construct
new glass? I totally forgot about that. Like two years
later it was. And like, for those of you who
don't live in Atlanta aren't familiar, this building is basically
like the icon of the Atlanta Skyline, sort of the
center tall building. Yeah, very very tall, cylindrical building with
like a revolving restaurant on the top. It's impossible the
(26:36):
miss and it was dotted with plywood for two years.
Totally forgot about that. So the SEC basketball tournament was
going on at the Georgia Dome and there was an
NBA game being played, and I think you know, stuff
like happened in the Georgia Dome. They had to stop
the game for a minute. Crazy. Yeah, hundred and thirty
(26:57):
miles an hour in f two not to ad. Not
too shabby. That's respectable for a city tornado, all right, Yeah,
and thankfully only one person lost their life in that one,
um which, if you think about it, is pretty remarkable
considering how you know a lot of people in the area.
Um So you've got Oklahoma City has been hit twice terribly. Atlanta,
(27:20):
Salt Lake City seen plenty of tornadoes, same with Dallas.
In Miami, did not know about the Miami hurricane, although
it makes sense because that's the name of no, not
the hurricane and tornado. Yeah, that's what I My brain
just got zapped. Well, what are you going to say
about the hurricanes? Oh, the University of Miami. Yeah right,
(27:41):
but it wasn't a hurricane, it was a tornado. I
can believe a hurricane in Miami tornado. That's the one
I have trouble in there named the University of Miami
Severe Weather System. Right. I think we should definitely take
a break and we'll be back with more unbelievable facts.
Right after this, Chuck, I remember specifically, um, believing that
(28:27):
tornadoes were totally indigenous to North America. They only happened here.
It seems like you only hear about them here. Yeah,
you know, but apparently they do happen elsewhere. The reason
why most people think they only happened here is because
in North America we have something like I should say,
(28:47):
in the United States, not even just North America, but
in the United States we get about fourteen hundred reported
tornadoes a year. That's a lot of tornadoes. Yeah. Um,
by comparison, Europe sees about three d and that's all
of Europe. And um, apparently tornadoes do happen on every
continent except the Antarctica. But the reason that it seems
(29:09):
like they happen here only is because they happen so
much more frequently here than elsewhere. Yeah, apparently South America
has favorable conditions for tornadoes, and in between, Argentina and
Brazil especially, they have the right kind of storms to
produce tornadoes. But again, it doesn't happen as much right
(29:30):
as the United States now. And so the other aspect
of it, we go back to that same thing with
them the news covering trailer parks. It's um, a very
small proportion of tornadoes are actually like considered dangerous, something
like two or violent, I think is what they're called,
right uh, or week or strong. It was the three
(29:53):
percent of violent violent. So if you have three hundred
tornadoes a year, right, um, and only three percent of violent,
that's not gonna make news quite as often as if
you have four hundred tornadoes per year and three percent
of violent, it's gonna seem like there's tornadoes that are
just wrecking America all the time. Um. And then apparently
(30:15):
also the United States specifically and parts of Canada. But
the US is in a very unique position for tornado
for in formation, right, and we have that thing called
tornado Alley, and tornado Alley just so happens to fit
very nicely over what's also known as the Great Plains,
that's right. Uh. Specifically we are talking uh whereas here
(30:40):
central Texas head northward, northward, northward, the W is not
silent northward to in northern Iowa. Uh. And from central
Kansas and Nebraska east to western Ohio. That's what you're
talking about, uh. And that is tornado Alley. That doesn't
count floor to Apparently Florida is um a little bit
(31:03):
of its own tornado alley. Apparently in Miami too. Yeah,
but like we said, Georgia, you know, we'll have them
here and there. Yeah, yeah, because there's a tornado alley
where they um. Okay, So if you look at the
Great Plains right, it's it's relatively flat, so it allows
cool air to come down from Canada and it hits
warm air coming up from the Gulf, and they meet
(31:25):
and they form this front, this wedge that creates tornado
Alley itself. Because where those two things meet, that's where
the type of storms that can produce tornadoes are formed,
and so it forms basically, uh east west or southwest
northeast line, and that essentially is tornado Alley. Yeah. And
(31:48):
as far as weather conditions, we mentioned some of these
other countries that do have those conditions. But the difference
is in a place like the Bay of Bengal, it's
just a much narrower window of time that these conditions exist,
whereas the United States. I mean, when it's tornado season,
it's it's a much wider uh, I mean it's several months,
(32:10):
isn't it. Oh? Yeah, it's throughout the summer. Yeah, yeah,
starting in late spring, depending on where you are. And
then I think in Florida what they call Dixie Alley.
Dixie Alley, is that what they call it. That's what
it said. It doesn't even make sense. I don't associate
Florida with Dixie you know, well, of course not. It's
its own thing. It is very much its own thing. Um,
(32:31):
Dixie Alley. Yeah, they they experienced tornadoes more in the
fall late fall. Yeah, because they're not in the heart
of Tornado Alley. No, they're their own thing. They're their
own thing. Um. So then, Chuck, I feel like we've
really dispelled a lot of myths here, busted them, if
you will, probably saved some lives. We should say, rather
than just like, yeah, you're ten of twenty times likelier
(32:54):
to die in a mobile home um, and just leave
it at that. If you do live in a mobile
home community, after you're listening to this episode, I want
you to get on your laptop or your tablet or
your PC or go to the mobile home community office
and say where is the nearest tornado shelter? Because the
(33:15):
thing that you should do if you live in a
mobile home community is leave that mobile home community. When
a tornado warning has been issued tornado watch no warning
warning means that it's been seen, watches the weather is
likely to produce him. Yeah, and I think those goods.
They should just come up with better terms for that.
(33:36):
Uh look out, it's a tornado should be the should
replace uh warning? Yeah, or just like well, yeah, that's
pretty good. I'll go with that. Thanks. Um, what what
about getting in your car? Because if the average tornado
goes thirty miles an hour and the fastest ever tornado
(33:56):
on record is only seventy three, man, I'll bet that
is you would think, Man, just get in your car,
because I can go a D in my pickup truck.
I can can outrun the vast I'd go up to eight.
I could outrun the fastest tornado ever in history easily.
I do that every day on the highway. Well, you
(34:17):
could conceivably in your truck, be okay, But what about
those people who have, like, uh, a m C Gremlin.
They probably can't go a D in that thing and
their toasts. No, that is not the point, my friend.
The point is you can't. You shouldn't try to outrun
a tornado, even if you can drive faster than one.
Because tornadoes, while sort of predictable and that they usually
(34:39):
follow a straight line, you never know what they're gonna do. Um.
That's why you'll see one house spared while the others destroyed. Uh.
And they're very wide, so they'll be her off course
and before you know it, you are in the path
of the tornado, not out running the tornado. Yeah, they
can veer, they can um stop touching the ground and
then make contacting in right like you said, right in
(35:01):
front of you or right around you. Um, and they
will backtrack. There are certain conditions that tornado will double
back over its path and then go forward again. And
that just happens like out of nowhere. They're extremely unpredictable.
So yeah, you you don't know that you're driving in
the right direction, even if initially you are. And then secondly, um,
(35:22):
apparently is it Noah or the National Weather Service that says,
I think in all caps, do not get in your
car and try to outrun a tornado. It's a CDC
for some weird reason. That's not that's not a disease,
is it? Like the Center for Disease Control and Injury Prevention. Now,
though because maybe that would the injury prevention would account
(35:44):
for that. But they do say that the least desirable
place to be during the tornadoes in your vehicle, it
should be the centers for disease control and injury prevention.
But don't ask us about gun violence. Uh. In Oklahoma,
the l Reno tornado in two thousand thirteen, Yeah, that
was the one that hit Oklahoma City. Oh was it?
(36:04):
This is a talking about unpredictability. This thing, within sixty
seconds went from being a mile wide to two point
six miles wide. Uh. And it's the one the widest
one ever recorded. Uh in Tornado, United States, well, probably
all of tornado history. Man, nothing makes me think of
humans as just like fleas on the face of the
(36:24):
planet than tornadoes. This is crazy. Whether it comes out
of nowhere, picks up everything where we do and like
work for and strive for, and just kicks it into nothingness,
that's all natural disasters. To me. It's just like a
big reminder, like, hey, humans, when you're long gone, brust
you off my should there will still be earthquakes and tsunamis.
(36:45):
You know, it's a feature of the planet. Uhent of
people killed in tornadoes, uh, are in their vehicles at
the time, which doesn't necessarily mean they're trying to outrun it,
but um, you know it's no small beans, no don't.
And apparently in that the one in Oklahoma, there were
(37:06):
a couple of notable storm chasers that even have like
really great safe track records that were killed and they
people thought, you know, because these people were killed, that
might be a real signal like they can't outrun tornadoes,
nor should you try? Yeah? Is Bill Paxton and Helen
Hunt ruined it for things? I like that movie? Yeah,
(37:30):
I liked it. It was a cute movie. It kind
of holds up, actually doesn't really the special effects remarkably
hold up. That's very surprising because that was like mid nineties, right. Yeah.
And there was another tornado movie that I did not see,
just a couple of years ago. Uh, Into the Storm.
I think it looked really bad, although it had the
(37:50):
great Matt Walsh. What about nice paycheck for you, Mr
wallsh No, but he you know, he's relief, sure nice,
But yeah, I'm sure he did just fine on that one.
Um did you see San Andreas? Uh? I saw about
(38:12):
it and the other sixt I fast forwarded through. I
fast forwarded through everything except for all the devastation. That's
like the only part I cared about. Oh so it
was six non devastation. That ratio is off, agreed. Huh,
that's disappointing because I kind of wanted to see it.
It looked like it would be kind of interesting. It's
Hollywood drec well, not that many disaster flicks aren't. Although
(38:38):
Towering Inferno that was a great movie, straight up great movie.
Same with them The Poseidon Adventure, Oh my god, the
boat that I was about to call it the boat
that flipped upside down. But the original Yeah, definitely not
the remakes. Why did they even bother? No? Actually, now
i'm thinking about it, Disaster flicks were good movies in
the seventies. Airport great? Was it just Airport? And then
(39:02):
Airport seventy seven was the sequel? I think so. I
think they made like three or four after that too.
They don't make them like that anymore, my friend. Now, well,
if you want to know more about tornadoes, we've got
a mess of articles on how stuff works about them.
You can type the word tornado or at an e
before you pluralize it in the search bar at how
Stuff Works dot com and it will bring up great stuff.
(39:26):
Since I said search parts time for listener mail, I'm
gonna call this Josh's pick for listener mail because you
picked it, yes, said japan Centric. Well your favorite places, right, yeah,
I'll explain all right. Um, hey, guys that just listened
to the show on nostalgia and then, although I'm a
(39:47):
big Hodgman van h Japan is perhaps not the place
for him. Um. I find it fascinating that I'm living
in Japan, where the feeling of nostalgia is one of
the most treasured emotional experiences. The Japanese word for it
is you want to say it, I have to see
it in running, but I can pronounce it, uh not sukashi, notasukashi.
(40:08):
And um that was actually why I picked this, because
I was telling you you mean that we did one
on nostalgias. It's like he talked about not Sukashi right, Well,
here we are, uh not sukashi. Is that she eat
It's so close that it almost sounds like an extended
eye because you don't want it right, but you don't
want to make it like right right right, But it's
(40:29):
like it's like just a little extra something on that
I I love it. Uh. That place connotes a feeling
of pleasant sorrow and sometimes a beauty. An interesting example
is cherry blossom season. The season just commence here, and
I'm told that one of the reasons Japanese love the
season so much is it it's so short lived, lasting
only about two weeks each year. Uh. The short lived
(40:51):
beauty cultivates the pleasant sadness feeling even when the trees
are in full blue. And my friends indulge in pre
nostalgia knowing that we'll all end soon, and this adds
to their enjoyment and depth of the experience. That's really lovely,
isn't it. If this sounds a bit overboard, I should
mention that cherry blossom viewing feels somewhat like a spectator
sport here, and droves of people turn out for picnics
under the trees with their high end cameras ready to
(41:13):
capture the perfect photo. Also found it interesting that one
of the positive outcomes of nostalgia you mentioned is that
it reminds us that life is worth living in light
of the extremely long work hours and brutal commutes on
rush hour trains. No wonder Japanese really foster nostalgia to
remind them of life's simple joys. I think she's onto
something here. By the way I lived uh. I moved
(41:35):
to Tokyo last September and discovered your podcast last fall.
Living here involves lots of walking and train time. Your
podcasts are perfect entertainment as I'm moving about the city.
That is from Rebecca, Texan living in Tokyo. Thanks a lot.
That's a great email, Rebecca, appreciate it. So you've experienced
that feeling that's a cashi Yeah, yeah, and nostalgia. Do
you toast and say that out loud and now you
(41:58):
go come pile when you okay? Uh? Not takashi is
you're just quietly shedding into your think about something very
lovely from when you were child. Would just feel those
big dummies in Japan look at Yeah, he's toasting something
that's sad. Uh No, No, it's not like that. I
think it's um. I don't. I'm not an expert on
(42:18):
not takashi, but I think it's not quite nostalgia. It's
just it's very close to it. It's just something there's
just something more. It's more of like an investigation on
nostalgia more of a relishing kind of thing. Interesting. Yeah,
I love Japan. I hope to go one day. You
will love it, I mean, you'll absolutely love it. Just
(42:41):
an amazing place. You've gotta get Emily on board for
that flight. It's a pain. And when you come back,
depending on what direction you're traveling, where you're flying from,
you are nuts from jet leg for like two weeks. Yeah,
it always seems like you're just, uh, you don't even
know which way is up for more for like two weeks,
just like when is this gonna end? In like the
first five days? Just go buy in this haze that
(43:04):
you're not even aware of. Crazy, Yeah, Japan. If you
want to get in touch with us, you can tweet
to us at s by sk podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at
how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
at home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
(43:27):
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
it how stuff Works dot com
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Josh Clark
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