In Richard Nash's romantic comedy, The Rainmaker, Starbuck, also known as Tornado Johnson, is wanted by the police for selling four hundred tickets to a rain festival when it did not rain, peddling a thousand pairs of smoked eyeglasses to view an eclipse of the Sun that never happened, and selling six hundred wooden poles guaranteed to turn tornadoes into a gentle spring breeze...
The wooden poles idea hearkens to this actual patent application: A weather patent to destroy or disrupt tornadoes was filed by J. B. Atwater in 1887. His device consisted of dynamite charges with blasting caps installed on poles and situated a mile or so southwest of a settlement. A tornado crossing the elevated minefield was supposed to detonate the explosives with its high winds and flying debris, hopefully disrupting its circulation and protecting the town. With the likelihood of a given area being visited by tornadoes rare and their recurrence even more rare, the installation of minefields, even elevated ones, never caught on--fortunately so for the generation of children then playing in the fields. >From Fixing the Sky: The checkered history of weather and climate control (2010). James Fleming On Sabbatical STS Program Colby College Web: http://www.colby.edu/profile/jfleming <http://web.colby.edu/jfleming> *Toxic Airs* (March 2014) http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=36392 On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 5:41 AM, Andrew Lockley <[email protected]>wrote: > Great Walls 'could stop tornadoes' > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26492720 > > Great Walls 'could stop tornadoes' > 8 March 2014 03:27 > By James Morgan > > Science reporter, BBC News, Denver > > More than 800 tornadoes were recorded in the US last year > Building three "Great Walls" across Tornado Alley in the US could > eliminate the disasters, a physicist says. > > The barriers - 300m (980ft) high and up to 100 miles long - would act like > hill ranges, softening winds before twisters can form. > > They would cost $16bn (£9.6bn) to build but save billions of dollars of > damage each year, said Prof Rongjia Tao, of Temple University, Philadelphia. > > He unveiled his idea at the American Physical Society meeting in Denver. > > However critics say the idea is unworkable, and would create more problems > than it solves. > > Threat over 'forever' > > Every year hundreds of twisters tear through communities in the great > north-south corridor between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountain ranges. > > The proposed walls would not shelter towns - they would not be strong > enough to block a tornado in motion. > > Instead, they would soften the clashing streams of hot southern and cold > northern air, which form twisters in the first place, Prof Tao said. > > "If we build three east-west great walls, one in North Dakota, one along > the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and the third in the south in Texas > and Louisiana, we will diminish the threats in Tornado Alley forever," he > said. > > As evidence, he points to China - where only three tornadoes were recorded > last year, compared to 803 in the US. > > China too has flat plain valleys running north-south, but the difference > is they are broken up by east-west hill ranges. > > Although only a few hundred metres high, they are enough to take the sting > out of air currents before they clash, Prof Tao believes. > > Hotspot > > Back in the US, he notes that the flat farmlands of Illinois experience > wildly varying risks of twisters. > > "Washington County is a tornado hotspot. But just 60 miles (100km) away is > Gallatin County, where there is almost no risk," he told BBC News. > > "Why? Just look at the map - at Gallatin you have the Shawnee Hills." > > These act like a barrier 200-250m (820ft) high, protecting Gallatin, he > says. > > "We may not have east-west mountain ranges - like the Alps in Europe - we > can build walls." > > Prof Tao said the design of the walls could be inspired by the Comcast > skyscraper in Philadelphia > "We've already been doing computer simulations and next we aim to build > physical models for testing [in wind tunnels]." > > Rather than create an eyesore, the walls could be "attractively" designed, > says Prof Tao. > > He cites the Comcast skyscraper in Philadelphia - also about 300m high, > and built with a reinforced glass exterior. > > "Our tornado wall could even be built of glass too. It could be a > beautiful landmark," he told BBC News. > > "I spoke to some architects and they said it's possible. It would take a > few years to finish the walls but we could build them in stages." > > Prof Tao has yet to approach government or environmental agencies with his > scheme, but the reaction from meteorologists has been highly sceptical. > > Harold Brooks, of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, said the great > walls "simply wouldn't work". > > He told USA Today that tornadoes still occur in parts of Oklahoma, > Arkansas and Missouri despite east-west hill ranges similar in size to Prof > Tao's proposed barriers. > > 'Poorly conceived' > > Another leading tornado expert, Prof Joshua Wurman of the Center for > Severe Weather Research, was equally dismissive of Prof Tao's proposal. > > "Everybody I know is of 100% agreement - this is a poorly conceived idea," > he told BBC News. > > "From what I can gather his concept of how tornadoes form is fundamentally > flawed. Meteorologists cringe when they hear about 'clashing hot and cold > air'. It's a lot more complicated than that." > > Though much of the blame does lie with warm air rushing north from the > Gulf of Mexico, stopping it would be nigh on impossible, Prof Wurman says. > > "Perhaps if he built his barrier on the scale of the Alps - 2,000-3,000m > (9,800ft) high, it would disrupt it," he says. > > "But clearly that would also cause a drastic change in climate." > > And there lies the real crux of the problem, says Prof Wurman. Any > geoengineering scheme powerful enough to eliminate tornadoes would also by > definition have catastrophic side effects. > > "The cure could be worse than the disease," he told BBC News. > > "So the solution to tornadoes is not trying to get rid of them. > > "It's better predictions and warnings so people can get out of way. Better > homes. Better shelters." > > He added: "Don't get me wrong, I'm open to new ideas. I consider myself an > out-of-the-box thinker. But just because an idea is heretical, doesn't mean > it's a good one." > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
