Comments on: There are hailstorms, and then there’s this hailstorm

By: Fractal Rabbit

Fractal Rabbit — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 23:01:57 +0000

Roy,

Thanks! That was kind of you to look it up. Very interesting.

By: John Guilfoyle

John Guilfoyle — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 19:07:07 +0000

Hi Philippa

“Cyclone” is the Southern Hemisphere word for “hurricane” not tornado. Those (cyclones) we have regularly…one or two a year in Oz.

By: neo

neo — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 18:15:40 +0000

Phillipa Crawford: No, a cyclone is not another name for a tornado. The two are very different. A cyclone is more like a type of hurricane. See this for a fuller discussion.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:11:56 +0000

physicsguy – small world; we are in Lakewood now!
Last May our parking lots looked like the one at the Zoo.
BTW, anyone in the area, once they reopen that is a Must See zoo.
Outstanding exhibits, especially the giraffe enclosure and the jewelled herpetarium.

Phillipa – I always thought Dorothy’s cyclone looked a lot like the tornadoes I grew up with in West Texas; interesting to see that kind of regional difference in names.
PS – your name suggests “Lymond Chronicles” to me; any connection?

By: physicisguy

physicisguy — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 13:16:23 +0000

I grew up in Denver. I remember coming down from the mountains on 285 from the Tiny Town area and see this ominous cloud over west Denver. It was unique in that the sun was illuminating it from the west and it was a green color. It was all the ice in the hailstones refracting the sunlight. As we returned to our house in Lakewood the trees were stripped and a two inch layer of hail made it look like December.

Colorado is more prone to hail as the front range and the near plains are conducive to T’storm development, AND since th base is already at 5,000 feet, those storms can easily top out at 45,000 ft. By the standard lapse rate of temperature, that means those tops are at maybe -50 degrees F…..extremely conducive to hail formation,and if the storm is intense enough, the many up and down cycles of the hailstone allows it to grow to large sizes.

By: Phillipa Crawford

Phillipa Crawford — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 12:00:05 +0000

Fractal, I think they call them tornados in the US and cyclones in other parts of the world.

We get hail storms now and then in the Mid-Atlantic states and they can shred trees in no time. Even small hail stones hurt when hit and can leave bruises.

By: steve walsh

steve walsh — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 11:43:08 +0000

Hail is extremely rare around here. I’m a bit surprised there wasn’t more destruction and injury.

By: John Guilfoyle

John Guilfoyle — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 00:48:03 +0000

We have an occasional tornado in Australia…and by occasional I mean rarely.
But they do happen.

By: Roy Nathanson

Roy Nathanson — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 23:47:47 +0000

Fractal,

From a publication called Tornado Climatology:

“The United States experiences approximately 75 percent of the world’s known tornadoes and thus is notorious for its tornado climatology in terms of frequency, intensity, and destructive outbreak events. While it is appropriate to focus on tornadoes across the United States, it is important to recognize that tornadoes also happen in other countries of the world.”

You made me curious, so I looked it up.

By: Fractal Rabbit

Fractal Rabbit — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 23:11:10 +0000

“There were tornado warnings at the time—we have them now and then in New England.”

I’m not sure why this only just occurred to me: I never see reports of tornadoes anywhere but the USA. I see reports of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, tsunamis, hail storms and lightning strikes.

But I’ve never seen a report of a tornado. Are they somehow unique to the USA/North America? Is there something about our climate and geography that makes us more prone to them here?

Or do we just never hear reports of them from outside the States?