I think that was the Muggle explanation, but it was really caused by agents of Voldemort....

(Sorry, just finished the book....Harry Potter fans will get it...)

News items like this seem to catch my eye lately.

From eye witnesses tho it sound like they were describing a mini tornado.

Tho i have to admit living in Belfast, i cant say ive seen to many myself......
infact i dont reacon ive seen one so i cant comment really.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
there's another word for a weather incident like this, where its not a regular tornado as in the sense of funnel clouds, but more of straight on direct wind approach.... damn i hate it when i can think of the right word brb.

I think you're thinking of a microburst. It's caused by a severe downdraft coming out of the bottom of a thunderstorm. It hits the ground and fans out in all directions, damage is similar to that of a weak tornado, but contained in a much smaller area.

Originally posted by Gazrok
I think that was the Muggle explanation, but it was really caused by agents of Voldemort....

(Sorry, just finished the book....Harry Potter fans will get it...)

I was thinking the same thing! Must be the giants!

I drove into the edge of one of these tornados a few years ago in the early hours of the morning. It was like driving into a wall of water and I had to stop the car, although I couldn't see if I was on the road or the shoulder. The car was being buffeted extremely violently, which lasted for a few seconds, then subsided and the rain eased.
I heard a radio report a couple of hours later that talked of a tornado moving across that area. One of lifes underwear replacement moments for sure

There definitely seem to be more or the violent microburst storms in the last couple of years. Overall, I have noticed a definite change in weather patterns for my part of the UK over the last couple of decades.

[edit on 28-7-2005 by Britguy]

12 people injured. there is a news item on ATSNN about it

im still waiting to see the pictures on Skynews

Does anyone else find it extraordinary that Yesterday saw Birmingham in the news headlines for arrests of the London Bombers..

and then today Birmingham is blown away almost by freakish weather......

If there really were a weather-based weapon in space namely HAARPA then this would be it!!

to much of a coincidence if you ask me... especially when you take into account that it is nearly August... the supposed height of the English Summer!!!!!

all the best people,

Neon.

Originally posted by Neon Haze
to much of a coincidence if you ask me... especially when you take into account that it is nearly August... the supposed height of the English Summer!!!!!

Yeah, strong thunderstorms in the middle of summer. How incredibly strange that is!

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by Neon Haze
to much of a coincidence if you ask me... especially when you take into account that it is nearly August... the supposed height of the English Summer!!!!!

Yeah, strong thunderstorms in the middle of summer. How incredibly strange that is!

A Tornado is NOT a thunderstorm!!!


And I wish I had a digi cam to show you just what the weather is out here in England....

Not the Norm I can tell you that for certain....

Originally posted by Neon Haze
A Tornado is NOT a thunderstorm!!!

Last time I checked you need a strong thunderstorm to produce a tornado or microburst though. Besides, I never said a tornado is a thunderstorm now did I?

Anyone see the steamrolled whale in Chicago Monday night? It was a really cool looking cumulonimbus cloud that had sticking out of the east side something that looked almost exactly like a whale tail. Lightning was crashing everywhere! It was actually south west of me, I was right on the edge, so it was nice and dry, and I could watch the whole thing. Awesome storm.

Anyway, the cloud formation that looked like a whale's tail, on the north side, started to spiral. My eyes were glued, it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It started spinning faster and faster and began to form a cone coming from the now circular cloud formation. Unfortunately (though fortunately for anyone who would have been in the path) it dissipated.

Middle of summer, and Chicago almost got a tornado. Expected? Not really, that weather usually comes in the spring. Unprecidented? Hardly, we have plenty of summer storms and summer twisters in the midwest.

So what's the theory here? The terrorists have a weather control device? Or did America decide to punish England for supporting us in the war on Terror, but hid it from them by using a top secret weather control array that we only use to injure and cause bad weather rather than making our economy skyrocket by creating productive weather like...Oh, I dunno, ending the huge drought taking place in the midwest?

JJ we're in the fragile earth forum, not the war on terrorism forum

here we like to look at weather phenomenon and it just seems obvious to some that our weather is getting more intense than let's say the past decade or so. Whether the weather is only going thru a brief cyclical change or a long term stage..well that's ???

and right now, there's a thunderstorm outside that is just wicked, no major rain, just intense thunder and lightning.

might be a good time, for me to take a break

Originally posted by worldwatcher
JJ we're in the fragile earth forum, not the war on terrorism forum

Just commenting on Neon Haze's comment. My mind's not entirely overwhelmed by politics

here we like to look at weather phenomenon and it just seems obvious to some that our weather is getting more intense than let's say the past decade or so. Whether the weather is only going thru a brief cyclical change or a long term stage..well that's ???

and right now, there's a thunderstorm outside that is just wicked, no major rain, just intense thunder and lightning.

might be a good time, for me to take a break

As to the cause of some unusual weather, I've heard two very different theories, though both make sense. One is that an Ice Age is coming back, the other that it's an effect of global warming. The only problem with assuming the weather changing is so unusual is that we don't really have a long term collection of global weather patterns. It's only recently that we've been able to monitor weather patterns across the globe. Otherwise we're stuck using books like the old newspapers which reported the current weather, but even that doesn't go very far back in history. Beyond that, we only have writings about the really, really, really nasty storms and weather events.

I'm not saying it's not happening, just that assuming it must because the weather's changed over the past 60 years is assuming much. This may be a typical periodic cycle the Earth goes through.