How can we stop a Tornado?

A super duper big ice bomb detonated in the heat just before where it converges with the cold

a reply to: zazzafrazz

Aren't bombs normally rather on the warmish side?

a reply to: Phage

My experience from my childhood was that water ballon bombs were quite cooling.

a reply to: OlegK
Maybe if somehow the water condensation funnel is heated the funnel loses equilibrium and turns to a quick steam mist.
1 wonders how a high power laser would effect said funnel cloud of water...

I think Underdog sucked one up with a vacuum cleaner once.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

I admit that I'm not an expert here, but wouldn't that backfire? The introduction of new heat would likely cause numerous complications in the storm system, basically adding fuel to it.

I'd imagine the dramatic increase in temperatures would increase the friction in the clouds, which is the cause of lightning. And it would definitely boost the formation of hail (where droplets rise on warm currents, freeze at high altitudes until they're too heavy, fall back into the warmer currents as ice droplets, new condensation forms on those ice droplets, then rising warm air pushes them back into the high altitudes where the new condensation freezes & increases their sizes, repeat).

In fact, I'm pretty sure tornadoes need warm air to form in the first place. So I think rapidly heating the air would actually make the storm & subsequent tornado stronger. In short, I think you're trying to kill us lol.

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
A super duper big ice bomb detonated in the heat just before where it converges with the cold

LoL

originally posted by: Arnie123
Detonate a Nuke in the path of the Tornado, problem solved.

...that or just hang out with a belt tied to a well...

Hey! that nuke was my idea!

Blow that 'nado into the next county!

Most people don't realize the scope and scale when dealing with weather. Tornadoes are a product of supercell thunderstorms. These storms are hundreds of miles long and up to 70,000 feet high. Inside of these storms are circulating winds called mesocyclones. These are the forces that produce tornadoes. The faster these rotate, the stronger the tornado will be.

The idea of an ice bomb is like a spit in the ocean. Man has not invented a device large enough to effect hundreds of million cubic miles of atmosphere and to generate no damage on the ground of its' own. For a moment, let us assume that this was a possibility. When a thunderstorm dies, the air inside rushes to the ground. This air has weight. The effect is called micro bursts and straight line winds. These to cause damage and are deadly at times.

Many years and many millions of dollars have been spent on weather research. We still can't make it rain or to stop it. The biggest advances in research has been the computer projections and Doppler radar that sees the wind inside storms. Many advances in meteorology has come these observations.

originally posted by: buddah6
Most people don't realize the scope and scale when dealing with weather. Tornadoes are a product of supercell thunderstorms. These storms are hundreds of miles long and up to 70,000 feet high. Inside of these storms are circulating winds called mesocyclones. These are the forces that produce tornadoes. The faster these rotate, the stronger the tornado will be.

The idea of an ice bomb is like a spit in the ocean. Man has not invented a device large enough to effect hundreds of million cubic miles of atmosphere and to generate no damage on the ground of its' own. For a moment, let us assume that this was a possibility. When a thunderstorm dies, the air inside rushes to the ground. This air has weight. The effect is called micro bursts and straight line winds. These to cause damage and are deadly at times.

Many years and many millions of dollars have been spent on weather research. We still can't make it rain or to stop it. The biggest advances in research has been the computer projections and Doppler radar that sees the wind inside storms. Many advances in meteorology has come these observations.

Isn't cloud seeding tech being used?

a reply to: OlegK

Possibly to make rain, we have been able to do that since the 1960s. Dont know about cloud seeding to produce tornado's through.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: OlegK

Possibly to make rain, we have been able to do that since the 1960s. Dont know about cloud seeding to produce tornado's through.

Yeah, to help make rain..

I'm not sure about seeding clouds and the % of its' success. The ability to general large thunderstorm which can generate tornadoes is directly related to the amount of surface heating. Surface heating is the engine that drives the vertical lift required to rise of cyclonic action.

If you noticed, the most tornadoes are in the Texas and Oklahoma areas. This is because the region is open plains and prairies that acts like giant heat sinks. As rain storm pass over these area, they pick up the rising heat pushing the storm higher and higher. This causes winds inside the storm to rise and fall vertically. With more heat the more moisture is carried aloft. The higher the storm the more rapidly these winds move. In this state, the storm can generate things like hail and micro bursts. Taken to the next level these winds, if violent enough, can generate rolling action called cyclonic winds. These may become self supporting. This is what generate tornadoes. How and when this happens is, to me, is unknown.

The weather service watches these storms and when the elements of a tornadoes are present is when they issue warnings. They are very good at following the conditions that may generate tornadoes but can not predict when.

originally posted by: buddah6
I'm not sure about seeding clouds and the % of its' success. The ability to general large thunderstorm which can generate tornadoes is directly related to the amount of surface heating. Surface heating is the engine that drives the vertical lift required to rise of cyclonic action.

If you noticed, the most tornadoes are in the Texas and Oklahoma areas. This is because the region is open plains and prairies that acts like giant heat sinks. As rain storm pass over these area, they pick up the rising heat pushing the storm higher and higher. This causes winds inside the storm to rise and fall vertically. With more heat the more moisture is carried aloft. The higher the storm the more rapidly these winds move. In this state, the storm can generate things like hail and micro bursts. Taken to the next level these winds, if violent enough, can generate rolling action called cyclonic winds. These may become self supporting. This is what generate tornadoes. How and when this happens is, to me, is unknown.

The weather service watches these storms and when the elements of a tornadoes are present is when they issue warnings. They are very good at following the conditions that may generate tornadoes but can not predict when.

Well I think it was about 20 percent of more rain yearly if I recall correctly.

I think working on making buildings tornado-proof and more access to tornado shelters would be more practical than trying to stop them.

I remember a few years ago in Oklahoma we had a pretty bad tornado following the interstate pretty closely, in this region the tornado's always follow the same track... it is so dependable on this track a well respected meteorologist told people to head south if they did not have a shelter to wait it out in.

Folks did then the tornado did the unexpected and went south, now some are probably going huh... what does that have to do with the OP.

The point is, we can just barely accurately predict when they occur, and really have little clue about where it is going... they just make predictions based on terrain and the general direction the storm is going, so how is anyone going to Identify where it is going accurately enough to try and stop it.

originally posted by: Junkheap
I think working on making buildings tornado-proof and more access to tornado shelters would be more practical than trying to stop them.

The kids that died in the Moore 2013 F5 were in an approved shelter spot... problem is if you are not surrounded by concrete and steel underground no amount of reinforcement to a building will save you from an F5.

a decent shelter in your garage really is not that expensive, the problem is its something folks dismiss the risk saying that will never happen here etc, and they spend that money somewhere else.

I grew up in mid Michigan and the 50 years at the family farm tornadoes either hit it or within a half mile 6-7 times. So they do follow the same path for some reason. they either hit or went just south. Lost barns and trees and other sections of woods and such. 3 years ago one went about 2 miles south for 7 miles on the ground took out a lot of stuff.

a reply to: mikell

Yep, there is a reason. The path they take is definetly not random.

The idea has some flaws to it. One thing is that tornadoes don't always move with the storm. Sometimes the storm might be moving East and the tornado is moving southeast. In some cases tornadoes can rain wrap themselves and cut off inflow by moving further into a storm(Or the storm expanding due to very high moisture and very high instability.) The second thing is that this doesn't take into account of what can go on in the micro-scale. Often storms that aren't elevated(Meaning that the storm isn't above a capping inversion.) Can leave boundaries and these boundaries(Outflow Boundaries) can be pushed in multiple directions. Now these Boundaries can both create and enhance thunderstorms. When boundaries are stationary given the right upper atmospheric conditions storms can train across a boundary. These boundaries are typically curvy and can be hard to discern(and some times rather easy) This could cause a path of a tornado to be unpredictable(more than it already is. The technology your describing would need to be powerful enough attract the tornado from these boundaries. That would take some massive pressure drops.

Now the best way to stop a tornado would be to cut off the storms inflow. If we were able to find away to block the storm's inflow that didn't involve creating another storm that could turn into a supercell you could weaken the whole storm system. Perhaps if we could end up being able to create storms you could keep creating them until you have reached an area where the atmosphere isn't as primed for a tornado. Sometimes the atmosphere does the work for us and will ignite a storm that blocks the previous storm's inflow. Unfortunately that new storm is likely to become just as bad. But, there are times where a gulf low will form off the coast of Texas and from a MCS(MesoCyclone Convective System) in Central and SE Texas. These storms can block the moist air from the Gulf and create subsidence(sinking air) in the atmosphere in places like North Texas and Southern Oklahoma that otherwise would have been primed for a severe weather outbreak.