Twister 2 (The Sequel)

[Wock]

I swear I feel like I am on the set of Twister 2. These Tornado Outbreaks we have been seeing since early April are just down right scary.

The outbreak that hit a few weeks ago was a total of over 240 tornadoes that touched down from one single storm system. It blew through my area in the middle of the night and that was pretty hairy...

Curious. What indigenous natural disasters do you have in your area? (Like California is prone to Earth Quakes, Maine is prone to North Easters or Blizzards, etc)

I moved from NC which saw tornadoes but was more prone to Hurricanes. I moved to TN and I am in the eastern portion of "tornado alley", no real threat of Hurricanes but real bad thunder storms and tornado threat is real high.

I prefer the Hurricanes of the Tornadoes...

[ptram]

The news from Missouri have been shocking. I couldn't believe the number of fatalities. And all those people who lost their homes!

In my area (central Italy) we have earthquakes; usually not as strong as in California, but devastating in an area mostly made of middle-age towns. (But wait a moment: during the last catastrophic one, most middle-age buildings resisted, while modern houses went down.)

Paolo

[Foxtrot]

Curious. What indigenous natural disasters do you have in your area?

It rains a bit and get quite breezy sometimes in the UK East Midlands...

[kewms]

The Pacific Northwest has pretty mild weather. A lot of rain, but nothing like the amount of snow the Northeast gets, and thunderstorms are rare enough to make the news. Some spring flooding, but usually not catastrophic. (Though there was an exception down south of Tacoma a few years ago.)

But we make up for it with earthquakes, tsunamis, and (most fun of all) *volcanoes.* Fortunately, volcanoes do tend to rumble and smoke when they're about to go up, but picture the largest glaciers in the lower 48 all melting at once...

Katherine

[Hugh]

Does Yellowstone count as the Pacific North-West?

Here I think I remember one quake. Level 2? I slept through it. Although recently the weathermen have been telling us that we've had less rainfall than Texas.

[AmberV]

Yellowstone counts no matter what square foot of land or sea you occupy on the planet. Everyone can claim at least one volcano has the potential to cause a bad morning.

[vic-k]

Yellowstone counts no matter what square foot of land or sea you occupy on the planet. Everyone can claim at least one volcano has the potential to cause a bad morning.

If that thing goes up, it won't be a bad morning. It'll be, 'Goodnight from him, and goodnight from us'.

Isn't it overdue? What with that and an Atlantic wide tsunami, from a collapsing La Palma in the Canaries, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/aug/10/science.spain
is there any point in taking out AppleCare if I buy a new Mac?

[nom]

Curious. What indigenous natural disasters do you have in your area? (Like California is prone to Earth Quakes, Maine is prone to North Easters or Blizzards, etc)

In Victoria, Australia, our primary natural disasters are drought, bushfire and flood. As a young child growing up in the north-west of the state, I didn't see rain until I was three or four years old - my parents said I just stood at the window staring at it. Our most recent drought lasted over 10 years and led to the worst bushfires on record in February 2009. The stories from those who survived the fires are truly terrifying. Many towns are still recovering from the drought, some may never recover from the fires.

To prove that nature is unpredicatable and loves irony, our most recent natural disaster is flood. In a 6 month period from October last year, some towns were flooded multiple times. These were big floods too, breaking previous records for flood levels. While not quite as severe or as widespread as the floods in south east Queensland, they still caused enormous damage to a staggeringly large proportion of the state including, sadly, many parts that were still attempting to recover from the drought and bushfires.

My heart goes out to those in the US midwest coping with the twisters. The devastation caused by the recent events beggars belief.

[garpu]

Brush fires are scary. I lived north of Los Angeles, almost to the national forest, and it was one of those dry summers the year after an El Nino year. I'll take a tornado or an earthquake any day over that.

I grew up in the midwest, so I don't mind severe weather. I miss a good supercell, but the ones recently are just scary.

Earthquakes: slept through my first big one (Hector Mine quake, 7.1) and only woke up when a roommate screamed. I thought her boyfriend spent the night yet again, and I was about to pound on their door (yet again), when an aftershock hit. The other big one I was in was the Nisqually quake (6. soon after I moved to Seattle. The Nisqually one felt much worse, since it was way longer.

I haven't seen a hurricane since moving to Massachusetts, although we almost had one last summer. I've heard that the ones that hit up here aren't overly interesting--just a lot of rain and some flooding.

[Hugh]

What with that and an Atlantic wide tsunami, from a collapsing La Palma in the Canaries, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/aug/10/science.spain
is there any point in taking out AppleCare if I buy a new Mac?

My hippy surfer friends are all in favour of the La Palma mega-tsunami, as a means of both sorting out the plutocrat bankers, and making the waves in the English Channel "interesting" for once. But I think the latest scientific buzz is that the threat is over-rated, at least for the next 10,000 years. So maybe AppleCare is still worth considering?

[vic-k]

think the latest scientific buzz is

Whence cometh this buzz, oh ancient and venerable hack? In the vault of the RED LION, it's still, "Gerrasmuch darn y' neck as y' can. We could all be washed up t' Mersey valley t'morrar."

[Hugh]

think the latest scientific buzz is

Whence cometh this buzz, oh ancient and venerable hack? In the vault of the RED LION, it's still, "Gerrasmuch darn y' neck as y' can. We could all be washed up t' Mersey valley t'morrar."

Wishful thinking*? Or maybe Wikipedia?

* As opposed to wishful drinking?

[vic-k]

Wikipedia?

That's not going to go down well int he RED's vault!

[nom]

Wikipedia?

That's not going to go down well int he RED's vault!

True, but you only need to the precede your claims with "They say…" and everything will be fine.

Compare "Wikipedia says…" (responded to by "Yes, but is it reliable? You know that just anyone can write that stuff") to "They say…" (which generates responses like, "Really? Bloody oath, we'd better get drinking then!").

[kewms]

Does Yellowstone count as the Pacific North-West?

If that beastie goes up it will... but until then we've got quite enough local volcanoes, thankyouverymuch.

Katherine