Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

salt-in-the-sea t1_j71ur4v wrote

Is this considering those swirls of leaves and plastic bags as a tornado?

121

aightshiplords t1_j73qhho wrote

When I were a lad you could hardly mek it from maths classroom 't woodwerk fer all the tornados an low flyin crisp packets

7

Mclovinlife1 t1_j73qtli wrote

Dudley?

1

aightshiplords t1_j73udd9 wrote

Nah us midlanders are stoic. Making a big deal out of hardship is for Northerners and Southerners, those of us blessed to be from the West Midlands just shrug and gerr on wi it.

4

duplicitea t1_j71vg8g wrote

I was about to say that the United State would like to have a word with you until I read the qualifying statement at the end.

However, if you break it down by state, the top 10 tornado states in the US are as follows:

1: Texas (155)

2: Kansas (96)

3: Florida (66)

4: Oklahoma (62)

5: Nebraska (57)

6: Illinois (54)

7: Colorado (53)

8: Iowa (51)

9: Minnesota (45)

10: Missouri (45)

With the exception of Texas, all these states have, on average, more tornadoes per year per square kilometer than the UK.

59

GreenStrong t1_j7284ve wrote

The link also mentions that the great majority of the UK's tornadoes are weak. Most tornadoes in the central United States are weak too, but the powerful ones have longer tracks across the ground.

22

noglorynoguts t1_j73z2uq wrote

Mods please put this at the top. I think this comment I’m replying to deservers to be there.

2

dlyselxicssuck t1_j76eik1 wrote

Lots of states get very few tornadoes relative to their area so it definitely throws it off. I’ve only had a tornado warning once in the past 29 years.

1

duplicitea t1_j76uv5e wrote

Ironically, while Texas gets the most tornadoes of any state on this list, the state is so massive that it is the lowest per square kilometer. It is over 3 times the area of Kansas and nearly 3 times as big as the UK. So it does it fair share of skewing the average.

Furthermore, a state like Alaska, which is 2.5 times the size of Texes really throws off the average with its 1 tornado per year.

1

AudibleNod t1_j71vj0q wrote

Come on Monaco. With one tornado you can beat those numbers.

40

LeanMeanDrMachine t1_j73ik9c wrote

Hell with one particularly violent spin of a roulette wheel you can beat those numbers.

8

arbivark t1_j75dgw3 wrote

I was thinking bermuda. There is a country called anguilla and barbuda. Barbuda was nearly wiped out by a hurricane/tornado/big storm a few years ago. I haven't done the math but I'm guessing it beats UK.

0

EpicAura99 t1_j75wqfs wrote

Hurricanes and tornadoes are veeeeeeeery different.

2

Albertjweasel t1_j727jom wrote

Honestly I’ve seen two tornadoes in the U.K. in my life, one was when we had the ‘beast from the east’ snow storm in 2011/ 2012 (I think?) and there was a a snow tornado on the hills where I lived then which was quite impressive to watch, just a few metres wide white funnel of snow which flattened all the grass and knocked some coping stones off a wall,

Then in 2018 me and my wife watched a funnel cloud form and touch ground over Pendle and move over the side of the hill for about 10 minutes before dissipating, that one had little mini tornadoes whirling around it,

Of course both of those were nothing like the scary bastards they get in the US, I really feel for people that have to live in tornado alley and keep one eye on the sky and an ear open for sirens, we are so lucky in the U.K. that we don’t really have threats like that

Edit: broke up the post into paragraphs so it wouldn’t just be one long post!

37

Exile4444 t1_j755bxp wrote

The snowstorm was in 2010/2011 but the beast from the east was in 2018

6

Albertjweasel t1_j76gtuw wrote

You’re right, I thought it was the beast from the east but maybe that because it’s used so much by the news, apparently we’ve got another one coming to the U.K., it’s going to be a very interesting year for weather watchers I fear

1

Exile4444 t1_j76xegu wrote

Just a heads up there is no evidence for any kind of storm coming in the next month. Not saying in regard there will not be, just that there is literally no way we can know that dar ahead. News agencies such as the mirror always overexagurate their claims and literally directly misquote what met office posts and nothing is being done against and that truly makes my blood boil, literally no action whatsoever is taken against this.

Take last week for example, literally every agencie was posting about how their is a big snowstorm coming.

In reality, they took their information based on a model that showed when the pressure system would be strengthening at the continued theoretical pace an entire fortnight ahead that it was at that pace, (in which, by the way, is impossible to forecast that far ahead apart from slight indicators that it may be slightly more likely/likely) but that is obviously not going to happen as there are many models used for depicting completely entirely different things that proper meteorologists are aware of and they actually fixate on actual likely scenarios.

Worst thing is, once nothing happens the meteorologists are blamed for being even though this has absolutely nothing to do with them and entirely on what people click on like sheep.....

I even hear people saying, for example, 'it was forecasted to rain today but it did not yet again! These forecasters are always wrong' - when in reality if they would actually pay a bit more attention they would have known that there was only a 70% probability of rain.

Sorry for my rant haha, I just felt that I had to let it out somewhere 😅

2

Albertjweasel t1_j776dvd wrote

You don’t have to apologise, I totally understand your anger about newspapers making stuff up and everyone taking as gospel truth, it makes my blood boil too, you’re damn right that someone needs to do something about media bollocks, my 80 year old father in law gets obsessed with bbc news in particular and gets himself in a right state when bad weather is forecast, he doesn’t even go out or anything, he gets rankled by things so easily and it’s because he reads the Mail and watches bbc, none of the things effect him directly but he still gets het up so easily!

2

Dont_Buy_Me_Back t1_j71vmwe wrote

I lived in the UK for decades and only ever seen 1. It was pathetic too lol

16

duplicitea t1_j723w4n wrote

I live in Michigan in the US. There have been a few dozen tornadoes in the counties near me over the years. I saw a water spout over Lake Huron once. And I had to take shelter in the stock room of a Meijer (local department store similar to a Walmart or an ASDA) once when one was going through. Gotta say, that was the most amount of rain I have ever seen in my life.

15

vindictivejazz t1_j72jskt wrote

I’ve seen tornadoes in Europe. They do occasionally minor damage to buildings. They aren’t the same type of storms that can level cities in the central US.

14

TheCloudFestival t1_j72n3gy wrote

Britain essentially sits at the centre of a giant, perpetual tornado as warm air from the Gulf Stream moving SW to NE, passing through the Channel and the North Sea, meets cold Arctic air moving NE to SW, but passing across the top of Scotland and down the Irish Sea.

We receive such clement weather for our latitude because the whole archipleago is basically right in eye of a huge atmospheric gyre that pushes away incoming pressure systems.

However, it's a double edged sword because if poor weather does make it past the barrier and into the eye, it's likely to get captured and buffeted back and forth between the coasts until it expends its energy and dissipates.

6

TweetyDinosaur t1_j73l2y3 wrote

Our meteorologists play constantly on hard mode as a result.

3

TheCloudFestival t1_j73mym6 wrote

One of the reasons the Met Office gave for moving to Exeter is 'the weather there is... complicated.'

2

RedTheDopeKing t1_j72w0h6 wrote

Pfft even the tornadoes are small over there, huh?

5

Puzzleheaded-Ant-406 t1_j71wkjm wrote

British people "a spot of wind has unsettled my tea. It must be a tornado!" Meanwhile Americans "well only half the neighborhood has been destroyed, it must be a low category tornado."

4

snuffy_tentpeg t1_j736elb wrote

“That’s right, you’re not from Texas. Texas loves you anyway “

3

KatoG229 t1_j747tbx wrote

Me, who lives around Tornado Alley in the US: visibe confusion

3

Beau_Buffett t1_j747jln wrote

London got hit by a tornado while I was living there.

It was about as dangerous as a sleeping poodle.

2

Zlifbar t1_j75d8r3 wrote

TIL that the UK is filled with trailer parks

1

DoubleDeantandre t1_j75ggc2 wrote

This is technically true because of its size. However, the US includes places like Alaska(which is friggin huge) in its size. It wins the “country” per land mass because single US states obviously don’t count as countries. The UK is just of 93,000 sq mi. The state of Kansa is only just over 82,000 sq mi. yet had a recorded 68 tornadoes last year. Plus the intensity of the tornadoes are generally greater as well.

1

coredump3d t1_j76b3ze wrote

Data normalisation is an interesting trick to come up with such facts

1

ElfMage83 t1_j73nm25 wrote

Does that include Northern Ireland or is it just the island of Britain?

0

newmmy t1_j74qx10 wrote

What a weird way to try and take credit away from somewhere else. So if a tiny island had 2 tornados, would they have the most tornados in the world relative to its area?

−1

Thecna2 t1_j74v8v8 wrote

'credit'? Its not a competition. Everyone knows the US has more and worse tornados its just that the UK has more relative to its size, but much less serious. So the answer to your question is yes, the small island would have more, thats how maths works.

7

newmmy t1_j74wv3u wrote

Nice, I like being right.

−1

Thecna2 t1_j755cj2 wrote

I'm surprised you had any doubt, the maths is very basic, its literally just tornados/land area. If you have any other basic maths problems you're worried about, just ask.

2