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^ Like, a hurricane is a sh'mup-bomb, and a tornado is only laser.


Saw an ad telling old people they can look 27. Now, I'm no beautician, but how in the hell does one look 27?
I posit that there is no such thing as an appearance of being exactly 27 years old that does not consist of forged documents.

First year carving a pumpkin with a sword.

My poor dragon looks so ambiguous... cluster of ambiguous jagged shapes could be anything.

And no. I am not sharing it. :( I might blow it up and buy a new one tomorrow.

I had a much, much more detailed analysis of the differences, but here are the essential differences from someone who's experienced both.

Hurricanes give you days to get ready and/or evacuate. They are fairly trackable. You absolutely cannot be caught off guard by one, unless you just fail to prepare. (Katrina and the levees, for example) There aren't that many in a year. Your location may only see one serious threat every 10-12 years.

Here's the thing with tornadoes: they are insanely unpredictable. Literally the world's best meterologists are in Oklahoma, and they put a crazy amount of time and energy into tracking and predicting these storms. They develop and escalate very rapidly. There are hundreds of them a year. For the strongest storms, the only way to be safe is to get underground. They can rip buildings down to the foundation. You have very little time to prepare. Very, very little time. Typically, yes, you can monitor a developing system. Every spring in Oklahoma we have a little weather map in the lower corner of the TV covered in tornado watches. We're pretty used to be under a constant state of watch with frequent warnings in counties with actual supercells.

Advantages of tornadoes: they're more localized, they tend to develop, strike, and vanish rapidly. We're talking regular old thunder storm to tornado in less than 5 minutes. It is seriously that fast of escalation.

This is why I think tornadoes are so much scarier. The advance notice you get for a hurricane just cannot compare to the sheer terror of SUDDENLY A MASSIVE CYCLONE OF DESTRUCTION RIPPING APART EVERYONE YOU LOVE.

What mad weather y'all have over there.

^ And the cows flying around.

^_^ I think most of them have described them pretty decently but I'll throw in my own explanation:

A tornado is a funnel shape destructive wind force that has been popularized through tv enough that you should know how devastating they are. They are usually quick and last for short periods of time. Their defining feature: they form over land (not always but this is basically correct).

A hurricane is a vortex of air. Not a funnel. The winds go in a circular motion but you will not see a hurricane in the same way that you will a tornado. Hurricanes last DAYS, if not weeks. They form in the ocean where there is no land mass to stop them. They go first from being called a "tropical storm" to "hurricane". Which is kind of a big indication about what they really are. A hurricane is one huge massive STORM. It's like a storm on steroids. There is no visual representation of a hurricane the way you might see a tornado. But like a tornado, they do have a middle that you call the "eye". Stand in the eye of a hurricane and it is DEAD CALM. However, near the eye is where the most destructive capacity is. Hurricanes are also far more massive in size than a tornado will ever be.

While they both have the same basic properties (they are wind: and it's that wind that destroys buildings), hurricanes unfortunately bring a lot of other hell. Tornadoes are dry. Hurricanes are WET. Not only are they a big huge rain storm, but they are pushing the ocean water up onto shore - and this is what they call a storm surge. Beaches are swallowed up, areas are flooded. Can you imagine... Katrina's storm surge was measured at a record breaking 25 feet. Waves as high as 30 feet pounding the shore just after that?!

Worse yet: remember that DAYS thing? Sandy is taking two days to pass over our area. Hurricane Hugo was fast. It was over in roughly the span of twelve hours.

I remember hearing that some of the evacuation centers were flooded. Can you imagine? Areas that were suppose to offer safe harbor WERE DROWNED OUT?! DURING THE NIGHT... when rescuers couldn't reach them? WITH CHILDREN?!!

Tornadoes you can escape by burrowing underground. Hurricanes, you pick high ground, board up the windows and lock the doors, and pray for it to be over soon.

Honestly, I would prefer a tornado over a hurricane ANY day. ... Except for one major detail: Hurricanes you have PLENTY of warning time.


By the way, still have power. During the day things were fairly mild - more rain than wind. The wind has kicked up a LOT tonight, though, and the lights have flickered a few times. Been lucky so far in terms of power, I guess. *sigh* Damn, some of these wind gusts feel as if they are shaking the whole house. I worry still about flooding for our area.

Though... could be... worse o_O;;

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hur ... 2-20121025

Also gotta love how its fucking with the weather systems in other areas. I hear West Virginia and some other areas are getting snow already due to it. I've not been up on this part of it, though, so my information, what little I have, might be in error.

*looks at pictures* Wow, that's a lot of water. If this kind of flooding happens so often, why doesn't the government build better flood protection? I doubt that would be as bad if it happened here, and half this country is actually below sea level.

*whine* I don't want to be alone, come back.

>Disney buys Lucasfilms

>SW Episode 7 announced for 2015

>whyyyyyy

^ I don't know what's up with my pain right now. I just want to feel secure again.