PA man says rise in tornadoes caused by traffic in roundabouts

[wanderer2575]

"The phone lines are open for your calls.  Sir, what's on your mind?"

"We didn't have tornadoes here until we started putting in the traffic circles.  'Cause, on account of – you want to know why?  When people go round and round in circles, it causes disturbance in the atmosphere, and causes tornadoes."

https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-man-says-rise-in-tornadoes-caused-by-traffic-circles/

This is almost as good as when a farmer once claimed that daylight saving time was harmful to farming because the extra hour of sunshine every day burned up the crops.

[NE2]

[thspfc]

Also . . .
-The earth is flat.
-Birds are government drones.
-Australia is fake.

[kalvado]

A thunderstorm in Sahara can become Cat V landfall in US. The atmosphere is a chaotic system, and any vortex has a chance to develop...
95% of tornadoes in the northern hemisphere are rotating counterclockwise. Roundabouts also move counterclockwise. A coincidence?

[DaBigE]

Then shouldn't anywhere with a major racetrack have been wiped off the face of the earth by now? Or does the oval throw the atmosphere into a wobble instead of a tornadic vortex?

[kalvado]

Then shouldn't anywhere with a major racetrack have been wiped off the face of the earth by now? Or does the oval throw the atmosphere into a wobble instead of a tornadic vortex?

Just remember to switch directions to balance things out

[froggie]

95% of tornadoes in the northern hemisphere are rotating counterclockwise. Roundabouts also move counterclockwise. A coincidence?

Yes.  Coincidence.

By this "caller's" logic, we should have a number of tornadoes in Vermont and had them for years.  We still average less than one a year.

The "caller" also clearly doesn't remember the 1985 outbreak, which was primarily in Pennsylvania.

[ET21]

Illinois should build more, better chasing for me 

[1995hoo]

95% of tornadoes in the northern hemisphere are rotating counterclockwise. Roundabouts also move counterclockwise. A coincidence?

Yes.  Coincidence.

By this "caller's" logic, we should have a number of tornadoes in Vermont and had them for years.  We still average less than one a year.

The "caller" also clearly doesn't remember the 1985 outbreak, which was primarily in Pennsylvania.

There should also be thousands of clockwise-rotating tornadoes in the UK and Ireland if his "theory" were reasonable.

[jeffandnicole]

Told you it wasn't climate change.

[kalvado]

95% of tornadoes in the northern hemisphere are rotating counterclockwise. Roundabouts also move counterclockwise. A coincidence?

Yes.  Coincidence.

By this "caller's" logic, we should have a number of tornadoes in Vermont and had them for years.  We still average less than one a year.

The "caller" also clearly doesn't remember the 1985 outbreak, which was primarily in Pennsylvania.

I wonder if we plot number of tornadoes vs number of roundabouts, would there be any correlation? I wouldn't be surprised.
There is pretty well known correlation between worldwide average temperature and number of pirate ships in the ocean, for example

[1995hoo]

There is pretty well known correlation between worldwide average temperature and number of pirate ships in the ocean, for example

There was a study in the mid-1990s that found a striking correlation between the incidence of breast cancer and the wearing of a bra. Women who wore bras were something like 95% more likely to get breast cancer than women who didn't. (Of course, they failed to mention what percentage of women in Western societies wear those things. I'd guess it's more than 95%.)

[kalvado]

There is pretty well known correlation between worldwide average temperature and number of pirate ships in the ocean, for example

There was a study in the mid-1990s that found a striking correlation between the incidence of breast cancer and the wearing of a bra. Women who wore bras were something like 95% more likely to get breast cancer than women who didn't. (Of course, they failed to mention what percentage of women in Western societies wear those things. I'd guess it's more than 95%.)

Bra situation is more about reversed cause and effect; fun part is when cause and effect are non-obviously linked or totally unlnked (and you have to guess one way or the other).
Like vegetarians who thoroughly wash their food are more likely to have depressions.

[74/171FAN]

Then shouldn't anywhere with a major racetrack have been wiped off the face of the earth by now? Or does the oval throw the atmosphere into a wobble instead of a tornadic vortex?

This thread makes me appreciate Darrell Waltrip's vortex theory about the cars racing at full speed around the track keeping the rain away. 

[Revive 755]

Illinois should build more, better chasing for me 

Considering the number proposed or under construction in Illinois already . . .

[plain]

Damn. The whole time I thought this guy was the cause of all of the world's tornados



SM-S820L

[hbelkins]

Then shouldn't anywhere with a major racetrack have been wiped off the face of the earth by now? Or does the oval throw the atmosphere into a wobble instead of a tornadic vortex?

This thread makes me appreciate Darrell Waltrip's vortex theory about the cars racing at full speed around the track keeping the rain away. 

That was my first thought upon hearing about this, as well.

[SectorZ]

What about full-throated rotaries? Massachusetts should be getting a 1953 Worcester tornado event weekly if this had merit.

Also, as someone who has a science degree (specifically meteorology), I never fail to be amazed at how scientifically illiterate some people are. I fear it's getting even worse...

[MNHighwayMan]

I'm not sure it's getting worse, but it definitely is getting more visible. People have always been stupid; now we just see it more.

[Rothman]

I'm not sure it's getting worse, but it definitely is getting more visible. People have always been stupid; now we just see it more.

^This.  The Internet has given the Crazy and the Stupid a worldwide megaphone.

At least back when I was a kid, they were restricted to CB radio...

[GaryV]

My wife says it would only have an effect if it was a bunch of house trailers in the roundabouts.  Because tornadoes are attracted to trailer parks.

[ET21]

My wife says it would only have an effect if it was a bunch of house trailers in the roundabouts.  Because tornadoes are attracted to trailer parks.

The greatest bait for any tornado

[frankenroad]

So let's harness all that energy from the roundabouts and then we can get rid of all those cancer-causing windmills!!

/sarcasm off

[kalvado]

So let's harness all that energy from the roundabouts and then we can get rid of all those cancer-causing windmills!!

/sarcasm off

On a serious note... I saw a few projects where they propose to harves energy dissipated by passing cars to feed some road infrastructure. For example, solar panel powered pedestrian flashers are already installed; but in snowy winter panel can be less than efficient. Supplementing that with windmill spinned by car vortexes, or compressible pavement area to feed piezoelectric drives can in principle be used for same purpose. IMHO this would end up more pain than gain at the end of the day...

[D-Dey65]

Then shouldn't anywhere with a major racetrack have been wiped off the face of the earth by now? Or does the oval throw the atmosphere into a wobble instead of a tornadic vortex?

The Bridgehampton Race Track should've spawned loads of them between North Sea and Sag Harbor if that was the case.




At the same time, I saw turn of the century photographs of floods in places like Patchogue and other coastal towns and villages on Long Island, that weren't necessarily from hurricanes.