Blowing up tornadoes?

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2003-04-13 04:56pm

Was watching a thing on tornadoes earlier and I was wondering: Would it be possible to FAE or napalm a tornado, so the fire would "eat" the wind?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-04-13 05:00pm

it might make it worse, fires cause severe low pressure, and thats what tornadoes are made up of -- lots of low pressure air.

also, i would note that air is not 100% oxygen, its actually almost pure nitrogen, so you'd only waste ~29% of the gas in a tornado.

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2003-04-13 05:24pm

The kinetic energy of a tornado is in the multi-kiloton range. Even if you don't need to counteract more than (being overly optimistic here) 1% of it with to make the tornado die off on its own, you have to wonder if the cure is worse than the disease.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-04-13 06:48pm

So could a nuclear explosion disrupt a tornado? Hypothetically, of course--talk about cures being worse than diseases.

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2003-04-13 07:36pm

Most likely so. But all that heat the nuke just dumped just might start another tornado. You're not likely to destroy the surrounding thunderstorm (the usual cause of twisters), which is vastly more powerful. Perhaps if we're talking about multi-megaton nukes, maybe.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-04-13 07:43pm

It would probably just make things worse. Now, maybe if you placed a lot of incredibly heavy objects in the tornado's path, so it used all its kinetic energy trying to lift them...

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-04-13 09:08pm

This is where the axiom "Don't fuck with Mother Nature" is useful.
Get out of the tornado's way. Don't through bombs at it.

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2003-04-14 01:06am

SyntaxVorlon wrote:This is where the axiom "Don't fuck with Mother Nature" is useful.
Get out of the tornado's way. Don't through bombs at it.

B-but... Damn.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2003-04-14 02:45am

Kuroneko wrote:The kinetic energy of a tornado is in the multi-kiloton range. Even if you don't need to counteract more than (being overly optimistic here) 1% of it with to make the tornado die off on its own, you have to wonder if the cure is worse than the disease.

Especially given that if you used a nuke to disrupt a tornado, which tends to be laden with all manner of debris, you'd create all manner of nasty radioactive fallout.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-14 10:15am

GrandMasterTerwynn wrote:
Kuroneko wrote:The kinetic energy of a tornado is in the multi-kiloton range. Even if you don't need to counteract more than (being overly optimistic here) 1% of it with to make the tornado die off on its own, you have to wonder if the cure is worse than the disease.
Especially given that if you used a nuke to disrupt a tornado, which tends to be laden with all manner of debris, you'd create all manner of nasty radioactive fallout.

Was just about to say that, indeed, you don't fuck with Nature.

PrinceofLowLight: Nice avatar.

Ignorant twit · Post by **Ignorant twit** » 2003-04-14 02:10pm

How about trying to use small explosions to guide it instead of disrputing it? Like trying to turn the sucker away from the mobile home park.

Is there any possible way to control a tornado's path that isn't worse than the tornado itself?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-14 02:51pm

Ignorant twit wrote:How about trying to use small explosions to guide it instead of disrputing it? Like trying to turn the sucker away from the mobile home park.

Is there any possible way to control a tornado's path that isn't worse than the tornado itself?

No, the things are FAR too powerful to direct like that. Best bet is to simply run and pray.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-04-14 06:41pm

SyntaxVorlon wrote:This is where the axiom "Don't fuck with Mother Nature" is useful.
Get out of the tornado's way. Don't through bombs at it.

Fuck that! I wanna see them detonate an atomic bomb inside a tornado just to see what happens, dammit! Come on, don't tell me that wouldn't be fucking cool!

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-04-14 07:10pm

Ignorant twit wrote:How about trying to use small explosions to guide it instead of disrputing it? Like trying to turn the sucker away from the mobile home park.

Is there any possible way to control a tornado's path that isn't worse than the tornado itself?

It's possible, way much easier, and enviromentally less dangerous.
One only needs to alter the air pressure to divert the tornado, that can be acheived by changing the temperature, for example. Of course, it would take one hell of a oil trench to be abble to achieve the desired effect, due to the amount of energy carried by it.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-04-14 07:25pm

50 25-megaton nukes should remove any tornado.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-04-14 07:37pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:50 25-megaton nukes should remove any tornado.

And the trailer parks it threatens.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-04-14 07:56pm

Durandal wrote:
Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:50 25-megaton nukes should remove any tornado.
And the trailer parks it threatens.

And the two towns up the road.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-04-14 08:16pm

Durandal wrote:
Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:50 25-megaton nukes should remove any tornado.
And the trailer parks it threatens.

Of course, trailer parks tend to be inhabited by inbred rednecks, so it might have an upside.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2003-04-14 08:23pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:50 25-megaton nukes should remove any tornado.

Ah, yes. The best solution to preventing destruction is destroying everything before it does. Cute.

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2003-04-14 10:15pm

Durandal wrote:
SyntaxVorlon wrote:This is where the axiom "Don't fuck with Mother Nature" is useful.
Get out of the tornado's way. Don't through bombs at it.
Fuck that! I wanna see them detonate an atomic bomb inside a tornado just to see what happens, dammit! Come on, don't tell me that wouldn't be fucking cool!

Damn right! Fucking cocky nature...thinks it's so great. Nature's like a rich kid who flaunts all its neat toys and taunts us with them. Well, EAT A NUKE, ASSHOLE! Plus if it didn't work and we ended up just making a fallout twister, it would at least make a cool b-movie.

AV: Nice sig.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2003-04-15 12:16am

Straha wrote:
Durandal wrote:
Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:50 25-megaton nukes should remove any tornado.
And the trailer parks it threatens.

And the two towns up the road.

And the cloud of fallout will render the entire county uninhabitable for years to come. Not to mention people throughout the state will suddenly start to glow in the dark.

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2003-04-15 02:06am

This is sounding better and better all the time.