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Question of the day: tornado or hurricane?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Revengeofthenerds, Dec 2, 2023.

  1. Revengeofthenerds

    Revengeofthenerds
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    Would you rather be in trailer home during a tornado, or out in the open during a hurricane?

    For the sake of making it even, we'll say the tornado is an EF 3 (windspeed for EF3 = 136-165 mph) and the hurricane is a Cat 4 (131-155 mph). For the tornado, you do not have a shelter or reinforced home anything in the trailer, but you do have standard equipment such as bike helmets, radio and flashlights. For the hurricane, storm surge is a concern. There are trees around which you can climb, but they can also fall on you.
     
  2. Juice

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    Hurricane. You get far more advanced warning. I guess it depends on how much of a "concern" the storm surge is. Is it 100% guaranteed that I'm going to be impacted by it? If not, Im digging a ditch on an elevated hill with drainage. I don't how the bike helmet is going to help with projectiles going 150 mph, but I guess they'll think I'm retarded when they find my corpse.
     
  3. Revengeofthenerds

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    you are reading way too much into this.

    Like, would you rather literally be inside of a trailer home being struck by a tornado, or literally be out in the open when a hurricane is making landfall
     
  4. xrayvision

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    So you’re guaranteed to be getting hit by the tornado while inside in the trailer? And the alternative is to just be outside in a cat 4 for the duration of the hurricane?

    I’d probably pick the hurricane because being in a trailer that is actively getting ripped to shreds in a tornado would likely kill me. Hurricanes have a lot of variation in them but I’d probably survive.
     
  5. Juice

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    Hey you brought up the bike helmet, Marathon Man. I think I'm allowed to evaluate its usefulness in protecting me in the scenario, and I maintain it will only make search and rescue teams think I escaped my group home. That being said, even if we exclude the bike helmet, I think I would stand more of a chance with a hurricane than a direct hit from an EF3.
     
  6. bewildered

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    I have a lot of experience with hurricanes. Tornados just come in and fuck you up. I pick hurricane, no question.
     
  7. Revengeofthenerds

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    see I'm the opposite. I've been in some tornadoes (admittedly, likely not as severe as some have experienced on this board). My only experience with hurricanes have been glancing blows. The combination of prolonged exposure to wind and water horrifies me. With a tornado, you hunker down in a center room with mattresses or whatever around you and hope that the heavy shit you're holding onto won't move. With a hurricane, well, Ron White said it best:

     
  8. bewildered

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    I'll just chain myself to a sturdy tree, a la The Cay.
     
  9. Binary

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    Oh man, I loved that book.

    I, too, choose to die like Timothy.
     
  10. Kubla Kahn

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    Tim-Mah-Tee

    I liked it when he slapped the blind kid for acting insolent.


    If the tornado definitely hits it then youd want the hurricane. If it were up to chance and might not hit it directly? Then you might pick the tornado because they are much shorter.
     
  11. dixiebandit69

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    I remember reading that book in the 6th grade.

    I wanted to do this during Hurricane Emily in the '00s. I figured I'd get really drunk/ high on pills, and ride it out.
    It missed us. All we got were some wind gusts.

    Definitely hurricane, anyone who thinks they will survive a tornado in a trailer is delusional.
     
  12. sharkhead nachos

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    Aww man, I'm just digging into to this thread and that Ron White clip was the first thing I thought of.

    After riding out multiple hurricanes and then seeing what a tornado can do to towns like Joplin, MO., I will take the hurricane every time.
     
  13. Rush-O-Matic

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    I went to Charleston, SC a few weeks after Hugo rolled through, and that was some crazy destruction. But, I went to Pleasant Grove, AL in May 2011 after that EF5 rolled through there in April, and just . . . wow. Same. No way I'm tryna ride out a tornado. Here are two Google Earth timeline photos of Pleasant Grove. One is September 2010, the other is September 2011. Houses and trees just gone.

    Sep2010.jpg Sep2011.jpg
     
  14. GcDiaz

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    What's the famous saying, "It's not that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing." A tornado has much more destructive potential and will impale you with a blade of grass. I'll take the hurricane if I can climb the tree and strap myself to the upper trunk.
     
  15. xrayvision

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    Ron White.
     
  16. Fiveslide

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    Nerds posted weather events of which the wind variable is comparable. So, I think the thing that makes the tornado more deadly is the lift it creates, how it picks stuff up and hurls it at you. Maybe, I don't know. Hurricane winds kinda roll stuff at you. Tornado is over faster. Hurricanes last way too long.

    I guess I'd pick a hurricane, though.
     
  17. Revengeofthenerds

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    Bingo.

    Tornado is over faster, but more damage due to that rapidity with rapid pressure changes. Hurricane lasts longer, but you're also facing the potential for water. At least with the tornado, you would have some "shelter." With the hurricane, if there was debris, there would be no where to hide if you're out in the open. In theory, it's a pick your poison scenario.

    Everyone is skipping over the wind speed being essentially the same, so it basically comes down to which you are more familiar with and which one scares you more.