European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 7, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wariness Over Tornado season by Erica Johnston associated press North and South carolinians cast wary eyes to the upcoming Tornado season just Over a year after a swarm of twisters slashed through the leaving 62 people More than homeless and million in the tornadoes first touched Down in South where 18 people that wednesday March in the next six the swarm skipped East and veered to the Northeast to Cut across most of Eastern North leaving a 450mile Trail of devastation and funnel Clouds whipped winds up to 200 Demol Ishing buildings and snapping Trees like one Duplin county residents Utility Bill was blown More than 60 Hiram Duplin county director of emergency said Calypso fire chief Jimmy Pate experienced the Tornado firsthand that the Tornado picked his car up and put it on the other Side of the Brinson it peeled off the Vinyl top of his car and blew All the windows Pate said he Felt like a Marble being shaken in a Pepsi Brinson he said his eardrums Felt like they were sticking out of his it was so former Jim Hunt called the event the worst natural disaster weve had in a Hundred years in North president Reagan ultimately declared disaster areas in six South Carolina counties and 10 North car Olina National weather service meteorologist Kermit Keeter said the severity of the twisters caught Carolini ans off guard last i think in the people in North Carolina have always about the disastrous nature of Torna does As being something that happens some place Keeter i think what happened last year will make people a Little bit More a Little More Cau the tornadoes last March were much stronger than those that usually strike the East coast and were More similar to those that hit Tornado Alley Keeter we usually have tornadoes in the but we were dealing with an outbreak like youd get in Texas or Missouri or Keeter people had lived How Tornado Are formed Tornado Alley Central Western Missouri and Iowa Attini put Ottburg f quit of i Hitmi Mexico it moist air rom Gulf of Mexico spreads while higher in cold dry air flows South and overriding moist guff air Chicago try tint grip the Chicago Tribune nmn report to As the two air masses the cold air sinks and the warm air rises As cooler air is drawn in from the sides to replace the moist the earths rotation causes the rising warm air column to in the North clockwise in the South the farther inward the air the faster it creating an extremely Low pressure thus triggering the Tornado All their lives Here and had never seen anything like North Carolina twisters usually stay on the ground a few on a severity scale of one to they usually rate one or with an occasional some of the Tornado last March stayed on the ground for up to 30 they were he now that weve seen and experienced the Sevasta weve got a different he forecasters cannot predict the severity of an upcoming Tornado but an outbreak of similarly destructive twisters is highly Keeter before last the last time we got such a Large outbreak was Back in february he the tornadoes also generated a political As National weather service officials blamed budget cuts in for weaknesses in the weather warning meteorologists at the weather who issued Tornado watch statements several hours before the tornadoes were not aware the first twisters had touched Down in North Carolina until More than one hour Keeter they touched Down beyond the effective Range of our and we didst have we we rent getting the reports until Well after they had done most of their he a Federal report concluded a More sophisticated radar unit would have detected tornadoes that were not picked up by the radar at Raleig Durham Airport and criticized the Lack of a full time warning and preparedness a year meteorologist Dennis Decker has assumed that and will spend much of his time travel ing around the state teaching people How to prepare for severe what were trying to do is develop a network to get More timely notification of a Tornado Hope that will allow us to better Issue Keeter a photo Village water Tower was undamaged by the twister that devastated last window on the weather that can save lives by Randolph Schmid associated press Hose daily satellite photos of Clouds Swir across the nation Are More than a window on the they May also be the reason hundreds or even thousands of people Are alive since the first weather satellite took to the skies on april forecasting the weather has made rapid and warnings of thunderstorms and blizzards have been Able to provide increased safety for Between 1933 and hurricanes killed according to National weather service although the toll varied greatly from year to that an average of 80 Hurricane deaths a study of the 14 years following the launching of the first weather satellite shows 668 deaths under 48 each but perhaps the Best example was Hurricane which came ashore along the Texas coast in september 1961 packing the most powerful winds and High Waves of any Hurricane this thanks to the satellite More than people had been evacuated from Lowling fort six people were killed by the but without that warning and meteorologists the toll could have approached that of a similar storm that struck the area and killed people in Galveston and thousands More in nearby the nations first weather the 270pound Hatbox shaped lifted off from Cape Canave ral on april to begin measuring the atmosphere for a satellite 10 times the size of that Little Pioneer zooms Over the poles to measure every Point on Earth while in stationary stares Down at the nation pro Viding regular photos of Clouds and storm residents of More than 120 nations use the information provided by american and other weather by monitoring the flow of information Back to and through the facilities of the world meteorological organization satellite information reaches More than 150 the satellites can provide flood warnings by measuring the water Content of melting Snow they also can warn of approaching thunderstorms or other severe and meteorologists Are not the Only ones who use the a heavy Snow for might prompt officials of the Bureau of land management or the corps of engineers to release water from major Western increasing storage capacity behind the dams to avoid hooding when the melt warnings can even be issued to communities downwind of volcanoes like mount Helens that might be threatened by smoke and and these Obser vation can increase the safety of air Fos towing volcanic eruptions in Indonesia in 1982 and Jet engines on airliners stalled after ingesting heavy volcanic dust the pilots were Able to restart the but to avoid similar aviation authorities in the United states and abroad Are studying the use of satellites to route satellites also can be used to Aid in search an Rescue missions for lost ships or aircraft a pro Gram that has saved dozens of lives in recent satellite images can also help measure the spread of the african search for Oil and other natural re sources estimate the effect of Ocean temperatures on climate and measure the flow of Ocean currents locate Forest fires Monitor temperatures to warn Farmers of an approaching freeze and even help find the Best place to catch in contrast to that first 270pound tiros1 the National oceanic and atmospheric administration last december sent up the latest in the tiros a the latest or television infrared observation is known As noaa9 and orbits the world 14 times a Day at an Altitude of 470 As the Earth rotates beneath the it collects pictures and information about a Swath of land Miles wide and transmits the information Back to a second Noaa satellite is scheduled for launch later this the truth about twister myths a photo tornadoes have spawned bizarre by Cheryl Chapman United press International weather experts guided by High Power technology Are nevertheless Hesi Tant to debunk All the old wives tales and bizarre superstitions about some of those they can Saye your others will kill meteorologist Al Moller of the National weather service at fort has studied some of the old superstitions and says Many Are founded on astute for one wives tale warns that tornadoes drop from murky Clouds that Drift toward the and that they Are accompanied by Short claps of Thunder and blinking red or pastel lightning streaks rather than common Long theres a lot of truth to said 1 can get very Complex about this in a basically because we dont understand but since a Tornado develops immediately Southwest of the rain in a thunderstorm lightning bolts striking the ground will appear very Short and sometimes even look like there repeating them in some torn adic storms at lightning is pastel Blue and Pink and in its been suggested the Tornado itself acts As a preferred electric connection to the some funnels he theres no basis to the Folk remedy of cutting the wind with an a or scythe to break its i put no Stock whatever in this legend of cutting the Moller if its coming your your standing out in the Yard swinging an axe at it int going to faze it one its also false that a Tornado wont Cross in april a very powerful Tornado developed South of moved directly across a Lake As a smashed into a number of he a Tornado Doest care whats underneath nor is it True that tornadoes strike from dead As a matter of tornadoes usually occur when surface winds Are hitting 2030 he this Story keeps making the rounds because sometimes just before a Tornado the horizontal winds that have been blowing Are sucked into the up draft and become vertically rising so there not its generally True that tornadoes travel in a beeline from the Southwest to the Northeast and spin coun he but there Are enough exceptions to Kink the 1 about one out of four tornadoes will move from the Northwest to the Southeast and a few Mavericks will spin 1 in from the but most of those coming from the East Are associated with he 1 ate in its life a Tornado tracks will sometimes and we also have records of tornadoes that have made turns or Complete which can pack winds of More than 200 Mph occasionally seem to sport a macabre weather historian Barbara Tufty recounts the talc of a woman sucked through a window in a june Tornado in Al spun through the air and set Down beside a phonograph record titled Stormy other tornadoes reportedly have sucked corks out of wine plucked live chickens and driven straws into things like that have but not because tornadoes have a sense of Moller All of the tornadoes Ive seen have been kind of for every person who set Down Ive seen Many maimed or in most the people car ried aloft dont come Back in very Good the Story about straws being driven into Trees and Fence posts is but whats really happening is that the wind Force is so Strong the Wood allowing the Straw to then slam sometimes tornadoes seem to develop a fondness for particular giving the lie to the Wishful belief they wont hit the same place one Man in Wichita lost his Home in 1958 to a then lost it again in 1964 to another then gave up and moved from his neighbourhood near the red River to the Southern part of where a Tornado in 1979 again destroyed his Moller weather experts no longer advise people to open the doors and windows of their houses to keep them from exploding in the vacuum a Tornado supposedly we preached this a Long but engineering stud ies have prompted us to change our its the brute wind not the that knocks a House in flying Glass has Cut up quite a few people Rushing to open their windows at the last the Indian legend that tornadoes wont strike a Community on the Fork of River has Given plenty of people a false sense of Moller is at the Junction of the Bosque and the Brazos and the Tornado that went through that town in 1953 killed 114 most of the Torna does that have struck Wichita Falls have followed the path of the red Moller said it is True that pets sometimes seem to know whats coming before their Ive seen animals get wild and wooly when violent storms Are about to they May be sensing rapid pressure he there Are no guarantees the Best animal for predicting tornadoes still is a Well trained human april the stars and stripes Page 15