Tornado watch!

Collette

By Collette on 22-Jul-10 15:19

Regina is under a tornado watch today (not as serious as a warning, but something to be taken seriously nonetheless) and I realized I'm not completely sure what to do in a tornado! So, I had a little look at this Government of Canada website.

Since I'm in the office right now, I'm told to take shelter in an inner hallway or room. One of our boardrooms is across the hallway from my office and it has a solid table that would be good for crouching under. A few steps more and I can get to the washrooms. I'm feeling pretty safe and prepared, despite the fact that my office has huge windows and looks out over our entrance which, as you know, is made of glass.

I wouldn't have known exactly what to do if I was driving, though, which I was doing at lunch. The advice is to get out of your car and lay in a ditch. I'd heard that before, but reading it over now gives me a much stronger sense of security.

I thought I'd blog about how tornadoes form when I realized hey, we have a little exhibit piece on tornadoes! I'll let it do the talking.

Sorry about cutting off a word in the last picture! Whoops. It's still easy to read, though.

Here's what this panel and our "tornado machine" looks like in full:

You bet we aren't going to just let you read about it! You can actually make a tornado in our little machine.

I read a bunch of stuff online about tornadoes too. I learned that they are rated in intensity from F0 (light) to F5 (incredible).I like that "incredible" is the descriptor. One definition of incredible is "too extraordinary and improbable to be believed."An F5 tornado is clearly super, astonishingly huge!

The mostly deadly tornado in Canada was in Regina! It was the 1912 Regina Cyclone, which devastated the city. 28 people were killed, hundreds were injured, and 2,500 people were left homeless. It passed through the city in only 3 minutes (wow!) and caused $1.2 million in property damage ($25 million in 2005 dollars). And it was an F4 -- there has actually only been one confirmed F5 tornado in Canada, which was in Elie, Manitoba in 2007.

If you want to learn more about the Regina Cyclone, CBC Archives has this interesting and funny audio clip (make sure you read the "Did you know?" tab for neat stories), or you can read about it on Wikipedia, although the Wikipedia article is just the facts and doesn't have much for personal accounts. I bet you can find even more information out on the internet, but there are a few links to get you going.

When I started this post the sky was black and the rain was beating down. It's now sunny and calm. Funny how weather can move through so quickly!

Stay curious,
Collette