Cecil's early column on tornadoes emitting RF energy in VHF range

[F.U.Shakespeare]

I remember this column in the first paperback compilation, entitled, simply, “The Straight Dope”. But I can’t find it in the archive.

Summary: You can detect the approach of a tornado with a TV set. Since (Cecil claims) tornadoes emit RF energy in the (IIRC) 50ish-MHz range, you tune to channel 2 or 3 and reduce the screen’s darkness. If a tornado comes near, the RF energy will show up as a line on the screen (I can’t recall exactly where on the screen – it’s been a long time since I had to remember the RF structures of TV channels).

My house being a pigsty, I can’t get my hands on the book at the moment, so I welcome anyone who can steer me to this.

[bibliophage]

It is online. The search function is quirky, that’s all.

How to detect tornados using your TV

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@bibliophage

It is online. The search function is quirky, that’s all.

How to detect tornados using your TV

Any Updates to this advice?

Have commercial “tornado detectors” come onto the market?

[Una_Persson]

Not an authoritative cite, but it seems that this topic might be one Cecil should consider re-approaching. It sounds from this link that there may be another method using sound waves and garden hoses (according to the NOAA source quoted in it).

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wtwistqa.htm

The pertinent part about televisions and tornado detection says:

Answered by: John Snow, dean of the College of Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.

A: You are referring to what was (or is called) the “Weller Method” of tornado detection (named after its proponent). This was a popular technique a decade or so ago, when people still had individual TV antenna’s. The idea was to use the TV set as a lightning detector (a detector of the radio waves emitted by a lightning flash), and under some conditions it would work. The idea was that tornadic thunderstorms were very active lightning producers. However, the method had (has) several shortcomings. Not all tornadic storms produce large amounts of lightning. TV’s are not all equally sensitive, and in fact some are made to filter out lightning signals. If you are connected to cable, it won’t work. The bottom line is that the method provide completely unreliable in actual field tests. Did it work sometimes? Yes, but most of the time it did not – it either indicated a tornadic storm when none occurred, or it did not indicate the presence of such a storm when in fact one was nearby. In meteorological terms, its success score was too low and its false alarm rate too high to be of use.

[August_West]

Interesting. In a former life I was in charge of back-up power systems, and our SOP was to fire up the diesel generators (with no load) in the event of lightning occuring within 5 miles of the site.

My “lightning detector” was an AM radio in my office tuned to a dead spot on the band and the volume turned way up. Whenever there was lightning near it would emit loud static-y crackles and I knew it was time to fire up the gens.

As far as I know, AM radios don’t have lightning filters and wouldn’t be connected to cable, so would they be more reliable for this purpose? (keeping in mind the caveats explained in **Una **'s quote)

[Una_Persson]

@August West

My “lightning detector” was an AM radio in my office tuned to a dead spot on the band and the volume turned way up. Whenever there was lightning near it would emit loud static-y crackles and I knew it was time to fire up the gens.

As far as I know, AM radios don’t have lightning filters and wouldn’t be connected to cable, so would they be more reliable for this purpose? (keeping in mind the caveats explained in **Una **'s quote)

Well, they claim that the ideal frequency for detection is something like 55MHz, so that would be a long way from anything on the AM radio bands. That’s not to say it’s not possible, but just referring to the “Weller method”.

[SiXSwordS]

@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

Have commercial “tornado detectors” come onto the market?

Doppler Radar probably works better than using the RF characteristics of a tornado to detect a storm.

It is the radial velocity product that allows meteorologists to detect circulations inside thunderstorms that often precede the development of a tornado.

If you’re going to use your TV to detect a tornado, maybe you could just tune into the local news station.

[Billdo]

@SiXSwordS

If you’re going to use your TV to detect a tornado, maybe you could just tune into the local news station.

Sure. Next you’re going to tell me that to use a barometer to measure the height of a building, you don’t drop it off the top and time how long it takes to fall under gravitational acceleration.

[SiXSwordS]

Considering contemporary trends in technology, what might be very useful would be if we could find a way to use iPods as tornado or lightning detectors. Better yet, lighting attractors!