One misconception that was referred to by C3 is that there are many tornado warnings in areas covered by a hurricane or tropical storm, and the tornadoes may be doing most of the damage. If someone is not paying careful attention, it’s easy to get confused.
It’s not an excuse for bad news reporting, however.
Well, you guys also have to keep in mind that there’s a bigass chunk of this country where a hurricane will never, ever strike. I have never lived on the coast, and I don’t intend to ever live on or near the coast. As such, I don’t know a lot about hurricanes, nor do I really give a flying fuck, apart from feeling bad for the people whose homes and businesses get flattened.
I know that hurricanes are funnel-shaped and form over water, and they’re especially tasty if you use spiced rum when making them. Beyond that, I don’t really have any use for the information, ya know?
And if that’s all you know about hurricanes, and you don’t get a lot of tornadoes, I imagine the difference between the two types of funnel-shaped storms is pretty much theoretical. I can see how someone would get them confused, really.
They just have waaaay too basic of a definition that’s all
Tornado = Spinning air and water that breaks things and kills people
Hurricane = Spinning air and water that breaks things and kills people
Hurricanes aren’t funnel-shaped, they’re round.
And it seems that people really should learn the difference in elementary school science class or something. This is NOT that difficult!
Exactly whiterabbit! I live in Southern Ontario. I’ve never experienced a tornado or a hurricane. But I’ve known since…oh, lets see…elementary school that a tornado is a funnel of air spawned from thunderstorms in the plain states and a hurricane is a massively powerful tropical depression that forms from warm, moist oceanic air.
Speaking as a Californian:
WHO…CARES…?
What if you moved to Houston, blowero? Or Miami? Or Charleston? The list goes on…
Then you’d care. I promise you! It does not seem beyond the realm of possibility that people can learn that the hurricane is the huge fucking storm coming from the ocean, while the tornado is the spinning skinny destructive thing that’s spawned off of the hurricane.
Like I said. This is something that should just be in the realm of common knowledge. I’m sorry, but it’s NOT HARD.
Depends how long you expect to live in California. Since hurricanes seem to getting raher more frequent and stronger over the last century, the fact that Priscella straggled across California in 1983, Fausto hit Baja in 1996, and Linda wandered around offshore in 1997 suggests that you may learn to take an interest in them, at some not-too-distant point. Similarly, there are certainly regions in California subject to tornadoes. So distinguishing one from the other might be in your future, after all.
(And, just as the East might suffer worse than the West in an earthquake, due to building codes not considering the effects, so the West coast might have more difficulty dealing with a hurricane.)
Speaking of bad reporting…
A few years ago, there was a thunderstorm system about, which happened to be spawning waterspouts (tornado over water) and tornados (waterspout over land). I was on my way home, in my car, and heard the radio station DJ (A Clear Channel station, but that’s another rant) announce: “There’s a tornado warning! Here’s more Pearl Jam.”
Wha? I race home to ensure dogs and cats are safe and sound, get ready to batten down the hatches and find a small interior room to cram us all into (no basements here). I pause to flip on the Weather Channel. . . To find out it’s a damn tornado watch. I had to call the GM at the radio station and rip him a new asshole.
I grew up in the midwest, which means I’m pretty familiar with the terminology and conditions of both hurricanes as well as tornadoes. “Watch” means conditions are good for formation of a tornado. “Warning” means bend over and kiss your own ass goodbye, 'cause it’s HERE. BIG difference. The Manager guy apologized for my panic and I advised him it is not in the station’s best interests to have alternapop djs giving half-assed weather reports. If they don’t use the proper terminology and millions of other people panic… They should just stick to playing the same five Pearl Jam songs over and over and leave the weather reports to the experts. And I promised to never act on weather advice given by a guy who plays the same crappy five songs all day long. (I no longer listen to local radio as I have satellite – which, btw, features the Weather Channel.)
Finally, to add to the OPs rant: If you don’t live in a part of the world that sees hurricanes, that’s okay. I do not expect you to know much about them. However, I do expect you to pronounce the word correctly when conversing with me about them. It’s “her-a-cane” not “hyur-i-cane.”
Hmmmm…do I care yet?
No.
A couple weeks ago I went to Lollapalooza just outside of Indianapolis. In between sets, it began to get cloudy and windy and started raining and blowing like crazy. One of the singers of one of the bands came on and said, “Wow, I’ve never been in a tornado before,” or something to that effect.
It was funny because there wasn’t a tornado, just a storm. I guess those Californians might not know the difference.