3 ms·

but unlike earthquake, you have ample time to at least save yourself, no?

• mikestew 10y ago
  No, at least not sometimes (for non-trivial amounts of "sometimes"). Take my anecdata in another comment on this thread. Partly cloudy day, something blows in from the west. Dad and I decide it's going to rain soon enough, we should head to the house. About halfway between the house and the barn, Dad says "run!". That sound of screeching metal and shredding wood? Yeah, that would be the entire roof structure of the barn being lifted up and deposited in a neighboring field. We're talking a building that has more square feet than your average McMansion. And that was a small tornado. The only mitigation for the big, freight-train-sized tornadoes is that there's usually some harsh weather to go along with it to warn you that something might be coming. Okay, so you're not outside. You're sitting cozy in your living room watching Orange is the New Black. Tornado warning on the news, but tornadoes are very localized and you don't have a basement in your manufactured home. So what are you going to do, run to the neighbor's again to huddle in their basement for what probably turns out to be a non-event? Nah, it'll be fine. Until it isn't. And by the time it looks like you really ought to be knocking on the neighbor's door, you sure as hell don't want to be caught outside. Now, the weather services are usually good about a heads-up, with tornado watches (could be a tornado) and warnings (confirmed sighting). A lot of towns have a siren that's goes off on a sighting. But it is quite possible to be caught unaware, and there isn't a lot of time before that giant sucky thing moving at 35mph gets to where you're at.