|
National Geographic Cyclone
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This is the bottom of the ocean |
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- an ocean of air as vast and |
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Above the earth's surface, |
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Some spiral into whirlwinds. |
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The dust devil has more bluster |
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Other twisters are downright |
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Tornado on the ground |
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Damage everywhere. |
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We've got numerous people |
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Get away from the windows! |
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Tree just blew over! |
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Get away! Get away! |
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Tornadoes pack the fastest winds |
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But in magnitude, |
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Hurricane, typhoon, cyclone |
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By any name, |
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Severe tropical storms afflict |
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In this century, they have claimed |
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Tornadoes have killed over 10,000 |
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Today, electronic eyes pierce |
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and map its shifting winds. |
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Scientists chart the anatomy |
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Their sensors record speed and |
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Make yours the same level |
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But none can predict the birth |
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That thing's a right mover! |
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We gotta get out of here, fast! |
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Nothing in our power can stop the |
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Early spring, 1991. |
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A southern sun heats the waters |
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Warm, moist air rises, |
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and travels northwest, |
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and on |
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More than a thousand miles away, |
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cool dry air rushes south |
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Rising over the Rockies, |
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dry upper level air flows east, |
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These forces collide over Tornado |
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Fast winds high above the ground, |
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make the air roll horizontally, |
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The atmosphere is unstable. |
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Thunderstorms erupt across |
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Here and there, an updraft lifts |
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into a vertical position. |
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Now the storm rotates as it feeds |
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The day gives rise to "supercells" |
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- the most complex and dangerous |
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Their underbellies bubble with |
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Lightning and hail are the least |
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Under the right conditions, |
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The National Weather Service |
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for a week, |
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By April 26th, conditions are |
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for a major outbreak of tornadoes. |
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Throughout the afternoon and |
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fifty-six twisters are reported. |
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Honey, be careful. |
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Is it going away from us? |
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Honey. |
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Honey. |
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I sure hope you're right. |
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Then, at 5:57 |
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In Wichita, |
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when warnings send them running |
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Look at this stuff |
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Take cover! |
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Around 6:20, the tornado takes |
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as it pulverizes a nursery full |
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By the time it hits McConnell Air |
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the twister is nearly |
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The base hospital, school, |
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and over a hundred housing units |
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6:29. In Andover, |
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but most residents heed warnings |
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The tornado's funnel has widened |
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At 6:40, it tears through the |
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The twister finally dissipates |
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Within minutes, its parent storm |
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along the Kansas Turnpike. |
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Can you get in the left lane, Greg? |
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Yah! |
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I'll like you know this go away. |
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You're okay, you're okay. |
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Keep going', man. |
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Faster? |
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
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Lots faster. |
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A local TV crew tries to outrun it. |
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Lots faster, Greg. |
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You gotta go buddy! |
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Even at 85 miles an hour, |
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They stop at an overpass |
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where a father and his two |
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As the twister spins out its |
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a dread calm takes its place. |
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We need some place to sit down. |
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Along the turnpike, |
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people are pulled from trucks and |
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Andover is hardest hit. |
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In what was the Golden Spur |
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ten bodies are found. |
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Is anybody in there? |
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Kansas bears a bitter toll: |
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over 1,700 homes destroyed |
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Survivors will never forget. |
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The car was hovering. |
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It was about three foot |
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and just sort of floating |
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Then all of a sudden the car left, |
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What looked like typing paper |
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it was like Garage doors. |
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Garage doors and window |
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Ambushed on a country road, |
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Brook Ibarra took shelter under |
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In a flash, she was airborne... |
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The cows all of a sudden started |
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I was picked up by the tornado |
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One thing I remember was the cow |
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He was screaming. |
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And then, before I knew it, |
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I was just laying in the field |
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Wounds are healed. |
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Neighborhoods rise from the rubble. |
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Such is life in Tornado Alley, USA. |
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Midwesterners once called them |
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Early photographs |
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and motion pictures held viewers |
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Tornadoes begat their own myths. |
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Some claimed they fused coins |
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and cooked potatoes in the ground. |
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In truth, they make airborne |
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Some have deposited heirlooms |
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Do they pluck feathers from |
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No. Blame that on sheer fright. |
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They inspire no less terror |
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April 3rd and 4th, 1974. |
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In the largest outbreak on record, |
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March 18th, 1925. |
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The deadliest tornado in history |
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219 miles of continuous devastation. |
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Until the 1950's, accurate tornado |
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Then a frame-by-frame analysis of |
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at 170 miles an hour. |
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Tornado science takes a leap |
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when Dr. Ted Fujita leaves Japan |
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Main reason why we are here |
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And in case of future tornadoes |
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That's the kind of thing |
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Four decades of research will earn |
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I think it's a grain elevator |
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At disaster sites, Fujita proves |
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there's much to be learned without |
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He likens tornadoes to criminals |
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who leave their fingerprints |
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Ground markings are clues |
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to a twister's inner structure |
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To test his theories, |
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he builds a tornado machine |
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He discovers that |
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are actually several small twisters |
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rotating around the center |
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These mini-tornadoes can lay |
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yet leave its neighbor unscathed. |
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Fujita's ideas have been amply |
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and remain a cornerstone of |
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Although they occur |
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three out of four tornadoes streak |
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They favor the springtime, and the |
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We say a tornado "touches down". |
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It actually sucks in air from |
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and carries it upward in a spiral. |
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Most range from 150 to 1200 feet |
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and travel over land at about |
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The funnel is often hollow, |
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a tube of condensed water vapor |
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that takes on the color of dust |
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In North America, most tornadoes |
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Perhaps one in a thousand spins |
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Twisters appear in many guises. |
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They can bring to mind |
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or the delicate dance of ghosts. |
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A single storm can spawn several |
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- a grouping referred to as a |
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For all their fury, |
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Many last only minutes. |
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To the scientists who would study |
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How to penetrate the twister's |
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Aiming weather balloons and |
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have yielded limited results. |
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All right. Three. Two. One. |
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Fire! |
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There! Perfe... |
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No. |
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In the 1980's, researchers at the |
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tested the "totable tornado |
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after Dorothy's dog |
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This four-hundred pound package |
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was to record what no human can |
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without risking life and limb. |
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But predicting the path of a tornado |
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TOTO had one close call, |
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For now, the safest way to see |
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is to probe them from afar with |
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Like an x-ray of a storm, |
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the system displays wind speed |
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In 1981, scientists first detected |
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the spiraling signature of |
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Today, the system is used to |
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Still, we're not exactly sure |
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For Howard Bluestein, |
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Professor of Meteorology |
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there's only one way to find out. |
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Satellite pictures are nice. |
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But you need to look out the window |
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and see the clouds at a |
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to get a feeling for |
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I don't understand |
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how one can study a phenomenon |
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Seeing it or feeling it |
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To me, that sets everything |
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That makes me want to understand |
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what causes it, |
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They just issued a tornado warning |
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Every spring, Bluestein exercises |
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chasing tornadoes, and measuring |
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Portable Doppler radar is like |
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It allows Bluestein to measure |
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in specific regions of a tornado. |
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Okay, we better get going quickly. |
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That thing is starting to form |
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Actually, hold it. |
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Can you turn it on? |
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It is starting to form a funnel |
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I'm on the left side of that |
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Bluestein's success rate is |
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The funnel cloud is just |
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We're packing up the radar... |
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He estimates one |
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with an encounter. |
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OK, tornado is crossing the path |
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Debris in the air. |
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Strong tornadoes almost always form |
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Bluestein plots his course |
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and tries to place his team roughly |
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Center it right on the funnel! |
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Oh, what a classic! |
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Only if you have a good CW signal. |
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We're detectives. |
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We're looking for lots of bits |
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And the more pieces of evidence |
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the more likely it will be |
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that we'll be able to solve |
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and what's their structure. |
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April 26th, 1991. |
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Bluestein and his team track |
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that will ravage Andover, Kansas. |
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A spectacular funnel stops them |
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Their Doppler radar will capture |
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nearly 280 miles an hour. |
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In the heat of the chase, even |
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Let's get out of here fast, |
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For less frenzied fieldwork, |
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Bluestein turns to these hunting |
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August, 1993. |
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The National Oceanic and |
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and the National Geographic |
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reunite Bluestein |
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expedition chief scientist. |
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As a graduate student, |
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Bluestein once joined Golden to |
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This expedition marshals |
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and photographic technology. |
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The quarry? |
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A phantom twister that haunts |
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In 1967, on a vacation trip, |
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Golden took a sightseeing flight |
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and had a chance encounter with |
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one of our atmosphere's most |
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Since that time, |
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he has become the world's leading |
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Our knowledge of these ethereal |
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on mariners' accounts. |
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Golden first emphasized their |
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Though usually smaller than a |
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They form in gentler weather |
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allowing close inspection. |
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Smoke flares will help visualize |
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For Bluestein, this is an |
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When we're out in the great |
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we cannot see what's happening |
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nor can we see what's happening |
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The perspective that we get |
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in that we can look down |
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and see the effect of rotation |
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and also be at cloud base |
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and practically kiss... |
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the condensation funnel |
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is really spectacular. |
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Ultimately, the ghostly waterspout |
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that trigger tornadoes. |
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Joe, I guess climatology works. |
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That was incredible! |
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Other whirling winds demand a |
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Book a seat on the Space Shuttle for |
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- over 500 miles wide, |
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Creatures of the sea, |
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they breed in the warm oceans of |
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Depending on their birthplace, |
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we call then 'cyclones', |
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These giants can stir up |
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more than a million cubic miles of |
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and travel across an ocean at up to |
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Yet they have humble beginnings. |
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In the summer and fall, |
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the sun heats vast stretches of |
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to over 82 degrees Fahrenheit. |
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Warm, moist air rises over these |
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forming bands of thunderstorms. |
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Upper level winds push storm |
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as surface winds spiral into the |
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Occasionally, |
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one such spinning wheel |
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feeding on moisture and heat. |
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When winds reach 74 miles an hour, |
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The storm's architecture is |
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Rain bands up to 300 miles long |
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the "eye wall". |
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Here, winds of up to 200 miles |
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Within the "eye", down drafts of |
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Most severe tropical storms spin |
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uneventfully, in the open sea. |
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When one threatens to come ashore, |
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the world's eyes are trained upon it |
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A professional storm chaser, |
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He prowls the globe for weather |
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Among chasers, Jim has few peers. |
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Some say he has videotaped more |
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He has no formal training, |
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Just a life-long passion. |
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When I was ten years old |
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I had my first real hurricane |
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We got probably winds of 80, |
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It was quite an exhilarating |
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People think I'm crazy but, that's, |
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It's not gonna change. |
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I've always been crazy about storms, |
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The best of them all, probably, |
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went down to Puerto Rico |
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And as it got stronger and stronger, |
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debris was starting to be |
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and it looked like it was gonna |
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So we decided at that point to start |
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As we're going down the stairwell, |
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the rain is being driven into the |
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coming down the stairway. |
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And the wind you see up here |
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At this point it's probably |
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And that was quite an experience. |
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It was like, one of the chasers |
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I have no reason to be in a storm |
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I'll, y'know, get to the point, |
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y'know, y'know, play the safe route |
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But if I want to get that |
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of course you're gonna take |
| 00:30:14 |
1992. Typhoon Omar, in Guam. |
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Now is this a piece of wind |
| 00:30:28 |
Really! I wouldn't miss a great |
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Jim and a fellow tracker have |
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as Omar's eye wall comes ashore. |
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Now the storm's placid eye |
| 00:30:46 |
It seems over, it really does, |
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We're gonna get blitzed again. |
| 00:30:51 |
I can't believe that |
| 00:30:53 |
It seems impossible. |
| 00:30:58 |
The unsettling lull does not last. |
| 00:31:01 |
Here, the trailing edge of the |
| 00:31:05 |
with winds blowing in the |
| 00:31:10 |
God, I didn't... no way! |
| 00:31:11 |
It looked like it was gonna wait |
| 00:31:13 |
It wasn't comin' on as fast. |
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Yeah! If I knew it was this, |
| 00:31:18 |
In 1991, Jim achieves a |
| 00:31:22 |
Typhoon Yuri, when it came, |
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approached |
| 00:31:25 |
I did a little bit of |
| 00:31:27 |
but I got the storm surge shots |
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The water came up a little faster |
| 00:31:35 |
Winds and low pressure allow the |
| 00:31:38 |
near the storm's eye. |
| 00:31:40 |
When it hits land, this mound of |
| 00:31:43 |
That's what you call storm surge! |
| 00:32:01 |
Great. |
| 00:32:08 |
Oh, great! |
| 00:32:15 |
When the surge is waist-deep, |
| 00:32:21 |
He, more than most, knows that |
| 00:32:23 |
a hurricane's most deadly weapon |
| 00:32:34 |
Nine out of ten hurricane victims |
| 00:32:41 |
They can raise tides more than |
| 00:32:44 |
and flood a hundred miles of |
| 00:32:56 |
Fifteen percent of the world's |
| 00:32:59 |
from severe tropical storms. |
| 00:33:03 |
Atlantic hurricanes assault |
| 00:33:09 |
Typhoons born over |
| 00:33:11 |
batter Japan, China, |
| 00:33:22 |
Mostly deadly are the cyclones |
| 00:33:26 |
Here, millions farm a river delta in |
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Escape routes are few. |
| 00:33:37 |
Loss of life has been appalling. |
| 00:33:39 |
In a single 1970's storm, |
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Of all the atmosphere's threats, |
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these giants should hardly catch us |
| 00:33:55 |
Weather satellites track them |
| 00:33:58 |
But no technology can predict |
| 00:34:03 |
To penetrate |
| 00:34:05 |
researchers ride a flying laboratory |
| 00:34:16 |
David? |
| 00:34:17 |
We're gonna go in at 10,000 feet. |
| 00:34:19 |
At ten, No? |
| 00:34:21 |
Yeah. We're playin' it safe. |
| 00:34:23 |
Looks impressive, anyway. |
| 00:34:24 |
We have about 15 miles to the |
| 00:34:31 |
External sensors |
| 00:34:34 |
air pressure, humidity, |
| 00:34:36 |
as the plane braves the turbulence |
| 00:34:40 |
We've got a hundred |
| 00:34:42 |
I thought it might drop off |
| 00:34:45 |
Not yet. |
| 00:34:46 |
If it hasn't by now |
| 00:34:49 |
We may see some 200 knot gusts here. |
| 00:34:56 |
Okay, we're just coming into |
| 00:35:05 |
An oasis of calm |
| 00:35:10 |
the eye is virtually clear |
| 00:35:25 |
You guys see the center |
| 00:35:26 |
I think we're just about |
| 00:35:28 |
Looks good, looks good. |
| 00:35:30 |
OK, I'll mark it. |
| 00:35:32 |
The eye's exact location |
| 00:35:35 |
are sent to forecasters on shore. |
| 00:35:38 |
Data also flows to this |
| 00:35:42 |
the Hurricane Research Division, |
| 00:35:52 |
What global ingredients determine |
| 00:35:54 |
how many hurricanes are born |
| 00:35:56 |
and what paths they follow? |
| 00:36:00 |
Stanley Goldenberg, research |
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says clues range from the El Nino |
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He crafts computer models |
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that an organized piece of weather |
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can be defined |
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The atmosphere is an orderly |
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There's physical rules, physical |
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It's just a matter of having |
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looking at it with the right tools |
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I mean, the real art is pulling |
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Goldenberg helped refine one of |
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the National Hurricane Center |
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But he had never experienced a |
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On August 17th, Tropical Storm |
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about halfway between Africa |
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During the following days, |
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Then, high level winds begin to |
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slowing its momentum. |
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It's slower. |
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Three days puts it here. |
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To Goldenberg, and most other |
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Andrew has only the slimmest chance |
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Friday, August 21st. |
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As high level winds die down, |
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Andrew begins to reorganize, |
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Computer models show Andrew might |
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but Goldenberg and his colleagues |
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Stan leaves work early, to prepare |
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His wife Barbara is due to deliver |
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750 miles from Miami, |
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Andrew's winds exceed 74 miles |
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Hurricane warnings in effect |
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Hurricane watch in effect... |
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The first hurricane |
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By noon on Sunday, massive |
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along the Florida coast. |
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Sunday afternoon. |
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Right on schedule, Barbara has been |
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Here we have from the hurricane |
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Which is Barbara going through |
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Four centimeters contracted, |
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In the birthing suite, |
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with all the fervor of an |
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Still, the meteorologist in him |
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And we still have, waiting |
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Beautiful skies. Calm. |
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You'd never know what was going |
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in the next 12 to 14 hours |
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Late in the day, |
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Andrew's winds accelerate to |
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Traveling nearly due west, |
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Around 6 PM, |
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packing a storm surge 23 feet high, |
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Having a boy makes you feel like |
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and having a little girl makes you |
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Stan steals a few hours with new |
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then leaves the hospital. |
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He'll ride out the storm at home. |
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In Miami, violent skies herald |
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Inland, residents take routine |
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Seven miles from shore, |
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Stan and his boys are joined by |
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Sunday, 23rd of August. |
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We have the family here: |
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Jonathan, Daniel, |
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Aaron, Ruben. |
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And we're gonna weather it out |
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Say hi, Daniel. |
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In the dead of night, |
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Andrew suddenly intensifies as it |
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August 24th, around 4:30 AM. |
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Our TV's out, maybe the power's out |
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You can hear that outside... |
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You'll start hear |
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In the hallway of the Goldenberg |
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Winds outside, |
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I think, are at least a hundred, |
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or more... |
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Arie, are you OK? |
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And there is the cat... |
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And there is... |
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Just waiting it out in the hall |
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because we lost the plywood |
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The rear plant gate would |
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And we are sitting back here |
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In the hall way. |
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We can feel our ears |
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pressure drops. |
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Yes, Johnson. |
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Lord we thank you and ask for |
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This is Stan, at 8:30 |
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We have been through a night. |
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This is our street, |
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The back street is a history |
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just one window broken |
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Trees down everywhere. |
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These are our sweet precious |
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These shadows survive the storm |
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with these type shadows survived. |
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But our house, which had wood |
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and as you can see, |
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This wall fell on us, containing |
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This is the wall, fell on top of us, |
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the stove down there, |
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the cabinets, all fell on top of us, |
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and that small space you're |
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the mattress and everything, |
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that's where we were pinned during |
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Incredibly, three adults, six |
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unharmed, from the wreckage |
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The scope of the disaster |
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At the hospital, Barbara rests |
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We will perhaps get the first look |
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The hospital had an emergency |
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so we still had power. |
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And we saw all of the first footage |
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and we were in shock. |
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The first areas they went through |
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saying, "Oh..." and just making |
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about how this car is thrown here |
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But they became much more sober |
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It did not look possible that |
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And that was just a mile or |
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And at that point, I really |
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One two, three, four, five, six, |
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And there must have been about, |
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counting and trying |
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at least three to four hundred |
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The rest are just completely gone. |
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In the morning, my wife finally |
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just to find out that I was okay, |
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somehow we both had a peace, |
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But I still remember the |
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I got through to her on the phone, |
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I mean it wasn't just the excitement |
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as me pouring out the emotions |
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I mean, we'd been through an |
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Andrew's storm surge wreaked |
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But its winds devastated an area |
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some 135,000 dwellings damaged |
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The homeless numbered 160,000. |
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It seemed miraculous only 44 died. |
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Not one official wind gauge |
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No one knew |
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Intrigued, Dr. Ted Fujita |
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flew to Miami to study the |
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Roofs ripped from homes. |
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Trees snapped in half. |
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Concrete beams carried hundreds |
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Plywood embedded in a tree trunk. |
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Fujita finds evidence of winds up |
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But his most startling finding comes |
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with local meteorologists. |
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They point out narrow streaks of |
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near areas with lesser damage. |
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To Fujita the patterns are |
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He develops a theory: |
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that the worst damage in Andrew |
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tornado-like rotations, brief but |
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The theory has personal meaning |
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We never expected the kind |
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Not only were we |
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some of the maximum areas |
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we had in addition, we believe, |
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an area of more intense winds |
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that Ted Fujita talks about. |
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There was a strip, |
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of homes that were devastated, |
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Stan would relocate his family to |
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Parts of Florida remains scarred |
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Andrew also ravaged the Louisiana |
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Finally, the storm would vanish |
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some two weeks after its birth. |
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Andrew was America's costliest |
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But it had a silver lining. |
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It spared New Orleans, |
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Repeatedly flooded and drained |
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the metropolis was built |
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surrounded by |
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Shaped like a bowl, the city's |
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and dips in its mid-section to |
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Lake Pontchartrain crowns its |
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Over a hundred miles of levees |
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and flood walls up to 20 feet |
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keep river and lake at bay. |
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Massive floodgates fill the gaps. |
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New Orleans has one of the best |
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powered by 21 colossal pumps. |
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The city has known hurricanes in |
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but not a direct hit from a storm |
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- and not with up to a million |
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over narrow bridges and causeways. |
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Former Meteorologist-In-Charge |
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of the New Orleans National |
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Bill Crouch fears the levee system |
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It's a two-edged sword, |
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because it protects the people's |
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But if water ever comes over |
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it's going to get as deep as |
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And the lake would be 19 |
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This means that in parts of New |
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the water could be 30 feet deep. |
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That is you would not be safe |
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So, those are the scenarios |
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which would force people to go |
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and even using that refuge, |
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it's my belief there would |
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One day, five, perhaps fifty |
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a hurricane like Andrew might |
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The city might be jammed with |
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- oblivious to the dangers of |
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Evacuation would be ordered, |
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But advance weather could move |
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and flood the causeway, |
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A hurricane approaching |
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could fill Lake Pontchartrain |
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Water would rush over hurricane |
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Pumping stations would be |
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This grim scenario may be imaginary, |
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A hundred thousand might be stranded |
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The city of New Orleans has |
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and local emergency management |
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to prepare for |
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There are many other potential |
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It is only a matter of time before |
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Nature has given us fair warning. |
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A gossamer veil of atmosphere is all |
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from the sterile reaches of space. |
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What we call 'weather' is simply |
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to balance heat and moisture |
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Swirling winds may spawn |
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but they can also breed whimsy. |
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A hay devil on a summer |
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Our home is a planet perpetually |
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The same awesome powers that sustain |
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It is up to us to be prepared. |
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There lies the challenge, |
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of living on this dynamic Earth. |
