With Hurricane Irene in the news lately, it raises the question would you rather live here in Tornado Alley, or along a coast that could be slammed by a hurricane? I've found mixed reactions over the years, but I would still have to chose Tornado Alley. Granted, the winds associated with tornadoes tends to be stronger than winds with a hurricane, but the isolated nature of tornadoes and scope of the storm is dramatically different. Hurricanes are so large in scope that millions of people are affected at once, while tornadoes cover a much smaller chunk of real estate.
The area of the hurricane with the strongest winds is usually in the right front quadrant of the storm. So as Irene moves up the east coast, the outer banks of North Carolina will feel the strongest winds, but the storm surge will be significant everywhere along the coast. It will be interesting to see how New York City fares with the storm and the wind. It should be a category 1 storm by the time it reaches the big metro area, but it's been a long time since a storm of this magnitude has taken aim at the northeast and the New England states.
2 comments:
I would much rather live in Tornado Alley, even though tornadoes scare the crap out of me! Hurricanes are so much bigger, last so much longer and affect such a larger area than tornadoes do.
Hurricanes have more effects...they cause earthquakes, tornadoes, high winds, hail, flooding, and posssibly mudslides. there awful.
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