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submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

That is a fantastic description of the sound/feeling of a close tornado. It really is like a freight train turned up to 11 with added constant groaning explosions.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I've not personally encountered a tornado that close, but I've personally met and talked to some old timers from the Plains States... who've actually got personal experience of having to hide in the cellar while a tornado barely misses their house by 1000 feet.

The freight train / constant bombs going off descriptions come from them, and I find them pretty reasonably good analogies, with myself having a bit of experience with audio engineering for video game mods, looked into some of the physics of sound to tweak things around.

You could maybe replicate parts of the sound element with... basically a massive subwoofer that literally registers on the Richter scale... but another element that can't really be replicated is the massive and rapid changes in ambient air pressure very close to a tornado... that changes the properties of how sound propagates... and there is such a high magnitude/volume, low frequency nature of all of it that... its where 'hearing' and 'feeling' blend into the same thing.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Dixie Alley, been around quite a few. Had a big one pass over and then touch down a quarter mile from the house once. You could feel the roof lifting. It's so fucken loud.

If we really wanted to reduced damage from tornadoes, we would build decoy trailer parks with lots of telephone poles all over. House trailers are a tornado's natural prey.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

we would build decoy trailer parks with lots of telephone poles all over

hahah that deserves some price ;)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah... that sounds (hah) just completely terrifying.

I've been in a few very high high speed, sustained windstorms, over in the PNW, but nothing approaching an actual tornado.

I'md glad you find the metaphor apt!

As to decoy trailer parks... lol.

That would at least be a better usage of FEMA funds than concentration camps for farmer / field workers...

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
460 points (96.4% liked)

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