Tornados and cars

[BrandonDrums]

I live in Raleigh NC and I'm sure you all have heard about the tornados that came through last weekend. Being that it's NC where no one is experienced with tornado safety, there's more video of the tornadoes than any other single storm on the internet because in tornado alley, people actually take shelter rather than drive straight into the darn things.

This brought me to a big discussion about what these people were (or were not) doing wrong when making their videos of the oncoming tornado.

Diving under a bridge: Bernoulli's principle makes this a bad idea, the bridge acts as an air-foil accelerating the wind-speed and lowering the pressure causing you more likely to get sucked out. Not many people did this but I hear folks say it over and over. It's a bad idea and is well documented.

Getting out of your car to dive in a ditch when the tornado is close: Yes, being in a car is a bad idea if you have time to get to a stong building or low ground to prepare for a tornado.

But, here's my thoughts and all of the video Ive seen of the tornadic events have people staying in their car (and obviously surviving) despite the tornado being nearby and hail/debris flying around;

I believe that if the tornado is close and already stirring up debris, you're better off strapping in and covering up than trying to get out and make way to a ditch because the car can take an impact while the human body can't. Running to a ditch is more dangerous than staying in the car, at least the car can protect you from the debris and has crumple zones if it gets rolled over. A car doesn't= a mobile home. It's designed to take an impact and you can actually strap yourself in.

Am I right thinking this or am I a dumb north carolinian that's too afraid to run out into a storm and dive into a muddy ditch and will die as a result?

Here are video examples of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgwJfoZ-12c

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/44331/Tornado_Forms_in_Front_of_Car_Raleigh_North_Caroli/

http://www.wral.com/news/video/9456892/#/vid9456892

[ram_g]

Several years ago we were in suburban Houston rush hour traffic when a tornado came through. With concrete all around us there was no ditch anywhere, and anyway we were too dumbstruck to do anything but gape at it. The funnel passed ~150 ft from us - the car shook a lot but nothing else. Down the road it passed right on top of a couple of cars and knocked them over on their sides - as far as we could tell the people inside were fine, just shook up.

Not an experience I want to encounter again...

[DARKPT]

It depends on the intensity of the tornado. An F0 or F1 tornado will break glass and exploit weak structures, but isn't ilkely to pull 2+ tons of steel off of the ground. When the windspeed starts picking up, vehicles become airborne and your chances of surviving inside one drop off.

The advice for what to do has to apply regardless of the strength of the tornado, so we're told to head for a ditch as that's the safest thing to do. You won't believe what an F4 or F5 can do to a vehicle:

http://www.nesec.org/images/haz_tornado_truck.jpg