Tornado myths

Windows and outer walls of the Bank One Building in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, were damaged by the 2000 Fort Worth tornado. It is a commonly held belief that tornadoes cannot strike downtown areas, but Fort Worth is just one of many cities whose central business districts have been struck by significant tornadoes.

Tornado myths are incorrect beliefs about tornadoes, which can be attributed to many factors, including stories and news reports told by people unfamiliar with tornadoes, sensationalism by news media, and the presentation of incorrect information in popular entertainment. Common myths cover various aspects of the tornado, and include ideas about tornado safety, the minimization of tornado damage, and false assumptions about the size, shape, power, and path of the tornado itself.

Some people incorrectly believe that opening windows ahead of a tornado will reduce the damage from the storm. Some people also believe that escaping in a vehicle is the safest method of avoiding a tornado, but this could increase the danger in some situations. Other myths are that tornadoes can skip houses, always travel in a predictable direction, always extend visibly from the ground to the cloud, and increase in intensity with increasing width. Finally, some people believe that tornadoes only occur in North America, do not occur in winter, or that some areas are protected from tornadoes by rivers, mountains, valleys, tall buildings or other geographical or man-made features; the truth is that tornadoes can occur almost anywhere at any time if the conditions are right. Some geographic areas are simply more prone to these conditions than others.

Some tornado myths are remaining bits of folklore which are passed down by word of mouth. The idea that the southwest corner of a structure is the safest place in a tornado was first published in the 1800s and persisted until the 1990s despite being thoroughly debunked in the 1960s and 1970s.[1] One notable instance of mass media spreading a tornado myth was after the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, where TIME magazine ran a caption on a picture suggesting that highway overpasses were safer tornado shelters than houses.[2][3] The spread of some myths can be attributed to popular tornado-themed movies such as The Wizard of Oz and Twister.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference tornado project was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Miller, Daniel J.; Doswell, Charles A. III; Brooks, Harold E.; Stumpf, Gregory J.; Rasmussen, Erik (1999). "Highway Overpasses as Tornado Shelters". National Weather Service WFO Norman, Oklahoma. p. 2. Archived from the original on June 16, 2000. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  3. ^ Carter, J. Pat (1999-05-04). "The Force of Nature". TIME magazine. Archived from the original on June 15, 2001. Retrieved June 30, 2009.
  4. ^ Grazulis, Thomas P (2001). The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 7. ISBN 0806132582. Retrieved 2009-02-15 – via Internet Archive.