Anti-tornado missiles?
 

Hello All,

The tornadoes that struck the US this week reminded me of a strange incident that happened to one of my father's fellow firemen at the Miami Fire Department in the 1950s, and it might illustrate a possible way to destroy tornadoes (I'd be particularly interested in the thoughts of the former guided missile technicians who are YORF members). Here is what happened:

This fireman was out on his fishing boat on one of his days off duty, and he had a shotgun onboard for self-defense. The weather deteriorated as the day went on, and by afternoon it was stormy. A waterspout descended nearby and came straight toward his boat. It was so close that he had no time to get underway. In desperation, he picked up his shotgun and fired at the waterspout's funnel just as it reached the boat. To his surprised relief, the shotgun blast broke the partial vacuum inside the waterspout, and it dissipated. After he told my father what had happened on the next day they were on duty together, my father thought of a possible defense against tornadoes, at least the smaller ones:

Perhaps modified, older surplus air-to-air missiles such as the Sidewinder or Sparrow could be fired at tornadoes from ground-based launchers. If a missile's warhead detonated at the funnel wall, it would literally blow a hole in the tornado and should break the partial vacuum inside it. The infrared target seeker of the Sidewinder should be able to "see" the funnel of a tornado, as should the radar seeker of a Sparrow if it was tuned to the appropriate wavelength. If necessary, a proximity fuze using radar or infrared should ensure that the warhead detonated at the funnel wall. Also:

Both the Sidewinder and the Sparrow have been used in ground-launched applications; the U.S. Army's MIM-72 Chaparral mobile surface-to-air missile system (see: http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-72.html ) used ground-launched modified AIM-9 Sidewinders, and the U.S. Navy's RIM-7 Sea Sparrow system (see: http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-7.html ) used ship-launched AIM-7 Sparrow missiles. Might these missiles, if based in either fixed or mobile emplacements in tornado-prone areas, be able to destroy tornadoes?

Anti Tornado Missles
 

There was a short story in the March 1975 issue of Analog magazine titled "Jill the Giant Killer" by William Turning and Ewing Edgar. Using a large Chemical Explosive ,that generated more heat energy then explosive force, and which were encased in plastic, they developed an air delivered anti tornado weapon. It was a great read at the time, and I always remember that story when I watch the evening news and witness the destruction , even this weekend , that those storms cause over such large swaths of land and towns in the American Midwest. Not to mention the terrible loss of life. If only science fiction in this case could become reality. :(

****! I read that story back in college in Austin. I remember someone in the meteorology prof there calcualted it would not work. But it was a good story nonethless.

"Sir! We have met the enemy and he is talking funny!" is the one line from that story I still remember after all these years.

military?
 

I thought I read the military looked into this in the 60's or 70's? :o

Fyi
 

Tuning turned the short into a novel - "Tornado Alley", c. 1978, published by Ace Books. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/im...=283155&s=books

A really fun read - he almost makes you believe it would be possible...

In the 1960s, the late Florida Congressman Claude Pepper tried to get the U.S. Air Force to drop a hydrogen bomb inside a hurricane that was menacing the Florida coast, to try to destroy the storm. He called up Art Smith, the curator of the Miami Museum of Science. (Art was a friend of my old boss Jack Horkheimer at the Miami Space Transit Planetarium in the same building as the museum. Art knew many "bigwigs" in the military, the news media, and NASA). Congressman Pepper complained to him that the Air Force wouldn't do it. "I hope not!" Art replied. "That would spread radioactive fallout all over the east coast of the country!" He told me that after a few seconds of embarrassed silence from the other end of the telephone line, Congressman Pepper said, "Gee, I never thought of that..."

You may be interested in this site.

http://glendaproject.org/

More into data collecting and early warning.

Dave Davis is our 4-H clubs Adult mentor and has been very helpful.

I have seen a few of the launches at BMR's " Rolling Thunder" and they are very impressive.

John

Claude Pepper rarely thought about anything except whatever it took to get re-elected. The sad thing he was not unique among congresscritters then and now.

This would never happen.

No politician is going to authorize firing live ordnance into populated areas, since who cares if a tornado runs into open fields (except the landowners). There are too many legal issues of "what if something bad happens and the missile misses and hits a school ...", so while it is an interesting academic exercise, it will never see any serious consideration.

Greg

One never knows about "never"...a community that was hit hard multiple times by tornadoes might decide it was worth the risk. Here in Alaska, we fire howitzer artillery shells to trigger avalanches in human-frequented areas (it is similar in principle to the "back-burn fires" that are deliberately set to prevent much larger forest fires later), and the Chinese fire anti-hail/rainfall-enhancement rockets and anti-aircraft artillery shells over populated areas.