How to save the Midwest from tornadoes with a 1,000-foot wall

[ScienceRocks]

How to save the Midwest from tornadoes with a 1,000-foot wall

Tornadoes are a big problem in the U.S., and one physicist from Temple University has come up with an innovative new idea to shield the Midwest from Mother Nature's force. It's a 1,000-foot high wall.

"In an ideal world, we should build three walls in Tornado Alley," said physicist Rongjia Tao in an email to the Motherboard website. "The first one should be close to the northern boundary of the Tornado Alley, maybe in North Dakota. The second one should be in the middle, maybe in the middle of Oklahoma and going to east. The third one can be in the south of Texas and Louisiana."

Mr. Tao cites as an example two areas of China, the Northern and Eastern China Plains. Both have a similar geographic location to the U.S. Midwest, but the plains in China don't get hit by so many tornadoes. The reason is, he thinks, a trio of mountain ranges that stretch from east to west, slowing down the winds enough to stop the creation of a tornado. And so, since the Midwest doesn't have any mountain ranges, one solution would be to build a barrier — albeit a one-thousand foot high one.

How much would it cost to build a wall of this height? Well, one mile of it would cost around $160 million, according to one estimate. But Mr. Tao isn't fazed — after all, tornado damage regularly racks up billions of dollars worth of damage. (If you're not sure just how great the vengeance wreaked on a community is, have alook at these before and after pics on Google Street View.)

"Building such walls are feasible," says Tao. "They are much easier than constructing a skyscraper. For example, in Philadelphia, the newly completed Comcast building has about 300-meter height (984 foot). The wall with similar height as the Comcast building should be much easier to be constructed."

How to save the Midwest from tornadoes with a 1,000-foot wall | DVICE

The great wall of AMERICA. Take that China. Would be one hell of a undertaken!

 

[skookerasbil]

Amazing that ANYBODY can think for a single moment that this might happen!!

The liberal mind is indeed fascinating!!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Amazing that ANYBODY can think for a single moment that this might happen!!

The liberal mind is indeed fascinating!!

I think it would be cool if it did.

 

[skookerasbil]

Amazing that ANYBODY can think for a single moment that this might happen!!

The liberal mind is indeed fascinating!!

I think it would be cool if it did.

Matthew....I envy and respect your level of idealism and indeed it would be spectacularly cool but there are just far too many impediments to ever make it happen. I do think however there will be a day in our lifetimes that technology will be developed to remotely extinguish the weather dynamics that cause tornado's.....perhaps by drone. A lot cheaper than building 1,000 foot walls.

Same with solar and wind technology. To sink billions into these relic forms of energy is to me, like trying to make a Model T go 8 seconds in the quarter mile. In the future, there will be cheaper and more effective energy forms via technological innovation.......BUT......and its a big BUT......government needs to get the fuck out of the way or it wont happen. Right now......they are far too beholden to the green energy $$$ thus, we are stuck with they gheyness of wind and solar for a couple of more decades. A shame.

 

[Kosh]

I say we get all the AGW cult members to go and stand and make a wall to stop tornados.

 

[flacaltenn]

In an ideal world, we would have physicists vet there ideas with specialists BEFORE contacting the press with brainfarts.. Matthew. You CLAIM to be storm chaser.. You want to explain HOW A single defensive wall protects all property to the East of that line? Tornadoes will form as fronts or favorable conditions move east. A tornado can form within miles east of that wall and have an intermittant 200 mile track. The $$Trillion wall seems to protect about a 60 or 100 mile east/west corridor..

How does this help? A wall 1000 ft thick and high isnt more than a speed bump for a super cell.

 

[Mr. H.]

Great- fuck up weather patterns with those worthless wind turbines, and now propose a 1,000 foot wall.

 

[flacaltenn]

The idea is sucky, its entertaining. I will stop paying taxes tho, if this genius ever gets a NOAA grant.

 

[Mr. H.]

What would be the carbon footprint of a 1,000 ft. wall.

 

[Politico]

I don't care if it would allow us to lock all the loons behind it.

 

[skookerasbil]

We gotta admit though........the minds of these far lefties = fascinating!!!