Proof That You Can't Bomb A Tornado Out Of Existence

The moment last Saturday when a Tennessee tornado 
struck an electrical substation, causing a massive 
explosion. The explosion did not really disrupt the
tornado circulation, and it went on to cause more damage

 Full disclosure: I have mixed emotions watching tornado videos. 

On the one hand, a as a weather geek, those damn things are so fascinating. Each one is so different. The violence, and yes, sometimes the beauty is something to behold.  

On the other hand, tornadoes obviously kill people. So there's a sense of guilt when watching a tornado video, knowing the storm ended the lives of innocent people caught in the path of these twisters.

That disclaimer aside, one of the most interesting tornado videos I've seen in ages was from this past Saturday in Tennessee.

One of the strongest tornadoes - one that killed three people - scored a direct hit on a Nashville Electric Service substation.  Video of the event is at the bottom of this post. 

When it hit the substation, it caused an explosion that caused a big orange fireball to erupt inside the tornado. Smoke from the explosion appears to get sucked into the tornado, but at the same time, you lose sight of the tornado's funnel.

Did the explosion weaken or even at least temporarily short-circuit the tornado? Unfortunately, the answer is no. 

After hitting the substation, the tornado continued on with its path of destruction.  The fact that the funnel disappeared doesn't mean the twister went away, too. 

As the Washington Post explains, tornadoes can be invisible.

"The reason we can see a tornado is due to moisture, which produces a 'condensation funnel.' Water vapor the gas form of water is invisible - until it condenses and forms a cloud droplet. That happens when the tornado's low pressure expands and cools the air (and the water in it) to the point of condensation - described by meteorologists as the 'dew point.'"

Many tornadoes, especially in the drier Plains states, don't have a condensation funnel. Or at least don't have one that reaches the ground. The air is dry enough so the tornado doesn't form that condensation funnel, which is basically a cloud. 

Even though the visible funnel isn't touching the ground, the tornado will still damage or destroy any  house or other building that it encounters. 

In Tennessee, the air was wet enough so that when the tornado formed, the condensation funnel became visible. Then the explosion at the Nashville Electric Service substation hit.  The flames from the explosion heated the air within the tornado, making the temperatures rise above the that dew point. 

That made the condensation funnel disappear.  We'll let the Washington Post explain the next step:

"And for a moment, viral video captures footage of the tornado's vortex appearing to disappears the fireball explodes. But it doesn't, in reality.

Tornadoes themselves are technically, invisible. The definition of a tornado is just a 'rapidly rotating column of air extending vertically from the surface to the base of a cumuliform cloud,' according to the American Meteorological Society. And you can't see air."

The heat released by the fireball made that condensation funnel go poof. You couldn't see it anymore. But the tornado continued to spin violently. 

Sure, the explosion might have briefly disrupted the very bottom of the tornado circulation. If there was a house immediately next in line from the electrical substation, it might not have suffered as much damage as it would have had there been no explosion. 

But the overall tornado circulation remained intact, and the very bottom of it quickly regained its footing, do the twister continued on with its path of destruction. 

You would need a huge explosion to disrupt a tornado. You'd basically have to blow up the entire parent thunderstorm. And the heat released by a massive explosion could make the updrafts in the thunderstorm even more intense, worsening a tornado or other dangerous weather associated with the storm. 

The tornado gods and goddesses at the National Severe Storms Laboratory answer the "Can we blow up a tornado" question for us: 

"No one has tried to disrupt the the tornado because the methods to do so could likely cause even more damage than the tornado. Detonating a nuclear bomb, for example, to disrupt a tornado would be even more deadly and destructive than the tornado itself. Lesser tactics (like deploying huge piles of dry ice or smaller conventional weaponry) would be too hard to get into the right place fast enough, and would likely not have enough impact to affect the tornado much anyway."

So we're stuck with the only method of surviving a tornado: Getting out of its way. That means fleeing to a storm shelter or basement. Or, failing that, getting into an interior room without any windows, putting on a bicycle or motorcycle helmet, perhaps surrounding yourself with mattresses and hoping for the best. 

And don't even get me started on the idea of blowing up hurricanes out of existence. Even a weak tropical storms would be harder to murder than a supercell thunderstorm with a tornado.

In 2019, during his presidential administration, Donald Trump, while being briefed by a meteorological expert,  ridiculously said he wanted to blow up hurricanes to end them. 

According to Axios, the person giving the brief. politely said something to the effect of, "Sir, we'll look into that. Which is the exact equivalent of my husband telling me "Yes, dear." when I say something completely off the rails, which I tend to do.

The bottom line is, we have enough trouble waging war against our geopolitical enemies. Weather can be even a more formidable opponent.

Next: Video of the tornado and explosion:

In the video below, taken from a traffic cam,  you see power flashes for the first 11 or so seconds of the tornado footage. Those are power lines and transformers being destroyed by the twister. Then you see the big explosion.  After the explosion ends, you can see the tornado continuing to move on, smoke from the explosion entrained in its circulation. 

Judging by the power flashes of more power lines and transformers being destroyed the tornado after the explosion, you can tell it really lost none of its power.

To watch the video, click on this link, or if you see the image below, click on that.