[Skywarn] Tornado Fighters

[Randy Allen]

I wonder if this guy ever read Analog magazine.  There was a story in 
the March 1975 issue called "Jill the Giant Killer"  where they 
attempted to use manned fighters to place thermal warheads at the right 
spot to disrupt tornadoes. This was not a fact article and the emphasis 
(as normal for Analog)  was on the human interactions in getting the 
program to test phase, and what happened when things did not go 
according to plan.  The tornado killing was simply the set up for the story.

A couple of  minor points in your commentary.

   Nuke warheads might or might not generate a significant amount of 
fallout depending on the height to the burst.  Not that I would use them 
anyway, as you are correct on the utter stupidity of the the idea over 
the territory you're trying to protect.  We could try field tests 
somewhere else, but I don't think North Korea gets too many tornadoes.

  And you could generate a large conventional blast without generating a 
significant amount of shrapnel to add to the tornado's debris cloud, but 
again placing it in the right spot and getting a big enough bang 
(assuming the disruption theory is correct in the first place) would be 
extremely difficult, and in the case of one weapon system, Fuel Air 
Explosives (FAE), impossible as the winds would prevent the fuel cloud 
from even forming, let alone detonating in the right spot.

73

Greg Williams wrote:

> I wanted to throw this nugget of amusement out to the skywarn group.  The
> following remarks are commentary I made on my SKYWARN web site at
> http://www.etskywarn.net and I have included additional links in the
> commentary below for more information.
> 
<SNIP>

-- 
Randy Allen, KA�AZS (Former USAF Weaponeer)
EC, Montgomery CO Ohio
OH Dist. 3 ARES Web Page:
http://www.qsl.net/ohd3ares/