Hypothetically, would/could a fuel-air bomb ...

[Panama pfRedd]

... disrupt/dissipate a tornado?

Not to hijack the Ukraine thread(s) but reading them I got to wondering.

I was looking at some of the coverage of the Russians using their equivalent of our MOAB in their current outrage. Thermobaric, fuel-air, vacuum... it all seems to amount to the same idea - two stage blasts, one small to disperse the fuel for the second main blast.

Here's a graph of the effects on air pressure, from yesterday's WSJ:



Anyone else wondering, as we enter the tornado season, whether something that created a strong and odd localized change in air pressure like that might disrupt a tornado?

Fine point: Even if it worked, you'd want to use a smaller version than these high-yield weapons, and aim high, or else the cure could be worse than the disease.

[daleko]

Mar 6, 2022 12:29:09 GMT -5 Panama pfRedd said:

... disrupt/dissipate a tornado?

Not to hijack the Ukraine thread(s) but reading them I got to wondering.

I was looking at some of the coverage of the Russians using their equivalent of our MOAB in their current outrage. Thermobaric, fuel-air, vacuum... it all seems to amount to the same idea - two stage blasts, one small to disperse the fuel for the second main blast.

Here's a graph of the effects on air pressure, from yesterday's WSJ:



Anyone else wondering, as we enter the tornado season, whether something that created a strong and odd localized change in air pressure like that might disrupt a tornado?

Fine point: Even if it worked, you'd want to use a smaller version than these high-yield weapons, and aim high, or else the cure could be worse than the disease.

However, the supercell that generated the tornado would not be sufficiently disrupted, and more tornadoes would likely be spawned.

[DrSchadenfreude]

Let's test one over Vegas... 

[Walter]

Mar 6, 2022 23:47:20 GMT -5 daleko said:

Mar 6, 2022 12:29:09 GMT -5 Panama pfRedd said:

... disrupt/dissipate a tornado?

Not to hijack the Ukraine thread(s) but reading them I got to wondering.

I was looking at some of the coverage of the Russians using their equivalent of our MOAB in their current outrage. Thermobaric, fuel-air, vacuum... it all seems to amount to the same idea - two stage blasts, one small to disperse the fuel for the second main blast.

Here's a graph of the effects on air pressure, from yesterday's WSJ:



Anyone else wondering, as we enter the tornado season, whether something that created a strong and odd localized change in air pressure like that might disrupt a tornado?

Fine point: Even if it worked, you'd want to use a smaller version than these high-yield weapons, and aim high, or else the cure could be worse than the disease.

However, the supercell that generated the tornado would not be sufficiently disrupted, and more tornadoes would likely be spawned.

I have zero idea of what might happen, but the idea of feeding MORE energy into an already high energy weather system doesn't seem terribly smart. But who knows? Maybe it would work.

[daleko]

Mar 7, 2022 0:11:20 GMT -5 Walter said:

Mar 6, 2022 23:47:20 GMT -5 daleko said:

However, the supercell that generated the tornado would not be sufficiently disrupted, and more tornadoes would likely be spawned.

I have zero idea of what might happen, but the idea of feeding MORE energy into an already high energy weather system doesn't seem terribly smart. But who knows? Maybe it would work.

This is an extension of nuking a hurricane. Wouldn’t work there. Hurricane develops a 4 meg t bomb in energy every 20 minutes. The consensus re tornadoes is iffy results. Tornado is the result of a system operated by a cell. Now the system spans X miles. Whack a mole comes to mind. Re hurricanes the better answer but difficult to do is flip the ocean water bottom to top. Cold water kills it.

[AlaCowboy]

What pilot would fly a plane into a tornado to make that attempt? the plane would be torn apart and scattered over several miles before the pilot could eject the bomb.

[DrSchadenfreude]

Mar 10, 2022 12:14:54 GMT -5 AlaCowboy said:

What pilot would fly a plane into a tornado to make that attempt? the plane would be torn apart and scattered over several miles before the pilot could eject the bomb.

A mission for Trump Force One?  

[AlaCowboy]

Mar 11, 2022 15:02:49 GMT -5 DrSchadenfreude said:

Mar 10, 2022 12:14:54 GMT -5 AlaCowboy said:

What pilot would fly a plane into a tornado to make that attempt? the plane would be torn apart and scattered over several miles before the pilot could eject the bomb.

A mission for Trump Force One?  

Well, you could fly the plane by hologram.

[dilligaf]

Mar 10, 2022 12:14:54 GMT -5 AlaCowboy said:

What pilot would fly a plane into a tornado to make that attempt? the plane would be torn apart and scattered over several miles before the pilot could eject the bomb.

A tornado would most likely be gone before you could ever launch a plane to intercept it.

I doubt they would have pilots sitting in ready alert on Tornado Watch.

And where would those planes be based?

You would think that a C-130 or a Lockheed Electra would be destroyed flying into a hurricane, too, but they aren't.

For a tornado bomb, I'd recommend using a drone.

Just some random thoughts.

[Panama pfRedd]

First word of thread title: Hypothetically.