Yesterday the weather was horrible. So when I was just about to go to bed my roommate asked me to look ath the weather for the next day, to see if it would clear up. Instead I found out about what has been and will be going on in the Midwest and South. These storms are apparently of historically epic proportions. The winds are causing tornadoes and property damage. And the low pressure record was broken in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Being a part of this crazy storm we all know it was really windy, rainy and cold yesterday. But if my roommate had not asked me to look at the weather for today, would I have known that this is not only a problem here but for much of the Midwest and Southern states as well and that it is a record-setting storm? Probably not. This just goes to show that I am as guilty as anybody for not being informed when it comes to hazard events and only notice when it is directly effecting me at that moment.
In addition to some people, such as myself, not being informed on the extent of the hazard event taking place right now, there is another example of what we talk about in class that can be noted. This storm is causing large amounts of damage throughout the US, but in one article I read, the website showed this picture:
And added that this is a building in St. Louis that was built before 1920. Therefore, it was built at a time when maybe building codes were not as inforced and the structure had weakened with time. This makes me wonder how well newer buildings are holding up in comparison to these older ones. Also I believe that particularly here in Wisconsin we are used to strong winds, so are our buildings holding up any better than other areas that maybe have less frequency of strong winds?
Wind Chill in US today:
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/currentweatherusnational/uscurrentwindchill_large.html?clip=undefined®ion=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined
Links to the articles I read and used:
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/slideshow-midwest-wind-storm_2010-10-26
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/midwest-storm-impacts-news_2010-10-25
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