The following info covers Ai Domes & Tornadoes. In August 1992 American Ingenuity domes were put to the ultimate test of strength when they faced the wrath of Hurricane Andrew as it slammed into south Florida. Winds at the nearby Tamiami airport were clocked at 212 mph, spawning over 100 tornadoes within the storm and leaving practically everything in its wake leveled. Nearly 200,000 people become homeless overnight. Even a tower at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, designed to withstand 200-mph winds, was irrevocably damaged by this fierce storm. We were not surprised, however, when we learned that our domes survived – in great contrast to the thousands of conventionally built houses of their neighbors.
45′ Dome went thru Hurricane Andrew & Tornado with no structural damage.
Above is picture of a 45′ American Ingenuity dome home built in 1989 that was in the direct path of the devastating storm, bearing the worst Andrew & a tornado could deliver; yet it suffered no structural damage. A two wide metal horse trailer was impelled against the dome leaving a paint skid marking on the dome where the trailer slide around the dome to the other side. The horse trailer caused a crack in the riser wall and a chunk of concrete to break loose. The dome owner, caulked the crack and mixed up fiber concrete and filled the chunk and then painted the area.
Due to the type and direction of the debris scattered around the dome’s neighborhood, an engineer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) surmised that a tornado had struck the area. The engineer’s own Alabama home had been hit by a tornado a few years ago, so he was impressed by the integrity of the dome on an emotional as well as a professional level. The dome structure had withstood not only the force of a hurricane but a tornado as well. The incredibly intense winds ripped open double entry doors and 12′ sliding glass doors, which had been covered with protective plywood sheathing. Even though the wood and glass doors of the entryways succumbed to the wind and allowed interior water damage from the rain, the dome itself stood strong.
The Ai dome’s F4 tornado warranty covers the dome’s exterior shell and does not include windows and doors. High speed tornado winds pick up debris which can be hurled through windows and doors. As a result if you live in an area prone for tornadoes, consider building within the dome a safe room with concrete walls to protect your family from flying debris coming through windows and doors. At end of this article is definition of Tornado Alley.
The tornado picture is from Wikipedia and is of tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma. The funnel is the thin tube reaching from the cloud to the ground. The lower part of this tornado is surrounded by a translucent dust cloud, kicked up by the tornado’s strong winds at the surface. The wind of the tornado has a much wider radius than the funnel itself.
The following info came from www.livescience.com Where is Tornado Alley?
The borders of Tornado Alley are not clearly defined. They vary, depending on the criteria used — frequency, intensity, or events per unit area. Generally, a tornado alley map starts in central Texas and goes north through Oklahoma, central Kansas and Nebraska and eastern South Dakota, sometimes dog-legging east through Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana to western Ohio.
While the “Wizard of Oz” still conjures up images of Kansas as a tornado-prone area, that state is not the most highly impacted state when it comes to tornadoes. According to the National Climatic Data Center, Texas reports the highest number of tornadoes of any state, although its very large land mass accounts for that status. Kansas and Oklahoma are second and third respectively when it comes to the number of tornadoes reported, but those states report more tornadoes per land area than Texas.
Convergence of conditions:
Tornado Alley has all of the weather conditions needed for a tornado to take shape. Tornadoes form when three different types of air converge in a specific manner: a layer of warm and humid air near the ground along with strong southerly winds; colder air along with strong west or southwest winds line the upper atmosphere; and a third layer of very warm dry air that hovers between the warm and moist air at low levels and the cool dry air above.
While not as familiar as Tornado Alley, the designation Dixie Alley generally refers to another part of the country that is likely to experience tornadoes — generally the upper Tennessee Valley and Lower Mississippi Valley.
Florida’s almost daily thunderstorms spawn a large number of tornadoes, designating it as the state with the with the highest number of tornadoes per square mile. However, a relatively small percentage of Florida’s tornadoes are considered high intensity.
Globally, latitudes between about 30 degrees and 50 degrees North or South provide the most favorable environment for tornadoes. The United States records about 1,000 tornadoes a year, by far the most prolific of any region in the world, with Canada ranking second at only 100 per year.
