Psychoceramic theory

[Dave Gallaher]

Since we don't have a crackpot theory forum here at Stormtrack, I'll risk posting this query in W&C, fully prepared for hooting, laughter and potential banishment.

Has there been any study of "crop trauma" in fields where tornadoes have passed?

Here are the two reasons I'm posting this:

1) The 1/21/2010 Huntsville, AL tornado was strong enough to take down mature trees in my yard. Under a tree that survived is a scattered patch of daffodils. Since I moved here in 2006, this patch has always been the first to bloom in this area, followed by more extensive plantings across the street. This year, all the other areas are fully bloomed, yet the ones in my yard are struggling; only a few blossoms are out, the rest are still in bud.

2) In the 1980s I was living in south Florida in a home surrounded by large gardenia bushes, which all bloomed at the same time (just before my birthday). A driver missed a turn and skidded up my driveway and to the side of my house, hitting and exploding the air conditioning unit which was in the midst of the gardenia bushes. From then until I moved, the bushes closest to the a.c. bloomed a month after the others.

I fully acknowledge the lack of scientific method here, but thinking of the correlation causes me to wonder if any farmers have been interviewed regarding timing and health of crops that endure a tornado. Naturally, destruction of stalks and leaves would eradicate all or a portion of a crop, but what about those EF-0's and 1's? I also recognize that since many crops are planted from scratch each season, there'd be no platform for a lingering effect. But what of tornadoes that pass through orchards or grape arbors?

I've long held the idea that there is some effect on soil electro-chemistry from tornadoes. Why I hold this, I don't know, but being a musician usually exempts me from having to be scientifically valid.

Thanks for any thought on this.

 

[Shane Adams]

I've got no opinion on your topic overall (though I did find your post an interesting read), but IMO this would be cool to research. The reason why is, it would give scientific "purpose" to all those "useless" weak F0s that have been "skewing the data" all these years.

Aside...the thing about science that has always baffled me is, on the one hand it's so precise; i.e. "everything must have a purpose, order process, etc etc..." but on the other, it's "well we really don't know what that is, so we'll just sweep it under the rug.."i.e. hybrid tornadoes, whirls, anything that doesn't fit the accepted scientific standard.

 

[Jeff Banter]

Thanks for the idea. I am applying for a government grant to study this.. I think a few million dollars over 5 years should at least tell us if we need to spend more money studying it.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

This is a thread where I really miss Eric Flescher. I think botany was one of his fields.

Shane, I agree with your statement regarding science. I wonder how much of it is due to necessities of funding, as in guarantee-able results need to be on the table, with anomalies unseen and unheard to help keep supporting funds coming in.

 

[Chad Berryhill]

Since we don't have a crackpot theory forum here at Stormtrack, I'll risk posting this query in W&C, fully prepared for hooting, laughter and potential banishment.

Has there been any study of "crop trauma" in fields where tornadoes have passed?

Here are the two reasons I'm posting this:

1) The 1/21/2010 Huntsville, AL tornado was strong enough to take down mature trees in my yard. Under a tree that survived is a scattered patch of daffodils. Since I moved here in 2006, this patch has always been the first to bloom in this area, followed by more extensive plantings across the street. This year, all the other areas are fully bloomed, yet the ones in my yard are struggling; only a few blossoms are out, the rest are still in bud.

2) In the 1980s I was living in south Florida in a home surrounded by large gardenia bushes, which all bloomed at the same time (just before my birthday). A driver missed a turn and skidded up my driveway and to the side of my house, hitting and exploding the air conditioning unit which was in the midst of the gardenia bushes. From then until I moved, the bushes closest to the a.c. bloomed a month after the others.

I fully acknowledge the lack of scientific method here, but thinking of the correlation causes me to wonder if any farmers have been interviewed regarding timing and health of crops that endure a tornado. Naturally, destruction of stalks and leaves would eradicate all or a portion of a crop, but what about those EF-0's and 1's? I also recognize that since many crops are planted from scratch each season, there'd be no platform for a lingering effect. But what of tornadoes that pass through orchards or grape arbors?

I've long held the idea that there is some effect on soil electro-chemistry from tornadoes. Why I hold this, I don't know, but being a musician usually exempts me from having to be scientifically valid.

Thanks for any thought on this.

Good questions !

I think your daffodils that haven't bloomed are probably repairing themselves or re-anchoring of the bulb. I could see any plant or row crop slowing down it's bloom to repair any damaged portion. That would rob any nutrients going to the bloom.

Regarding the explosion of your AC unit, did it put a lot of heat toward the soil ? Or any chemical from it or the vehicle leak into the soil? That could change the chemistry of the soil, thus affecting the bloom.

Tornado affecting the electro-chemistry of the soil. Some one correct me if I am wrong here. Wouldn't the tornado have to remove metals from the soil ?

I'm no expert and I am having to pull information from my days studying precision agriculture. It's been a while lol.

Anyways, great questions Dave !

 

[rdale]

I wonder how much of it is due to necessities of funding, as in guarantee-able results need to be on the table, with anomalies unseen and unheard to help keep supporting funds coming in.

I bet it has more to do with "what kind of tornado kills people more" and that's where research takes place. In a perfect world, we'd send a UAV into every cold-air funnel to see what makes them tick.

 

[Karen St John]

Maybe certain particulates were pulled out of the soil as the tornado passed over; conversely, particulates from somewhere the storm had passed over might have been deposited.

Since testing your soil is probably a logical thing to do anyway, take note of the results, and if you have access to soil data from other areas, especially from the path of storm, it might prove revealing, even if not scientifically conclusive!

You could even create a new disorder... Post Tornadic Soil Disorder.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

Regarding the explosion of your AC unit, did it put a lot of heat toward the soil ? Or any chemical from it or the vehicle leak into the soil? That could change the chemistry of the soil, thus affecting the bloom.

The compressor exploded, sending freon into the two closest bushes. I assume freon rises in free air, but don't know if any other refrigerant components might sink into the soil.

I bet it has more to do with "what kind of tornado kills people more" and that's where research takes place. In a perfect world, we'd send a UAV into every cold-air funnel to see what makes them tick.

I should have clarified that my reference to funding response was more in general, not specific to tornado research. I trust you are right.

 

[Rejean Boudreau]

Tornado can blow away the small amount of good soil on top of the crop fields on his path. That's enought to leave a big scar on a crop field the next year.

This is similar to drought and wind on the prairies, where the wind will blow the good soil away - but on a very localize area.

Given the narrow path of a tornado, damages are very limited. In general, the farmer will get more of a hit from the farm building, equipments or house damaged (demolished), or lost of livestocks. Hail will of course damage the crops, and broke small limbs of fruit trees (apple, orange, etc.).

 

[Jeff Duda]

Something like this was tested on a MythBusters episode some years ago. Tory, Kari, and Grant exposed different plants to different conditions like excess heat, no heat, too much water, too little water, and then emotional distress like yelling at the plant or talking in soothing voices to the plant. Their results showed that whether the plants were yelled at, coaxed, or left alone, no significant difference was observed (measured by plant mass, color, and height). (yes I'm aware of the "scientificness" of MythBusters)

 

[Jason Foster]

I think your daffodils are just mad when you leave them to go chasing.

 

[Wes Carter]

I don't know hold old your air conditioning unit was but if it was an older unit that used a polyalkylene glycol lubricant in the compressor it could have gotten into the soil and had a bit of an effect on your plants. Polyalkylene glycol will readily scavenge any chlorine or chloride molecules from the soil and combine with any minerals that have chloride compositions.

Please keep in mind, I'm not an expert on this. I have my HVAC license so the only thing I could think of that would be left behind was the compressor lubricant so I Googled the rest. So if I'm right, yee haw but I'm just throwing this against the wall to see if it will stick.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I don't know hold old your air conditioning unit was but if it was an older unit that used a polyalkylene glycol lubricant in the compressor it could have gotten into the soil and had a bit of an effect on your plants. Polyalkylene glycol will readily scavenge any chlorine or chloride molecules from the soil and combine with any minerals that have chloride compositions.

This incident happened around 1980, so whatever was in usage in those days would have been in that compressor.

 

[Jason Boggs]

You could even create a new disorder... Post Tornadic Soil Disorder.

Or maybe even a new form of SDS for soil...Soil Disorder Syndrome.

 

[Von Castor]

I have also had questions concerning what a tornado may do to certain substrates. I am in the industrial coatings business and in 2001 my company completed a large project on a 100,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in the OKC area. We put a 30 mil epoxy system on the warehouse, break rooms and manufacturing area of this facility and for two years the floor performed perfectly. Then came May 8, 2003..... The facility was essentially destroyed by the F-4 made a direct hit. We were then called in again to re-do the floor to its original look. Not long after we finished the project thousands of bubbles started appearing in the coating. After extensive research and investigating we also found these same bubbles appearing in the laminent flooring in other parts of the facility. Anything from a clear liquid to a rusty, brown liquid to a thick, dark brown material was found in the bubbles. The problem to this day has not been resolved and I have never had those kind of issues arise again. The one and only difference of that job and the hundreds of others, before and after, is the F-4. That leads me to my question that has been eating at me for 7 years, can a tornado change the chemical make-up of concrete or change something below the concrete? As in the vapor barrier or ground water table?