chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

In the overall scheme of things we humans do seem to be a somewhat sticky race. If some major catastrophe overtakes us (unless it is a planet destroying thing) I am sure we will survive as a race. It is the small stuff that perhaps we should be thinking about also. Like what can I do to make sure I survive (and my wife) ? And so on. As individuals we can make some decisions. Like there is no way I would buy property near the coast unless there was a minimum height difference between my place and mean sea-level height of at least several meters. Nor would I plan on living any closer unless it was for a short while only (like maybe 6-12 months max in which case I am taking a little bit of a gamble but might consider it worth a go).
Local city councils and even country governments seem incapable of planning seriously beyond 3-4 years max. I have to admit I am seeing some value in anarchist systems because nobody else appears to have the ability or desire to try. It is all to do with money. New Zealand is filling up with (rich) individuals from Asia, the US and Russia who seem to be thinking more than the 3-4 years ahead in terms of their own survival. The rest of us use hope instead of money.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Spent a while in Tulsa (whilst sis in law and hubby were living and working there. Spent a while outside watching the storms during Tornado season but eventually got dragged in when the warnings went out to get in the bath or crouch under a table. Fantastic, almost post code weather forecasting takes over all channels. Skies and lightning were spectacular but no rain in this particular zip code. Would do it again, and if I lived there would have a bifold or full width patio door with 1/2" glass on the outer (triple glazed) pane.

pendennis

I'm a native of Kentucky, and actually observed the Super Outbreak in April 1974. I attend the University of Louisville, and we could see the tornado, which looked like a huge green cloud, as it crossed the Fairgrounds heading ENE, across the Highlands neighborhood, and then on through NE Jefferson County, eventually crossing the Ohio River, and devastating Madison, IN. What was strange was listening to WHAS radio, and hearing Dick Gilbert, the traffic copter pilot following the tornado, and keeping folks safe.

Not only did we have tornadoes, but floods (1937), heavy snow (1977-1979), oppressive heat (try August), and year-round golf! We had it all, and they still do.

PS - My brother lives off Old Vincennes Pike in New Albany, and he gets to see it all, also.

therwol Loc: USA

Because you were born there, have family there, have business or a job there, and it isn't easy to move to another country and start over. I've lived in the South (Alabama), the northeast (Boston, NY) and now live in California. I find that many people in these locations just don't know that other places are different.

arden1939

Hard fixing Stupid -- similar scnerio in religious choice -- "because their parents did"

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

We no longer have any close living relatives and can be carefree if we want. After great thought, we determined that every section of the US, and also most of the world, has the potential for "loss of life" events. California has fires, Arizona is arid, Hawaii has volcanoes, Alaska (and Wisconsin) have very cold weather and major snow storms. So do the New England states. Hurricanes hit over half the USA shores, as shown with the hurricanes that hit in the Caribbean. Tornado activity is seen in the west, midwest and sometimes in the east. It rains in the north west, constantly. Therefore, where do you choose to live? The answer is easy, where you are comfortable and feel you can be happy. We always ask people who live near rivers why they rebuild when the lose their homes to flooding the answer is always the same "It's home". That is why people live where they live.

God bless those who left the hurricane area. I hope the ones who chose to stay are safe. I hope the people who work in the rescue business stay safe.

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

It seems an interesting point that those who have experience of major storm events, see them as rare and/or isolated infrequent events. Perhaps the scale of your country 'minimises' the personal risk factor. You certainly have more extremes of climate than we have and a diverse environment on a scale that can create more drama than damage perhaps. (Forrest fires in sparcely populated areas etc).

As an outsider looking in, via various media; the impression can be that 'risk' is high rather than low. Every year we are shown hurricane damage, displaced people and anguish on TV. In addition, we often get a number of different 'viewpoints' by 'talking heads' that can run for a couple of years. The impression is given that people are living constantly 'under siege' rather than through a unfortunate, infrequent event. 'The return to' damaged areas show that 'for some' their disaster has been life changing rather than a 'chance' situation.

We all live 'with risk' from a variety of outside probabilities. We balance that with opportunity and personal choice / lifestyle etc. My high risks are probably old age or stupidity (not necessarily imediately life threatening more likely an 'odds on favourite'.)

It has been nice to hear from people who, without bias, have seen natural events at a personal level. In a personal context; and who take a realistic approach to the events others only see portrayed as being 'extremely disasterous' .

Where ever you live... be safe

pendennis

Most folks can't imagine the vastness, in area, of the United States; and you could probably include Canada when it comes to weather activity. The U.S. and Canada have over 18 million square miles in area, and a huge diversity in geography. That alone guarantees huge differences in weather.

The distance across the U.S. is generally given at about 3,000 miles +/-; the North to South area is probably that, and then some. There are deserts and mountains in the west and southwest, and the tundra in Alaska and Canada is a huge land mass which lends itself to propelling the Northern Jet Stream across and down the continent. California is affected by the Pacific El Nino, La Nina, and the tropical winds coming in off the Pacific southwest of there. As you head east and south, there are plains or steppes which are stark in their vastness. Three mountain ranges, in general occupy huge areas between the Pacific and Mississippi, in addition to smaller ranges along the way. Cross the Mississippi, and you have flat lands, along with forests, more mountains, along with hilly terrain that doesn't match anything.

Our weather patterns are generally driven by the position of the Jet Stream, both summer and winter. If if comes too far south, we have bitterly cold winters and cooler summers; if it stays too far north, hot summers and mild winters.

Most folks are unaware that our winters in North America are determined by the wind patterns in Northern Asia. October in Northern Asia generally will be what we have in North America for winter.

Violent storms are generally home grown on the continent. Tornadoes spawn on the Great Plains, hence Tornado Alley. There's little in the way of mountains or hill country to break the winds. East of the Mississippi those same thunderstorms spawn a lot of tornadoes; they draw wet weather from the Gulf of Mexico, and those migrate northeast.

Offshore, hurricanes are not a North American-originated phenomenon. Hurricane weather patterns are spawned in the Sahara. How they form and move is a function of water temperature. Sea temperatures are at their highest in August and September (80 degrees plus), hence ideal conditions for the counterclockwise wind patterns coming west.

No matter where you live, you're likely to come across some type of weather extreme, at one time or the other.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm from Kentucky. In a single seven month period in the 60's, we had temperatures that ranged from -20 to well over 100. That doesn't happen every year, but it does happen. We've had weather in which we played golf for fifteen straight months, needing only a sweater at the coldest, shorts at the warmest. We also had 20 inches of snow in 1977 and 1978 in which the roads, statewide, were close for several days.

And we mustn't forget that the news always has the same motto, "If it bleeds, it leads".

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

Longview, WA - near Mt. St. Helens, but usually upwind from it. Waiting for that big 9.0 magnitude Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Our winter storms have hurricane force winds and flooding is possible. At least the nuclear plant had been shut down...

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

At Uni we were taught that El Nino years brought torrential rain to Chile creating landslides and asian monsoons not really discussed the opposite as you described. We have a temporate climate because of the gulf stream plus the jet stream not only bringing the rain from your spent and slowing hurricanes it also sucks up warm dry air from north africa. (or brings down cold arctic temporatures when it dips too low) The positive aspect of climate... taught to us would be boring I suppose....much more exciting to look at the negative aspects.
Some of us get fed up with 80 degree summers that last 3 or 4 months (this year) and then moan about torrential rains at the next 4 year cycle. Weather here, generally, is so moderately variable it becomes an opening topic when talking to friends or aquaintences. Our extremes are mostly short lived and so infrequent that we tend to look for blame or excuses. Extreme weather events are considered a 'one off' taking us by 'suprise'. Hence my question about places that 'appear' to have regular 'events' and why people 'put up' with them. Here it would be pointless to have 'snow birds' holidaying in the south (there may be less than 5 degree difference)

Thamkyou for your interesting and informed responce

DJphoto Loc: SF Bay Area

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have done so all of my life (as has my wife- we were born one day and about 5 miles apart). I grew up in what is now Silicon Valley before it was called that and have lived about 30 miles east of San Francisco (the East Bay, Contra Costa County) since 1974. I worked in San Diego for 5 years about 20 years ago (I commuted home most weekends) and have been to 42 states and most of Europe. There are many beautiful places to live and all involve trade-offs. We have discussed other places to live and the answer is always the same: right where we are, unless our kids and grandkids moved elsewhere. The negatives: the traffic and housing prices are absurd and we are in earthquake country. We have droughts and fires. The politics are crazy. However there are so many positives that we don't plan on moving. The weather is the best in the country and we have micro-climates so you can choose how warm you want to be during the summer (winter is about the same everywhere in the Bay Area). We are usually 20-40 degrees warmer than San Francisco and its surroundings in the summer, yet we're only 30 miles from the city. Other factors for us staying here is that we've owned our home for long enough that the high housing costs are not a factor, most of our kids and grandkids are in the Bay Area, we're semi-retired, so the traffic is less of a problem than if we were both working full time. Other advantages are that we can go to San Francisco whenever we want, we are an hour away from the Napa Valley, 3 1/2 hours from Lake Tahoe or Yosemite, 2 hours from Monterey and Carmel, an hour away from one of the greatest race tracks in the world (Laguna Seca) and an hour away from another great track (Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway) and close to many other great places. I love road racing BTW. We are also only 4 hours away from the central coast area (San Luis Obispo area). We can be where the houses are miles apart in just a few minutes, living on the edge of the Bay Area sprawl. Yes we have earthquakes, but we live in a single family wood framed house, about the most earthquake resistant structure. The worst fires are the result of mismanagement of the forests, so there is hope that will be resolved. The drought can also be dealt with if we had politicians with the will to do so- a tall order in this state run by idiots. The only hope is that they will realize that they can generate clean electricity if they are willing to build a few more dams, while mitigating the problems caused by the periodic droughts.

IF we had to leave, where would we go? We can't imagine living where it is humid or more than about an hour from the ocean, where it snows or where there are hurricanes or tornados; that essentially eliminates all but Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii (except for the hurricane part). We like all of those, but Washington is too cold for us; we like it in the 80s to low 90s in the summer. We love Hawaii and go there almost every year, yet don't think we could live there full time. That leaves Oregon and California. We like Oregon a lot and go there at least once almost every year, usually to central Oregon- too far from the coast. Perhaps southern Oregon could work. We seriously considered moving to San Diego when I was working there, but realized the Bay Area just has more to do close by (perhaps more within a 4 hour drive than anywhere else in the country), and the area has more natural beauty than Southern California.

Our bottom line is that with all of the pluses and minuses, we're staying where we are. About the farthest we would consider is perhaps the northern Napa Valley, but that would put us farther from one of our favorite places, the Monterey Peninsula. About the only reason we can see ourselves moving is if most of our kids and grandkids moved to the same general area. Right now, two of our 5 kids and their 6 children (so far!) live within two miles of us, with another who has 4 kids a little over an hour away. Our other two kids are finishing school in Southern California and we hope they will end up close when they get established. No place is perfect and there should be a place that meets the needs of everyone; we like ours.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Or some parts of Wyoming, the wind would blow them away!!