Windmill powered sirens

[scooterbugs25]

This is an incredible invention.. I think this it is a neat Idea and would like to buy one!

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 5271&rfi=6

[Trey]

That is one of two ideas I had for a wind powered siren.

However, I will not list the other for obvious reasons...

[Justin]

Cool invention, but 100Km/h winds do not specifically mean 'tornado!'. It could be a really windy day.

[SirenMadness]

The sheer or other specific movements of the wind do not matter, as long as the wind is fast enough. Hundred-mile-per-hour winds can cause destruction no matter what their pattern of movement is.
Very great innovation!

[Trey]

Yes, straight-line winds can be just as dangerous and destructive as a tornado. If the wind gets above a certain point, I think that an automatic detection device would be a good solution.

[SirenMadness]

That would be where the M.A.R.R.S. system comes in. Other than just sensing the wind properties, it also detects changes in other meteorological events, composing a near-perfect profile of the condition, recognizing its severity, and thus sounding the sirens if they're needed to.

The winds inside a typical tornado could compare to the conditions that are discussed in this thread, but non-tornado winds only affect structures at their vertical areas, such as walls; tornadoes can also pick up houses.

[STHboy]

Yes, straight-line winds can be just as dangerous and destructive as a tornado. If the wind gets above a certain point, I think that an automatic detection device would be a good solution.

That's very true. Most Central New York residents will remember the Labor Day Storm of 1998 which caused an estimated $130 million in damage. In the storm, the vast majority of damage was caused by straight-line winds, but upon looking out their windows the morning after the storm (it hit Syracuse at about 2AM,) most people could have sworn it was a tornado. Syracuse doesn't have any storm sirens, and there was nothing else to wake people up besides the storm itself. So that leads me to believe that a wind-activated alarm is a great idea, especially for storms which occur at night.

Here are a few links for those of you not familiar with that storm:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerecho ... 98page.htm
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/bgm/laborday/slide1.html