About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Currently, meteorologist are still attempting to understand what tornadoes truly are. Even with present day technology,very little data exists pertaining to conditions inside a tornado. Due to this lack of knowledge, predicting these storms is challenging. If fact, present lead time (the AVERAGE time from which a tornado on the ground reaches your location) is 13 minutes. This has resulted in annual loss of life and property in tornado prone areas.

After significant, in depth research I have concluded that a few factors have been over-looked. Broadly, tornadoes are defined as very violent, localized windstorms. Basic meteorology teaches that wind is a result of horizontal air movement from high to low pressure. If this is so, then all tornadoes are are columns of extreme low pressure.

What is the significance of this project?

The timing of this could not be any better. Every year, the U.S. mid-west (portions nicknamed tornado alley) brace for tornadoes causing millions of dollars in damage and costing hundreds of lives.

Even with present technology meteorologist still don't understand what these storms really are and how they work. This in return has caused present warning systems to give residents an AVERAGE of 13 minutes to get to safety. If we find that my hypothesis is supported through experimentation we can increase warning times.

With this, The Lolo Project plans to create a low-cost ground level monitoring system so meteorologist have the tools to make predictions. As we advance in this, future infrastructure can be redesigned to withstand pressure variations saving residents lives and money.

What are the goals of the project?

Our immediate goals are to construct a tornado machine that visually mimics a tornado and can provide accurate numerical reports of conditions inside the machine to verify the behavior of the vortex. We intend to use micro-controllers and self-written software (most likely C++) to record our data for future reference.

By including misters, heating/cooling coils, fans, and inter-changeable ground material, we can mimic multiple scenarios to test the behavior of a vortex under different conditions; enhancing our results.

Although, pricey, the design is intended to be solid and able to provide professional results. The factors we are focused on exceeds just visual behavior (although that factor is still of importance) resulting in advanced features needed to complete our experiment.