Silver Dollar City (SDC) Discussion Thread

Literally you just perfectly, word-for-word, described my course of action with the Time Traveler photos. After a while I literally said (verbatim): "I've already got one".

I'm watching a storm that has dropped down tornados heading awfully close to SDC. Keep the area in your thoughts. There is quite a bit of damage in Arkansas

Thrill ride of the year?

^lmfao. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a sick sense of humor. I do hope they're OK, though. I would imagine they are since their cell phone wouldn't have been gone through if they had been killed.

Everyone knows the smart thing to do is to stay in your car during a tornado, despite every single warning not do. The second logical thing is drive directly into the tornado. If you're going to do all that you might as well video record it instead of taking the time to think logically and develop a reasonable plan of action so you don't die. "I'm ffffking scared! I'm ffffing scared!" Maybe you should put down your 'ffffing' phone!

For more insight: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/evolution-and-natural-selection/a/darwin-evolution-natural-selection

^lmfao. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a sick sense of humor. I do hope they're OK, though. I would imagine they are since their cell phone wouldn't have been gone through if they had been killed.

 

Everyone knows the smart thing to do is to stay in your car during a tornado, despite every single warning not do. The second logical thing is drive directly into the tornado. If you're going to do all that you might as well video record it instead of taking the time to think logically and develop a reasonable plan of action so you don't die. "I'm ffffking scared! I'm ffffing scared!" Maybe you should put down your 'ffffing' phone!

 

For more insight: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/evolution-and-natural-selection/a/darwin-evolution-natural-selection

Both are ok. They had just picked up a brand new travel trailer and were hauling it home to Ft. Smith. She's got some minor abrasions and the driver/husband is just a bit sore. They ended up way down and upside down in the median. Full range of emotions that one was. Why are those idiots stopping to @#$%, @#$%, @#%$ to Please God forgive me for my sins to I love you, I love you. I've had two very close calls with death and waked any basically untouched but neither were any of my doing. So, I can relate with that yo yo.

^Funny you shared that post from him. Such a small world, I am a storm chaser for Dan at his TV station. I was in Oklahoma watching the additional storms heading towards the state when that incident happened.

On a more serious note, that video still makes me cringe. Why continue to drive TOWARD the tornado with a travel trailer that will basically be caught like a sail!? *facepalm* Not sure if this is a common sense issue or an education issue or more concerning... both.

Come to think of it SDC's Time Traveler would have been a perfect fit if it was named and themed to weather like most of their sister parks coasters currently are. (e.g. Tennessee Tornado) Could have been called Ozark Twister: The Ride

^ I'm glad they went with a much more unique theme and name. Weather theming can be found in just about every theme park.

Lol @KentuckyKingdom

Ozark Twister: The Ride

Lol @KentuckyKingdom

Haha! Very true! But at least it seems like they are trying to make it a "thing" lol!

Not sure if this is a common sense issue or an education issue or more concerning... both.

I'd say both.

I'm not from the Midwest and tornadoes scare the crap out of me. I would be that woman freaking out while my Midwestern boyfriend is driving and doing something dumb while saying, "Babe calm down."

I realized I didn't know what the proper tornado + driving protocol was, so I just looked it up. Also, I've watched the video several times and I don't know how to tell it's a tornado?

I've lived in the Midwest my entire life and I've never seen a tornado, nor can I think of any of my peers who have. If you happen to be in that incredibly rare situation like the video just don't drive into it...

I have a co worker that had a flat tire a bit north of there or he would have been about the same place as the tornado. Anyhoo, this is just a part of every sprING over here. Here's some more vid. It was in the mountains so it wasn't picking up much dirt to better define the outline like they do in the flatlands. There were a a little over a dozen tornados in Arkansas this outbreak. No lose of life this go around. A couple radar indicated rotations got close to SDC but were really east of Downtown Branson.

https://youtu.be/KKu-A4UE1SY

I saw one once. It went about a mile south of the house where I grew up and we all went out on the deck to watch it. Was really surreal. The funny thing about tornados is that if you're directly in their path, they're devastating; if not, there's basically no danger.

How we deal with it out here is every time there's a tornado warning, just pay attention to radar (or crank radio if the power goes out) and know where each tornado is. Wait for them all to pass and you're good. As far as natural disasters go, I'd rather deal with that than a blizzard or hurricane. Probably one of those devil you know things.

Years ago, my wife's German exchange student was terrified of getting hurt by a tornado when she visited. Maybe we're a pretty big deal for tornado's in places overseas?

If you're interested in knowing the odds of dying from a tornado in the US:

https://www.dartmouth.edu/~ears5/handouts/Prob_dying6_25_99.html

I think it's safe to say you'll be fine. Even if you do something as idiotic as the people in the video. If you're still worried about tornado's after the stats, give up smoking or riding in cars.

^I hear people all the time say, "But what about earthquakes in CA??" when I bring up tornadoes around here. Your stats prove tornadoes are more deadly. Now CA wildfires? That's a different story...

I think what makes these disasters more scary than smoking or driving is the perceived lack of control. You can choose not to drive or maneuver to avoid an accident, but if a tornado appears above you, you have no control and little time to react. At least hurricanes give more warning, it seems. However, I wouldn't want to get caught in one of those either.

Anyway, I'm glad no one was killed and it's generally pretty rare.

If a tornado appears above your head, then you ignored several hours' worth of warnings not to stand there. No, it's not as much warning as a hurricane, where we know days in advance, but several hours ahead of time we know the general area a tornado will be, and 30-60 minutes ahead we know its exact path. Plenty of time to not be in that path.

If a tornado appears above your head, then you ignored several hours' worth of warnings not to stand there. No, it's not as much warning as a hurricane, where we know days in advance, but several hours ahead of time we know the general area a tornado will be, and 30-60 minutes ahead we know its exact path. Plenty of time to not be in that path.

This tornado wasn't warned ahead of this for very long, one of the videos, you hear the emergency alert on the radio going off as it hit.

This time around these storm intensified when they crossed over into Arkansas, 9 times out of 10 the mountains screw with them, not this time. The tornados have been increasing in Arkansas lately, it's not a new thing as historical data has shown previous times where this happened. The NWS let the warning lapse even though the weathermen at the tv stations were all over the rotation in between 15 minutes before the NWS reissued it for Carroll Co and Boone Co. Arkansas. The counties below SDC.

The weather folks around here are typically grads from OU and Miss. St. They are legit not hired faces that read the NWS feed. Scoff is tyically more acurate than the NWS Tulsa office.

^This is true. I wont go into details but we have had many discussions and incidents where we have been at odds with the NWS office (Tulsa) on general data, warnings, and storm assessments. I remember one incident a few years back where a fellow chaser of ours was flat out called a liar. Caused a lot of internal drama between the office and the media. It was pretty ridiculous.

Dan's Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/danskoff/

Alternatively: https://www.facebook.com/NWAWeatherAuthority/

I'm from KS...I've seen my fair share of tornados (seriously...5-6 on the ground)...and seen what they can do...both on purpose and not on purpose. I have a healthy respect and curiosity for them. A car is a very danger place to be if you are not paying attention. It's a great place to be if you know about how to watch the storms on radar and know the roads around ya to get out of the path. But I wouldn't mess with trying to see a tornado at night or in the hills. There are reasons why chasers do it on the open plains with plenty of cross roads to escape on.

I followed the Joplin Tornado into town on that fateful day:( In a mini-van with my family. We actually saw a few funnel clouds in KS near Parsons that day too and took very slowly on the way home trying to avoid the storms. I was driving back to NWA after visiting family just a few miles from a town (Reading, KS) that get hit the night before Joplin. I've got a picture with my son we took the moment that Joplin tornado touched down. We where visiting with the route 66 Mater (Cars movie) truck in Galana just east of town intentionally waiting for the storm to move through Joplin before we where going to stop and eat. It was heart breaking to drive through town....it was only 10-15 minutes after it hit....I didn't know how bad it was and every major street through town was blocked...ended up near the Walmart that got hit....it was a war zone and I felt helpless to help (had my family with me)...a lot of people just wondering around in shock. I ended up driving over power lines and weaving between wrecked semi's and cars to get through. Off topic but I don't get to tell that story often. Ended up spending most of the next week in Joplin helping with the clean up.

I'm a die hard follower of Dan and KNWA....dude knows his stuff. One of these days (maybe when the kids leave)...I'm going to go through the official spotter training.

Remember folks....SDC has one of the best and biggest tornado shelters in the country on-site with Marble cave.

^I hear people all the time say, "But what about earthquakes in CA??" when I bring up tornadoes around here. Your stats prove tornadoes are more deadly. Now CA wildfires? That's a different story...

 

I think what makes these disasters more scary than smoking or driving is the perceived lack of control. You can choose not to drive or maneuver to avoid an accident, but if a tornado appears above you, you have no control and little time to react. At least hurricanes give more warning, it seems. However, I wouldn't want to get caught in one of those either.

 

Anyway, I'm glad no one was killed and it's generally pretty rare.

I grew literally on top of the New Madrid Fault Line in East Arkansas. If a Tornado didn't get you an earthquake would. And...if all that failed, having a SAC base just up the road then meant you were going to get vaporized by the Russians

The weather folks around here are typically grads from OU and Miss. St. They are legit not hired faces that read the NWS feed.

Hail State!

Nice to see props for the school here.

Man... I'm not sure how we all ended up so involved in a tornado conversation in the thread where a Mack spinning launched inverted coaster just opened up. I could understand if this were the Worlds of Fun or Valleyfair thread...