Wednesday, May 11, 2011

What is French for "tornado warning"?

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center just posted these, shall we say, interesting looking maps for today:



The first map shows a 15 percent probability for the component parts of severe weather, high winds (50 knots, or 55 mph) and hail of 1 inch or larger. The second map shows a 5 percent probability for tornadoes, which doesn't seem like much, but in meteorology (and in math, duh), 5 percent is more than zero.

For what it's worth, AccuWeather thinks the threat will be slightly south of here:

But the Weather Channel thinks the entire state is at risk for severe weather today:

We'll see who's right. We may also find out how the hosts of French foreign exchange students lain to their guests why they have to go to the basement. (To answer the question in the headline, one online translator says it's "avertissement de tornade," which looks more like an advertisement for a tornado or an advisory for a tornado than a warning about a tornado.)

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