How Drone Swarms Could Protect Us From Tornadoes

If any of you keep up with the daily news you most likely have heard about the Tornadoes that tore up the Midwest of the U.S. this past week.  These tornadoes were responsible for more than a dozen deaths as they rampaged from Texas to Maryland.

The problem with tornadoes isn't just how powerful one can truly be, but how hard they are to predict.  On average, you are given only 13 minutes notice to take cover from whether monitors.  This is definitely not enough time to get fully prepared or to escape from the wrath of a tornado.  However, a mechanical engineer from Oklahoma State University named Jamey Jacob hopes to change that.  His hopes are to extend the warning time to one hour, allowing more time for people to prepare for the incoming tornado.

Jacob and his team are creating drones that can collect data from these storms.  Obviously these drones will have to be able to withstand the violent conditions associated with a tornado.

Tornadoes form very quickly and on much smaller scales when compared to hurricanes.  Predicting tornadoes requires a very detailed understanding of atmospheric processes.  The whether radar right now can not produce a high enough resolution to properly predict them.

A main focus of his team is that drones can not be of any use if they can not survive the storm.  The drone they are currently working on is a ruggedized UAV that can withstand rain, hail, and winds of up to 120 miles per hour.  The aircraft comes equipped with cameras and sensors.  It is also lightweight and built out of strong composite materials similar to that of a kevlar vest.

"Eventually what we want is to get to a point where you're watching the weather channel," says Jacob, "and they're reporting data that they're getting from the drones, and nobody cares—it's just the data that's coming in. But we're still really far away from that."

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