The SideshowWeather Channel interns batten down the hatches for Tornado Week
The Weather Channel (TWC) is showing its sense of humor. In honor of Tornado Week, the 24/7 weather service has launched a tweet-powered tornado inside its office. Click on the video above to watch the live stream.
Via weather.com:
Our Weather Channel interns got so excited about Tornado Week they wanted to recreate a Twitter powered Tornado in our office - so we did, and sat them right in the middle of it! Now you are in control of the winds. Every public mention of #TornadoWeek on Twitter raises the scale and boosts the winds. You can even Tweet at the interns using the @TornadoWeek handle. Hit 1,000,000 mentions and we will turn up the wind for a full blown EF-5 tornado inside the Weather Channel offices!
Hold on, you're thinking. Those don't look like 122 mph winds. The potted plants aren't even flying around! And where is Bill Paxton?
Indeed. TWC is careful to mention that it means effective wind speed (EWS), which "is the the potential speed that the winds inside the office might feel like to a human. This does not reflect the actual speed of the winds inside the Weather Channel office."
Yahoo News tweeted at the fearless interns and were told "EWS only *represents* EF-scale forces. Not sure we'd be able to get much filing done if that number was 100% accurate!"
Fair enough. So these aren't actual tornado-type conditions we're looking at. They're interns, but they have limits to the abuse they'll take. As of press time, there were roughly 26,600 Tornado Week tweets.
The National Weather Service explains that a tornado measuring five on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale would have three-second gusts of wind measuring over 200 mph.
Here's hoping none of the interns wears a toupee.
