Original upload date: Mon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Fri, 03 Dec 2021 01:08:06 GMT
Towering thunderclouds over the open plains are a godsend when they spill rain onto parched
crops, but a nightmare when they spawn killer tornadoes, lightning, hail and plane-downing
microbursts.
Supe
...
rstorms tells of close encounters with weather's most violent special effects and explains the
inner-workings of supercell storm phenomena, which are as magnificent as they are terrifying.
-A mile-wide twister chews the scenery across the Texas landscape. An armada of scientists
races after it. After two seasons of chasing whopper tornadoes, scientists capture a twister's birth
for the first time and discover its inner workings!
-Hail is called "the white plague" by farmers who lose entire crops to its flattening force, which
can injure, and even kill. We'll visit Denver, Colorado, during a disastrous thunderstorm that
leaves 60 people injured and watch scientists measure the tremendous force of falling hail.
-One lightning strike may not seem like a disaster, but lightning kills more people in the U.S. in a
single year than tornadoes and hurricanes combined. We'll meet lightning survivors and learn of
new research into the medical maladies caused by close encounters with high-voltage death.
-"I see lightning straight ahead of us. We're losing airspeed!" The last thing these pilots heard
while landing in a thunderstorm was the altitude alarm. They'd flown into a deadly microburst.
Their tragic crash galvanizes efforts to create technology for microburst detection that may
prevent future air disasters.
