Friday, May 23, 2008

"Inconceivable!" I don't think that means what you think it means

Truer than fiction! When the weather disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow" came out it garnered a lot of attention. It wasn't only because of the special effects, which were impressive, but also for the seemingly improbable scenarios contained in the film.

New York flooded by a massive wave? "Inconceivable!" yelled reviewers. Really? The British Broadcasting Corporation documentary "End Day" posed exactly that scenario, based on a science release in 2001 indicating that if the volcano Cumbre Vieja erupted strongly enough that a future failure of the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja would cause a "mega-tsunami." The already tenuous landsliding mountain face will catastrophically fail in a massive gravitational landslide and enter the Atlantic Ocean a so called "mega-tsunami." A similar tsunami occurred in Lituya Bay Alaska back in the early 1960s, caused by the same kind of massive landslide. Damage can be seen to this day. So these kinds of tsnunamis are conceivable, and with Cumbre Viejo, only a matter of time.

Though the mega-tsunami depicted in the movie has not occurred yet, in another movie scene, snow falls in New Delhi. "Inconceivable!" the cry is heard again. But in January 2008, Snow blankets Jerusalem. And also in January 2008 "Snow Disrupts Life in India," with Babloo, a New Delhi Bus Driver quoted as saying:"I have come from Delhi. I am trapped here for the last two days and the snow is still falling.” Those were real happenings, their occurrences inconceivable, as it were.

Also in the movie, tornadoes are engulfing L.A.'s Capitol Records building. A movie reviewer says, "Tornadoes in Los Angeles? Only in "Tomorrow." Below, one photo is from the movie...the other is from last night's weather in southern California. "The Day After Tomorrow" inconceivable? As the inimitable Inigo Montoya said to Vizzini: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

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