Building giant walls to stop tornados.

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These walls would be hundreds of miles long.

The idea is not so much that they would stop extant tornadoes as much as it is that they would change the weather patterns to prevent tornadoes from forming in the first place. But messing around with weather itsself is a dangerous experiment. You might destroy the wheat belt, or such.

If you're gonna be a megalomaniac then Ive got a better idea: Harvest the oil shale in the Canadian Rockies. Just dismantle the whole rocky mountain range north of the US border. Pulverize the rock to get the oil out of the shale. And then use the tailings to rebuild the Canadian Rockies. But have the new Canadian rockies run east to west across the length of Canada, instead of north-to-south through western canada as they run now.

That way the new Rockies would block polar air coming down from the arctic, and they would allow the maritime influences of the westerly winds to enter central Canada. Canada is on the same latitudes as Europe. But the Canadian rockies stop the westerlies on the Pacific coast- so going east from Vancouver to Alberta is like going from Dublin to Moscow climatically speaking. But with the mountains running the other way all of western Canada would have a gentle temporate climate like Britain and France (which are on the same latitude). On top of that it would also stop the mixing of polar air and tropical air in the American midwest- helping to quell tornado alley.

Bermed houses open only on one side would minimize the damages.

I'd love to build a house into the side of a canyon facing away from the usual direction a tornado would come with reinforced concrete on the outside. It would still be damaged if hit, but the damages would be generally limited to the areas around the windows.

For a more normal house, a compressed earth block house with two or three layers of blocks (about 5 to 7 feet thick total) and a hip roof.

I could be wrong (a rarity, but it does happen sometimes) but I think tondos come from all directions. Your idea is close to mine, I was thinking of pyramid-type sloped walls.

I live in tornadoland. Would it work, yeah, if the width and surface characteristics were actually enough to disrupt the vortex. (Mountains are much, much wider than 165 ft.) They'd also be a good firebreak. But the other objections noted are about real things. Though agriculture's a lost cause in the plains; the aquifer it depends on is nearly gone. We'll be seeing plenty of other changes, too, with the loss of Arctic ice and intensified drought/flood cycles.

For now, as always, the safest place to be during a tornado is underground. You can get a tornado shelter installed for about $6K; I think they ought to be part of code up and down the midwest. If you're buying a $200K house, you'll go $205K. If you consider that there are maybe, oh, 40 million households in the midwest (just guessing), I bet that's still less than you'll spend to build these walls.

Lets see if a wall will appear. The same with Toronto mayor candidate Rocco Rossi with the Allen Expressway Tunnel. LOL
Never will happen.

Tornados generally move from the SW to NE.

With the exception of terrorism, I really don't think you can "stop" a force of nature from happening, especially a volcanic eruption.

Well, considering that volcanic eruptions happen as a result of a pressure build up, if you had a powerful enough drilling system (as in, Narada level power), you could perhaps safely vent the pressure and stop an eruption.

The aim here isn't to stop tornados that are already raging, but interrupt their formation.

I sit corrected.

Which can work wonders, assuming all the tornadoes don't travel anywhere near said wall.

You know what else can work wonders, for the relevance of your comments? Actually understanding what you're commenting on.

Actually understanding what I'm commenting on, would greatly decrease my ability to make a funny reply.

Imagine a sports car, like a Ferrari, but with its wheels planted in the soil. And then rotate the shape of the Ferrari 360 degrees. Thats how to design your house. Kinda like the top half of a UFO planted in the ground. Streamlined. No upright lines.

But with one additional borrowing from a sports/stock car. Put spoilers on it!

The spoiler is that thing on the back of a muscle car: flat metal supported by two little uprights. Basically its a wing. But an inverted wing designed to do the opposite of what a bird or an airplane wing does. It catches the air and forces the vehicle down, rather than up- so the back wheels of the car have more traction.

The wind speeds of tornadoes are comparable to the speeds of race cars. So a circular spoiler on top of your house would force your house down- and keep it planted in its foundation- and help keep it from flying off to the Land of Oz.

Tornado proof, AND... a babe magnent!