Hurricanes have dominated the news for the last month, and that has lead me to some meandering thoughts. I live in tornado territory. Wisconsin is no tornado alley, but we're good for about 100 or so tornados a year. What if tornado prediction got so good that the National Weather Service could issue a tornado warning for a county 24 hours in advance. Would we be better off? Think of economic activity that could be curtailed all across the midsection of this country as people just shut down or get out as the warning time approached. Would we be better off? Would the lives saved outstrip the economic loss of people shuttering up in advance of a tornado? What about earthquakes. If we could predict an earthquake and its strength in advance, it would be worth it. But what if we could only predict that there would be an earthquake? Would that be worth it, with people evacuating, not knowing if it were a 3.4 or a 7.6 earthquake.
Just one of those daydream thoughts.
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