Earthquakes and Tornados

I keep an earthquake detector at my desk at work. I've done that at the last several jobs I've had here in Southern California, ever since the Newport Beach earthquake back in the early '90s (working from memory here, so don't quote me on the date).

I was working in Irvine (the next town inland from Newport Beach) on the fifth floor of a building with rollers. The earthquake happened during the workday, and so did the aftershocks. My desk was near the middle of the floor, away from the windows, so I couldn't check the miniblinds to see if they were swaying (a symptom of earthquake). Because of the distance from the windows, I installed my first earthquake detector.

It was a pink highlighter hooked through a loop of yarn, with the yarn taped to the bottom of the overhead cabinet. If there was an earthquake, the pen would sway side-to-side.

Being out in the middle of the floor, I learned quickly that the floor had some flexibility. Whenever someone really heavy walked by, or someone pushed a loaded cart down the aisle, the floor would bounce up and down, and people would look around to see if we were having an earthquake. But my handy-dandy earthquake detector would hang still as could be. No swaying, no earthquake.

Now that I'm going to get retrained as a medical person, I'm also considering moving away from California to somewhere with four seasons (and I don't mean Warm, Gloom, Heat, and Rain). I won't need my earthquake detector there.

If I end up in Tornado Alley, what will be my tornado detector? Clearly a pen suspended from the underside of a cabinet shelf isn't going to tell me much.

Maybe if I keep a cow in the front yard, that might work. If the cow starts to lift off the ground, I'll know to run for shelter.