On 3/9/2013 9:01 PM, dpb wrote:
....

Tornados create an electrical disturbance somewhere in the 55 megahertz
range, close to the frequency band assigned to channel 2.

...

Well, I didn't believe it when you posted it earlier and I don't believe
it now...the only reference I could find quickly was from

Tornado Alley : Monster Storms of the Great Plains: Monster Storms of
the Great Plains by Howard B. Bluestein Professor of Meteorology,
University of Oklahoma

He quotes the same verbiage identically but adds the following sentence
at the end of that paragraph and begins the next with the following--

"I don't understand why this should be so and don't believe it works."

....

I conclude it's basically hokum, and of course, one must still have an
old analog receiver (and even I as the old fogey I am just abandoned the
one here when the audio portion died).
....

OK, w/o delving into the technical literature itself...

From the NOAA NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory) FAQ--

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/faq/

Are there electromagnetic or magnetohydrodynamic explanations for the
development of tornadoes?
As far as scientists understand, tornadoes are formed and sustained
by a purely thermodynamic process. As a result, their research efforts
are towards that end. They have spent a lot of time modeling the
formation of a tornado and measuring many parameters in and around a
tornado when it is forming and going through its life cycle. They have
not seen any evidence to support magnetism or electricity playing a role.

Can my TV signal detect tornadoes?
You may have read about a technique called “the Weller Method” of
tornado detection. The idea was to be able to use your TV as a lightning
detector to detect the radio waves emitted by a lightning flash, with
the assumption that tornadic thunderstorms were very active lightning
producers. But, not all tornadic storms produce large amounts of
lightning. Also, TVs are all different and have different sensitivities,
and some are even made to filter out lightning signals. Plus, if you are
connected to cable, it won't work. The method was found to be completely
unreliable and it has mostly been abandoned.

--