[clock ticking]
[music playing]
- Two different natural disasters headlined today's
show as we wrap up the first full week of May.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Right now, there are seven wildfires burning
in the US State of New Mexico.
The National Interagency Fire Center
says that's the most in any state,
and while seven might not seem like a huge number in a state
that sees hundreds of wildfires every year,
the largest one is the second biggest
New Mexico has had in decades.
More than 170 homes have been destroyed in the northern part
of the state.
Thousands of other houses have been evacuated.
And if this largest fire, the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire,
continues to grow, it could threaten more than 15,000 homes
in the days ahead.
Earlier this week, NASA reported that the blaze was
20% contained, meaning firefighters
had blocked it from spreading over one fifth
of the total area it covered.
But local government said they didn't think
authorities would have complete control of the fire
anytime soon.
Like other parts of the American West,
New Mexico has been experiencing a severe drought.
It's affected almost 99% of the state,
according to the US Drought Monitor.
That makes fire conditions worse.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham asked
the federal government to declare
a disaster in New Mexico.
President Joe Biden did that.
What it means is that government help
in the form of money and recovery assistance
has been sped up to the state.
■ Grisham said New Mexico has emergency funds of its own
to fight the fires but that it's not enough.
According to the National Weather Service,
the average number of acres that wildfires burn in New Mexico
each year is around 300,000.
That's about how much has burned so
far in this year's fire season.
10-second trivia, which of these US states
is located in Tornado Alley, Utah, South
Dakota, Wyoming, or Michigan?
[timer beeping]
CARL AZUZ: Though tornadoes have formed in every state,
South Dakota is part of the region nicknamed Tornado Alley.
There are different definitions for Tornado Alley.
It's supposed to describe an area where tornadoes commonly
occur in America, but the federal government
says the threat of these storms actually
moves around the country, depending on the time of year.
One thing that's not disputed about Tornado Alley
is that Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas are in it.
This twister was recorded a week ago in Kansas,
and a line of storms that moved across the southern US
this week spawned several reported tornadoes
in Texas and Oklahoma.
Buildings were torn apart.
A resident of Oklahoma who was interviewed by the Weather
Channel said some structures and houses
were completely blown away.
Thankfully, no deaths or injuries were reported,
but the system didn't just cause tornadoes.
It also brought flooding into parts of Arkansas, Kansas,
Oklahoma, and Missouri, along with the need
for numerous water rescues, according to the National
Weather Service.
Forecasters said some areas of Arkansas and Louisiana
were at risk for severe storms Thursday
as this system moved East.
Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia
could see storms on Friday.
The United States is said to have
the most violent weather in the world,
and tornadoes are a big part of that.
- Technically, a tornado was just a violent, rotating column
of air coming out of the bottom of a thunderstorm,
but it takes a lot to get that violently rotating
column to come out.
All you need for a tornado really to form,
though, are thunderstorms and a jet stream.
That jet stream's aloft, it makes the energy.
If you have moisture at the surface, dry air, cold air
pushing that moisture up, you can get
a tornado to form in any state.
Those days were all the ingredients combined.
You get the humidity.
You get the dry air.
You get the jet stream.
You get upper energy in the jet stream.
You get winds turning as you go aloft.
The higher you go, the winds actually change direction.
That can cause storms.
Those things all cause storms to exist and get big.
Those are the ingredients that cause a big tornado day.
So now the EF Scale, Enhanced Fujita Scale, starts at 0,
goes only to 5.
And anything above 200 miles per hour
is considered an EF5 tornado.
If you have a zero, you're going to lose shingles.
A one, you may lose a couple of boards on the roof.
A two, you lose all the windows and maybe even a wall.
A three, EF3, you will lose a couple of walls on the outside,
but there will still be a part of the home standing.
An F4, most of the home is gone, but you'll
still see the refrigerator.
You'll still see a closet, and you'll still see the bathroom.
An EF5, you cannot find the house.
It's completely gone.
We don't know how big that Fujita scale will be,
how big that tornado will be, literally, until after we
look at the damage.
We have almost as triangulation that
no other country in the world, no other region in the world,
has.
We have the Rocky Mountains to our West.
We have the Gulf of Mexico in our South.
We have Canada and very cold air masses
coming down from the North.
All of those things combined make Tornado Alley, typically,
the plains, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, all the way
to Chicago, as far South as the Southeast,
including Georgia and Alabama.
That's basically the new, or the bigger, Tornado Alley.
The greatest threat of a tornado is being hit by something
that the tornado is moving.
If you're outside, or if you're not protected inside,
if you get hit by 140-mile-per-hour two by four,
you're going to be killed.
So you need to be inside on the lowest level,
somewhere in the middle of the home away from windows.
When you hear the word warning and you hear your county,
that's when you need to take cover.
When you hear the word watch, that means
something might happen today.
Let's have a plan.
When you hear the word warning, it's too late to make a plan.
You need to already have the plan.
Warning's the long word.
It's the bad one.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Among the jobs you might not think could
be done by robots, manicures.
The nail care industry in the United States
is worth more than $8 billion a year.
Could a robotic newcomer that offers a lot
less conversation and interaction
change the way people get their nails done?
JEANNE MOOS: It's not exactly a cure for getting manicures.
- Robot nails.
JEANNE MOOS: It's a robomanicure.
- The robot doesn't expect tips.
JEANNE MOOS: Instead of the buzz of conversation,
there's the whirring noise of the robot.
A company named Clockwork debuted
two robots at a pop-up store in San Francisco recently.
The robot takes a 3D photo of each nail, then paints it.
Says one of the first customers--
- For $8, I'm happy to have a robot do a much better job
than I could do.
JEANNE MOOS: Posted one commenter,
so I wouldn't have to make awkward conversation, love it.
But others were worried.
This is kind of sad.
I love my nail lady.
She works so hard for her business.
Clockwork's co-founder says what they
do is different from salons.
- Quick serve beauty is what we call it.
We are going to be the express beauty
experience, versus the artistry and the relaxation
of a nail salon.
JEANNE MOOS: Eventually, they hope to put the nail robots
in airports, malls, and gyms.
Another company is working on a similar device for home use,
selling for $400.
The robomanicure caused one commenter
to post I would be terrified it would eat my fingers.
- And the reality is that the machine is very safe.
No one has ever been hurt by it.
JEANNE MOOS: Oh, they have a jokey nickname.
- We call it Frankie, which is short for Frankenstein.
JEANNE MOOS: What can't Frankie do?
No clipping, no filing, no cutting cuticles.
Forget comparisons to--
- Barbie digital nail printer.
JEANNE MOOS: That may print designs, but it can't paint.
And for $8 to $10 a manicure, Frankenstein's creators
are hoping customers say--
- I'll be back.
JEANNE MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(SINGING): Some may say it's loony, some might call it
beautiful to let a robot box detox
nails right down to the cuticle.
It's an edgy concept leaving many
who are picky unimpressed, from epithelium
down to the hyponychium.
But when it comes to manicures, if you've tried and failed,
it might be thought from those polish clips
that nail machine might nail it.
- Fridays are awesome.
We've got Union Grove High School watching
today from McDonough, Georgia.
It's great to see you.
Our YouTube channel is the one and only place we look
for your shout out requests.
I'm Carl Azuz.
[music playing]