It Could Happen Tomorrow - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

It Could Happen Tomorrow is a television series that premiered on January 15, 2006 on The Weather Channel. It explores the possibilities of various weather and other natural phenomena severely damaging or destroying America's cities. This includes: a Category 3

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

The Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale , or the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale , classifies hurricanes — Western Hemisphere tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms — into five categories distinguished by the intensities of their sustained winds...

hurricane hitting New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, an F4

Fujita scale

The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...

tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

destroying Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, dormant

Dormant

Dormant means lacking activity. It can refer to:*Dormancy in an organism's life cycle*Dormant volcano, a volcano that is inactive but may become active in the future...

volcano

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano located southeast of Seattle in the state of Washington, United States. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a summit elevation of . Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most...

re-activating and destroying towns in the surrounding valleys, a tsunami flooding the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

coast, an intraplate earthquake

Intraplate earthquake

An intraplate earthquake is an earthquake that occurs in the interior of a tectonic plate, whereas an interplate earthquake is one that occurs at a plate boundary....

impacting Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, wildfires spreading into the heart of San Diego, a huge earthquake leveling San Francisco, a flash flood

Flash flood

A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...

in Boulder, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...

, and a flood in Sacramento

Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

. Newer episodes that were aired included an earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, an F5 tornado ripping its way through Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

and Dallas, and more.

Plot

Each episode is broken into several segments: "It Did Happen"-this segment talks about similar disasters happening in other parts of America (or even earlier in the target city featured); "When It Happens/How It Would Happen"-this talks about how the disaster would unfold; and a third segment about how to prepare for the disaster, and interviews with residents in the threatened areas about what they think of the disaster threat. Sometimes there is a segment called "Before It Happens", which shows what's being done to prepare for the disaster.

Production

"It Could Happen Tomorrow" was produced by Atlas Media Corporation. Executive Producer: Bruce David Klein

Bruce David Klein

Bruce David Klein is a producer, director and writer of television, film and digital entertainment. He is the founder of Atlas Media Corp..On the television front, Klein was an early innovator in cable programming, responsible for series such as Dr...

. Supervising Producer: Cheryl Houser.

Season 1: 2006

#	Title	\| Original airdate

†Hour long special, see Katrina episode section below

Season 2: 2007

Number	Event	Location	Based On	Airdate
11	F5 Tornado Tornado A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...	Chicago Chicago Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...	Plainfield Tornado Plainfield Tornado The 1990 Plainfield tornado was a devastating tornado that occurred on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 28, 1990. The violent tornado killed 29 people and injured 353. It is the only F5 tornado ever recorded in August and the only F5 tornado to ever strike the Chicago area...	January 7, 2007
12	Category 5 Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale The Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale , or the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale , classifies hurricanes — Western Hemisphere tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms — into five categories distinguished by the intensities of their sustained winds... Hurricane	Houston, Texas	Hurricane Carla Hurricane Carla Hurricane Carla was one of two Category 5 tropical cyclones during the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season. It struck the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, becoming one of the most powerful storms to ever strike the United States. Hurricane Carla was the second most intense storm to ever...	January 7, 2007
13	F5 Tornado Tornado A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...	St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...	Super Outbreak Super Outbreak The Super Outbreak is the second largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the tornado outbreak of April 25–28, 2011...	January 21, 2007
14	Tsunami Tsunami A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...	Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...	April Fool's Day Tsunami	January 21, 2007
15	Earthquake Earthquake An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...	Seattle, Washington	Loma Prieta earthquake Loma Prieta earthquake The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time...	January 28, 2007
16	Wildfire Wildfire A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...	Austin, Texas Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...	Oakland Hills firestorm	January 28, 2007
17	Earthquake Earthquake An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...	Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...	1971 San Fernando earthquake	February 11, 2007
18	F4 Tornado Tornado A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...	Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....	La Plata, Maryland Tornado of 2002 Midwest to Mid-Atlantic United States tornado outbreak of 2002 The 2002 Midwest to Mid-Atlantic United States tornado outbreak of April 27, 2002 and April 28, 2002 was a widespread outbreak that moved from west to east over a Saturday and Sunday...	March 11, 2007
19	Category 5 Hurricane	Miami	Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...	June 3, 2007
20	Category 4 Hurricane	Savannah, Georgia Savannah, Georgia Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...	Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo was a classical, destructive and rare Cape Verde-type hurricane which struck the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St. Croix, Puerto Rico and the USA mainland in South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane during September of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season...	June 10, 2007
21	Earthquake Intraplate earthquake An intraplate earthquake is an earthquake that occurs in the interior of a tectonic plate, whereas an interplate earthquake is one that occurs at a plate boundary....	Charleston, South Carolina Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...	Charleston Earthquake of 1886	July 1, 2007
22	Wildfire Wildfire A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...	Los Angeles Los Ángeles Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...	1993 Malibu wildfire	July 8, 2007
23	Category 4 Hurricane	Tampa Bay Area Tampa Bay Area The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...	Hurricane Charley Hurricane Charley Hurricane Charley was the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Charley lasted from August 9 to August 15, and at its peak intensity it attained 150 mph winds, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane on the...	July 29, 2007

Katrina episode

Ironically, the original Category 5

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

hurricane episode was to involve New Orleans. It was conceived and scripted months before Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

ever struck New Orleans. After Katrina, the debut episode was changed to instead show such a storm striking New York City

New York City

(reducing the storm to a Category 3 as it is believed that is the strongest such storm that would strike the city; such a storm

New England Hurricane of 1938

The New England Hurricane of 1938 was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869...

in 1938 missed New York City by just 75 miles, and historical records also show that a similar storm

1821 Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane

The 1821 Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane was one of four known tropical cyclones that have made landfall in New York City. Another, even more intense hurricane struck the region in pre-Columbian times and was detected by paleotempestological research...

directly hit the city in 1821). On June 4, 2006 The Weather Channel aired this episode, titled "Katrina: The Lost Episode." Unlike most episodes, this episode was one hour in length and combined clips of the "lost" episode with a Storm Stories

Storm Stories

Storm Stories is a non-fiction television series aired on The Weather Channel and Zone Reality hosted and narrated by meteorologist and Storm-Tracker Jim Cantore. Storm Stories showcases various types of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Each episode features a famous...

-style retelling of Katrina's effects.

Schedule

It Could Happen Tomorrow was still running on TWC, as of January 2010

2010 in American television

The following is a list of events that affected American television in 2010, a year marked by the usual debuts, cancellations, and continuations of shows; the launches, closures, or rebrandings of channels; but also significant cable/satellite carriage disputes, as well as...

. In April 2010, The Weather Channel aired many other new weather shows on the weekends, and It Could Happen Tomorrow has now been taken off the weekend and weekday schedule. Storm Stories

Storm Stories

has replaced it and Full Force Nature

Full Force Nature

Full Force Nature is a television series that premiered on January 15, 2006 on The Weather Channel. It showcases some of the most unbelievable weather moments caught on tape.-Plot:Full Force Nature focuses on extreme weather and weird weather on tape....

on the weekdays. On March 12, 2011, It Could Happen Tomorrow was brought back to the schedule.

Mondays (Eastern Time)

9:00pm–9:30pm
9:30pm–10:00pm
12:00am-12:30am
12:30am-1:00am
3:00am-3:30am
3:30am-4:00am

Saturdays