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Anyone living in a storm belt should know how and where to grab their documents plus devices and chargers, flashlights, a first-aid kit and some clothes so that they can blow town in a matter of minutes and before trouble.

The cold air masses created by this icecap clash with the warm winds from the ocean to churn up a storm belt that surrounds the continent, making the Southern Ocean the most treacherous sea anywhere.

That finding could help scientists forecast how the storm belt will change in a warmer climate, Maloney says.

Nor does the rest of Oklahoma, one of the states in the storm belt called Tornado Alley, require them — despite the annual onslaught of deadly and destructive twisters like the one on Monday, which killed at least 24 people, injured hundreds and eliminated entire neighborhoods.

We live on an island in the middle of the Atlantic storm belt, just offshore from a huge landmass, and thanks to this "our meteorological lot is messy and erratic, whether we like it or not".