People who live in tornado alley tend to not get overly excited about tornadoes in general.?ÿ They aren't like hurricanes or earthquakes.?ÿ Tornadoes either get you or they don't.?ÿ A few hundred feet can be the difference between massive destruction and "a little wind damage".?ÿ If you see one moving away from you, the odds are good it's not going to turn around and come for you.?ÿ Of course, there could be a second one you don't notice because you're watching the first one move on.
Probably about 15 years ago I was chatting with a good ol' boy who lives about 10 miles from me.?ÿ A tornado had passed somewhere close to his area a few days earlier so I asked if he had any damage at his place.?ÿ He told me, "Well, ya see, I was jest gittin' outta the shower when I happened to see the danged thang a flyin' off to the northeast.?ÿ I stepped out into the hall and called out to the missus, 'Honey, did ya ever wanna see a tore-nadey??ÿ If so, look outta the front winder quick like, cause thar she goes.' "?ÿ I really laughed at that story at the time.
Hadn't thought of him for quite awhile.?ÿ Then his obituary popped up today.?ÿ The first thing I thought of was his tore-nadey story.
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No, not really.?ÿ That did make me websearch the Oklahoma state bird though.?ÿ 'Officially' it's the scissor-tail.
Tornados can be VERY fickle.?ÿ One of my uncles had a business installing TV satellite dishes (back when they were 5 feet in diameter).?ÿ He had a demonstrator model mounted on a trailer that he could pull up to a proposed customer's home, hook it up, and let them watch for a few days to decide if that is what they want.?ÿ Long story short, a tornado hit the ground about a mile from his home, came straight at him, got about 200 yards away and skipped over to come back to the ground about a quarter of a mile away.?ÿ It didn't even move the satellite dish off the azimuth and elevation for the satellite.
Andy
I don't want to see another tore-nadey, except for on television. I've seen a waterspout when I was at sea in the Navy. It was pretty cool! My wife, who is from west Kansas, reminded me the other day that this month is a bad month for tore-nadies in central FL.
"People who live in tornado alley tend to not get overly excited about tornadoes in general."?ÿ
FL is similar: People who live in Hurricane alley tend to not get overly excited about Hurricanes in general. ?ÿ
At least we usually have a?ÿ credible idea of where a hurricane is going so, if needed, we know when to dig a hole to hide in. Evacuation has already proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, impossible. Florida drivers are incapable of such a complicated task.?ÿ
One caveat though, when Hurricanes are approaching the Georgia Highway Patrol makes enough money of fleeing Floridians to bankroll their annual trip to Branson. ?????ÿ
Florida drivers are incapable of such a complicated task.?ÿ
Unfortunately a lot of Florida drivers head to the mountains of Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas in the Fall.?ÿ They PROVE they can't handle the complicated task of driving around a curve too (grin).
Andy
When I was about six we had one come come up the other side of the street. I stood mesmerized, watching it rip the houses up one at a time. As it finished tearing the roof from the house directly across from us my Dad grabbed me from behind. Watching the tornado I wasn't scared at all. Thinking it snuck up and grabbed me scared the crapola out of me..
Here's a shot from a few years ago.?ÿ The pic is looking NW and the 'nader was about a mile and a half away moving almost directly east.?ÿ We waited for it to "git" before we drove north to recover a section corner we needed.
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I used to office with an engineer from India that had only been in the US for a couple of years.?ÿ One day the sirens blew and the radio announced a tornado on the ground really close to the office.?ÿ We all ran outside to see if we could get a visual.?ÿ The engineer was beside himself that we were all outside rubber-necking.
He asked if we shouldn't be taking cover instead of being outdoors.?ÿ I explained to him "that's just what we do here in Oklahoma".?ÿ?ÿHe didn't want any part of it.?ÿ He went inside and got under his desk.
We're not that complacent in Minnesota yet, although we might get there at the rate they're increasing.
This one, in 2011, missed us by about four miles, which was plenty close enough for me. It was on the ground in a built-up area, mostly residential, for about 5 miles. Plenty of property damage, needless to say.
It was SWMBO's birthday. We were just about to leave for an upscale restaurant when the sirens went off. Ended up dining on cold pizza in the basement.
The capital of Kansas is Topeka.?ÿ On June 8, 1966 a tornado took a similar path across the entire city similar to your link to North Minneapolis.?ÿ Took off part of the State Capitol Building dome along the way.?ÿ We went up a few days later to see the damage as my sister had moved out of Topeka a few weeks earlier to go to her husband's home area in Massachusetts.?ÿ Both places where she had lived were destroyed.?ÿ Downtown Topeka was along the center of the path.
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Wow. Your sister moved just in time, I'd say.
