Those of us who live in Tornado Alley know the drill all too well. Suddenly, the TV weatherman breaks in while you are watching your favorite show to tell you that somebody else, somewhere else is under threat of a tornado or one has been sighted near a specific location. If it's not within 5-10 miles of where I am at the time, I don't need to hear about it. It may sound callous, but that's the reality of tornadoes.
On the one hand it is wonderful that we have all the weather sensing devices in place and numerous communication systems set up to alert us to the approaching dangers. On the other hand, 99.5 percent of the time whatever is going to happen is going to do so somewhere other than where I am involved. It is really nerve wracking listening to reports of expected, and actual, damages affecting your friends while you know there is nothing you can do but maybe show up the next day to lend a hand. Almost exactly 15 years ago I was watching the weatherman describing two different tornadoes running parallel about 15 miles apart. I was roughly 6 miles from one and 9 miles from the other. No big deal. Nice and quiet where I was. Pitch black but calm. We did get worried, though, when the one tornado took out enough power lines to result in a power outage at our house. We weren't worried about the tornadoes we knew were happening, it was the possibility of another one forming where we were.
Down in Okiehoma near Paden's neck of the woods the locals install ladders on the sides of their houses and have lawn chairs firmly affixed to the flatter parts of their roofs with a couple of power outlets nearby connected to a generator so they can listen to the reports while they lounge on the roof watching their neighbors get blown away and drink beer out of the ice chest they keep handy at all times.
We do enjoy our 'naders around here. Something to look forward to in Spring besides mowing..;-)
The local weather stations have beaten this dead horse every year. Year before last we had a nasty little outbreak of seven or eight vortices in a two county area one evening. The tv weather folks had everybody so gun shy the freeways in the metro were clogged with folks trying to flee. It could have been disastrous if a tornado zeroed in on a traffic jam.
The NWS and the national news-eyes caught wind of this and within a day or two all the local channels had apologized for their "zeal".
Weather hasn't changed over the years, only the way at which it's viewed. Years ago we use to have afternoon thundershowers. Now we have "potentially severe weather with a chance of tornadic activity. Stay with Channel Zip and we'll keep you safe."
I can understand keeping an eye to the sky this time of year. Things can happen. But to suspend an entire evening of regularly scheduled programs just to watch a thunderstorm and create a public frenzy is a bit much. They need to tone it down a little.
Moore, Oklahoma, is a good example. If it clouds up the outbound lanes are clogged with dawdling citizens trying to exit the area. And the inbound lanes are clogged with storm chasers and radar trucks hoping they will get lucky and be the first on the scene....
When I was a kid in the Texas Panhandle, it was standard procedure when we had a tornado nearby to pile into dad's truck and ride the dirt roads. Mom, Dad, and us three kids.
The logic was that the house we lived in was similar to a Jim Walters house but was built in a factory and delivered, sitting on cinder blocks. It would not survive a tornado. In the pickup truck we could maneuver to the side of the storm without the hail and get a better view. Sight distance was only limited by rain. Nothing but cotton fields with a road every mile and turn rows in between. Us kids had a blast.
James
storm chasing
The best way to dodge a tornado is the same process as dodging a charging bull...you have to wait until it's right on top of you, then run. If you run too soon, you can run right-smack-dab into it!
We use to chase storms when I was a young long-haired lad. It was always a party. We would start by parking underneath all the transmission towers in NE OKC for "attitude adjustment" and the impending lightning strikes. Followed by a mad dash to "catch" any tornadoes by listening to the weatherman on the AM radio.
It was all fun until we actually caught one north of Midwest City. The hail beat the pants off my buddy's car and broke his windshield. We toned it down after that...:pinch:
Tornado Snornado- Divine Bovine
HC
I am astonished of how humans adapt in life. Personally, one of the things that put me in a funk is wind. Not gentle breezes but abnormal or constant wind. It dulls my senses that causes the fear. I have seen a few tornadoes from a distance. Once driving from Houston to New Orleans along I-10 near Jennings, Louisiana, they were off in the distance and were very ominous. Another time while I was driving though the cotton/rice files of SE Arkansas in the middle of nowhere, USA. We have tornadoes here in SE LA. When the warm Gulf winds mix with colliding air masses, we will be under watches/warning and the TV will be beeping and program interruptions are constant. This area is not known for the mega-storms that occur in other parts of the US. We had a F1 come through town about 16 years ago. I have mentioned before that I can sense a tornado outbreak to the areas north of us by about 50-250 miles when I sit on my back porch and feel that Gulf wind rushing to meet a cold mass somewhere.
A few years ago, we slipped out of town on a hurricane evacuation and ended up near Tuscaloosa. During that trip, I witnessed the damage that was done by the big F4 twister that hit there in 2001. The damage was unreal.
I have sat through some minor hurricanes and tropical storms but I never want to hear a ‘freight train’ sound unless it is a real freight train.
There are good devices on smart phones for storm warnings and info. Recently, I downloaded a weather app from the local NBC affiliate. It gives real time radar map with storm info. The other day on the last day of spring break, Swmbo took a few boys up to a river to tube. There was a forecast of thunderstorms that day. You don’t want to be tubing on the river when severe T-storms are coming at you. She texted me that light rain had started. In less than 30 seconds, I got a snap shot of on the radar app, texted it to her to show the storm was off to the north of them (by about ten miles) and heading away from their location.
The TV stations are in the position of damn if you do and damn if you don’t but they are overzealous like Paden describes in his post.
I know that when I lived in Fayetteville, that people in the valleys had storm cellars (some like Cool Hand Luke like) and the talk of tornado alleys. I read then about a part of eastern OK that was described as a tornado alley because of the historic storm data. Never understood the term but never sounded to me like a good place.
Anyway I have big respect for you and people lie you who live, work and raise families in these areas. I feel that I am more adapted to living with hurricane threats or the spectre of senseless urban crime more than a twister.
The title of your posts is amusing to me. During hurricanes, I always get the best sleep during the storm. I don't know if it the low pressure drop, an anxiety relif mechanism or my funk reaction but I always get a good sleep. Nothing else one can do.
I guess sit outside and have a few beers but then one would have to Pizz in the wind.
At least a tornado is something to worry about.
The last few years here they have been going ape over every little sprinkle event. Sending live trucks all over the area OH MY GOSH IT'S GONNA DROP 2 INCHES!!! WHAT WILL WE DO WITH IT ALL!!! THE STORM OF THE CENTURY!!! OH THE HUMANITY!!! The public reacts like it's the flood of Noah. They have the live reporters standing out in light rain all excited IT'S RAINING AND I'M GETTING WET!!!
Then they send a live truck up to Donner Pass so some reporter can get all excited about sweeping 2" of snow off of a parked car. It's winter and it's snowing in the mountains WHAT WILL WE DO?!?!?!?!?
We do get small tornadoes occasionally, like an F0.1. Oh my gosh you can't believe, it's the end of the world as we know it...it knocked the facia trim off someone's backyard shed...how will we recover from that?
Tornado Snornado- Divine Bovine
My most difficult task is attempting to keep SWMBO halfway calm once the first alert go out. In 2000 we were married but living in different homes about 45 miles apart. Long story but it was all good. Anyway, one night we had one of those very skinny fronts blow through that are super calm ahead of the storm, then 60 to 90 mph straight winds with plenty of lightning/hail/rain for less than five minutes, then super calm again. The storm was probably 100 miles long north and south and no more than two to three miles wide. She was living in a single-wide trailer house with one post-frame constructed farm building about 150 feet to the southwest on top of a significant hill. The storm ripped the entire roof off the farm building and slammed it into the side of her trailer, then partially wrapped up onto the roof and slid the rest of the length of the trailer before flying to pieces on the other side. Kitchen cabinets were knocked off the wall and a couple of 2x8s were sticking about 15 inches through the wall of the trailer. This was around 2:00 a.m. while she was supposed to be sleeping about 15 feet from where the cabinets went flying. A few seconds later I received a phone call from her. She was not calm. She still wasn't calm 40 minutes later when I arrived on scene. Now, she dreads any kind of severe weather warning because she is convinced that it will be as bad or worse than what it was that night.
