Friday, April 11, 2008

Tornado Season...

www.kcrg.com This time of year in the midwest can mean only one thing: Tornado Season. The time when we gather our laptops and blankets and hide in a secure area in the lower level of our house in case a twister comes along and tries to blow us away. Would this really help if one hit our condo? No clue. But still, when the siren went off, we turned off American Idol, grabbed the laptop and the blankets we could find, and cuddled up close in the laundry room. When the second siren went off, we thought it was an all clear siren, the 'severe weather' live uplink had also been removed from our local weather channel (that's where I stole, I mean linked the picture from, hoping not to be in copyright violation), umm, yeah so it turns out it was because someone thought that they saw a tornado just a few miles from us. We're not sure why they blasted it again, because it really fooled most of our area I suppose, and if there had been one on the ground, we would have been toast, or compost, or something. Anyway, I remember the nice calm days of country living where you could see for miles, and even though the sky may have turned some odd colors, no one ever sent you pell-mell for a lower level of the house. Basically, we sat out on the (covered) porch and watched storms roll in. It was probably one of the best ideas my folks ever had. If you have a kid that's scared of storms, it's the best thing you could ever do for them. Let them be out and watch the lightning and hear the thunder and realize that 99.9% of the time there's nothing to hurt them in a storm if they're inside.

Now my husband and I, well we have other ideas when it storms. Let's just leave it at that. :-)

6 comments:

ChrisB said...

That's quite a spectacular photo. Storms are really fascinating but at the same time scary. Tornados are not that common here!

Jientje said...

This is something really fascinating to read an inside story on twisters, tornado's or whatever you call them. Oyut here in Belgium, the closest thing to a twister is watching National Geographic !!!

Anonymous said...

I came back to Ohio to visit my parents and as expected, there were tornado warnings tonight just north of us. I had forgotten the adrenline rush watching the clouds in the distant churning... we just get lots of snow back in Colorado. That was great picture. Stay safe.

Joy T. said...

I know they are so devastating but that photo is just stunning! And is probably what pulls us into the fascination behind them.

bichonpawz said...

Whoa...what a wild picture! I would definitely have been in the basement with my laptop!!!

Pamela said...

I confess the desire to join a storm chasing tour. I almost signed up this season, but the only ones with room were not on weeks that I could take vacation.

Perhaps if I lived in tornado country I wouldn't have such curiosity.

(I grew up in earthquake country, so I don't care to experience those any more)