Everybody Okay in the Storms?

[JewelFreak]

I hope none of you have been affected by the storms bashing across country! Tragic terrible pictures on the news. Stay safe.

It is predicted to hit us tonight & continue tomorrow -- very high winds, possible tornadoes, flash flood warnings out. I'm going to fill the bathtub right now, in case we lose power. No basement in this house, but we get tornadoes only occasionally & they haven't ever happened in our little town. Fingers crossed.

Best hopes for safety for all in its path.

--- Laurie

 

[diamondringlover]

Gosh so terrible, I hope everyone stays safe!

 

[bright ice]

Safe at the moment in South Mississippi but the northern part of our state had bad tornadoes today

 

[AGBF]

I hope none of you have been affected by the storms bashing across country! Tragic terrible pictures on the news. Stay safe.

It is predicted to hit us tonight & continue tomorrow -- very high winds, possible tornadoes, flash flood warnings out. I'm going to fill the bathtub right now, in case we lose power. No basement in this house, but we get tornadoes only occasionally & they haven't ever happened in our little town. Fingers crossed.

Best hopes for safety for all in its path.

Tornadoes are totally foreign to me and scare me silly. Good luck to any of you in their path and any of you who are otherwise affected by any of the storms.

Hugs,
Deb

 

[msop04]

We are okay in central Alabama, but areas all around us have been hit... Very scary.

 

[movie zombie]

tornadoes scare me....LOTS. stay safe, please.

 

[ksinger]

My sympathies to anyone who has been hit. I'm just glad that we dodged a bullet this time. Central Oklahoma - in terms of probability - is THE most likely spot in the entire US, maybe the world, for the formation of really large tornadoes. You can bet we are acutely aware of it.

The water cooler observations around here, are that the lines seem to be forming up slightly to the east, more often than they used to. Of course that wasn't the case last May, so those observations may be completely off base. But bottom line, this round was pretty much a non-event in central OK, which is pretty unusual, but always welcome.

I found out that after last May's storms, our governor had a little "come-to-Jesus" with the local on-air meteorologists. She needed to: they've lost their collective minds around here and the criticism is that people died because of their (one in particular) totally wrong advice. I almost never watch our local weather coverage anymore and stick with NOAA, the Severe Storms Lab, and online radars. I'm flat out fed up with the hype and hysteria and voyeurism.

 

[AGBF]

I found out that after last May's storms, our governor had a little "come-to-Jesus" with the local on-air meteorologists. She needed to: they've lost their collective minds around here and the criticism is that people died because of their (one in particular) totally wrong advice. I almost never watch our local weather coverage anymore and stick with NOAA, the Severe Storms Lab, and online radars. I'm flat out fed up with the hype and hysteria and voyeurism.

I've never watched television coverage of a tornado, not living in tornado country, but having watched television coverage of hurricanes and blizzards I can only imagine what television might due to coverage of tornadoes. The only thing is: unlike a blizzard or a hurricane, don't tornadoes arrive quickly? I mean people see a hurricane or a blizzard approaching for a week in advance (although those people are often dead wrong about where and how it will hit). Doesn't a tornado come down wherever it wants suddenly?

Deb

 

[Upgradable]

Okay in OK

 

[ksinger]

I found out that after last May's storms, our governor had a little "come-to-Jesus" with the local on-air meteorologists. She needed to: they've lost their collective minds around here and the criticism is that people died because of their (one in particular) totally wrong advice. I almost never watch our local weather coverage anymore and stick with NOAA, the Severe Storms Lab, and online radars. I'm flat out fed up with the hype and hysteria and voyeurism.

I've never watched television coverage of a tornado, not living in tornado country, but having watched television coverage of hurricanes and blizzards I can only imagine what television might due to coverage of tornadoes. The only thing is: unlike a blizzard or a hurricane, don't tornadoes arrive quickly? I mean people see a hurricane or a blizzard approaching for a week in advance (although those people are often dead wrong about where and how it will hit). Doesn't a tornado come down wherever it wants suddenly?

Deb

Well, coverage USED to be pretty calm. Now it's a screaming freaking circus that would have a newbie to the area in the corner sucking his thumb, seriously. Tornado coverage comes with a freaking Jaws soundtrack these days.

I have to remind myself constantly, that this weather is no worse than it's been for my entire life, it's only the coverage that has changed. A LOT. If you talk to anyone who has lived in Tornado Alley all their lives,(and Oklahoma is THE central point in that), you will find someone who is grateful for the longer lead-times, but is deeply disgusted by the coverage in the last 15 years or so. The screaming, the hyperbole, and the after-the-fact micro-coverage of any destruction - or in lieu of that - fixating and waxing breathless about the size of the hail and how bad the poor trees look, where the storm just passed (I do NOT EFFING CARE. Just show me where the storm is tracking NOW, show me the bleeding RADAR!) And they need to start throwing these amateur chasers(vultures) in the clink for jamming up the roads for emergency vehicles. This area needs to put the skids to THAT.


But enough of my endless rant. Tornadoes do blow up quickly, but the conditions set up in advance and being aware should be enough to get you out of harm's way. For instance, on May 3rd, 1999, when the F5 went through Moore, they KNEW that the day was going to be hellacious. Anyone who walked out the door that morning, KNEW it. The air was billowy and THICK and warm. Deadly. Our guys here can give some pretty solid lead time because most of the supercells start circulating before they ever drop a tornado. The tornadic storms are usually identified pretty early, along with the tracks of those cells. If, IF you've lived here long enough, you have a good sense of when to hide/run or when to stay put. I usually run, because I don't have a cellar or a garage big enough to house all our cars, and I'll be damned if I'm going to lose my car. So I go to one of several places I know (underground parking) depending on where the storms are tracking. But you have to do that really early, you do NOT (like was suggested at the 11th hour by one Mike Morgan, a pox on him) go running out of the house when the tornado is 15 minutes from your location. His hysterical statements that people should leave their homes and go south, probably killed some people. But bottom line, you either get in a shelter, or get out of the way when a supercell is headed your way.

 

[LLJsmom]

Tornados terrify me. Hope to hear that you all are ok. Can I ask, those of you who do
Live in tornado country, why are you still there? Maybe you are use to it or maybe it's not as bad as it seems? Earthquakes seem like nothing compared to these scary twisters.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

Glad to hear you are ll OK. Tornados are frightening. When I first moved to the Midwest, I was leaving the city and suddenly it became very dark. The radio said a tornado was in the area and all cars had to pull off the road. I was never so scared in my life.
The tornado missed Chicago. The high buildings had something to do with it. I wanted so badly to move again.


Annette

 

[ame]

Yea this is ridiculous. I was watching closely yesterday, and I too kinda blow off the local weather teams now because they're just so sensationalized and not really worried about facts. I want to know what it is, where it is and then I know to go downstairs, thankfully we have a basement here, and most houses here do.

We had one hit in Illinois as I was leaving work, we saw it coming in, I actually took a photo of it forming in my rear view as I was leaving downtown. It was "just" a storm as we left StL. Albeit gnarly. As it crossed the river, as happens a lot, it REALLY got more intense and Illinois got hit again. Yesterday was VICIOUS. Sunday was VICIOUS, and even though thankfully nothing hit here, you could tell it was unsettled even here. My nephew HATES rainy and stormy weather, it scares him, and I don't blame him. I am fascinated by weather, but this stuff is not good.

 

[ame]

Hi,

Glad to hear you are ll OK. Tornados are frightening. When I first moved to the Midwest, I was leaving the city and suddenly it became very dark. The radio said a tornado was in the area and all cars had to pull off the road. I was never so scared in my life.
The tornado missed Chicago. The high buildings had something to do with it. I wanted so badly to move again.


Annette

Sometimes that works out ok, sometimes not so lucky. These used to not come in to the major areas so close but the weather has changed so much in recent years that it makes no difference anymore.

 

[JewelFreak]

The weather hasn't changed, Ame -- the population has. There is so much more development now, more towns, houses, buildings, people, to be hit. Coverage has also changed -- tv & internet show every damage molecule by molecule.

I have to remind myself constantly, that this weather is no worse than it's been for my entire life, it's only the coverage that has changed. A LOT. If you talk to anyone who has lived in Tornado Alley all their lives,(and Oklahoma is THE central point in that), you will find someone who is grateful for the longer lead-times, but is deeply disgusted by the coverage in the last 15 years or so. The screaming, the hyperbole, and the after-the-fact micro-coverage of any destruction - or in lieu of that - fixating and waxing breathless about the size of the hail and how bad the poor trees look, where the storm just passed

Absolutely, ksinger! Electrifying, dramatic, scary, so people will watch. Who cares if it's accurate or gives the wrong impression? Even as far back as the '89 quake in San Francisco, the news made it seem the whole city crumbled into the sea. Actually, only one block in the Marina district & the Bay Bridge had damage -- but ALL reports were done from those 2 sites. My mother thought we were dead when I didn't phone her till the next day -- it shook up our house a little, a few things fell over, but so mild I had NO idea the tv idiots had scared her so.

These storms: just prove your point. What a crock! Predictions of doom & so far we have not had ONE DROP of rain, no wind, nada. Radar shows the cells have shrunken & are going NW of our city. One of the few times I listened to their shrill coverage & battened down the hatches. Not again. I'm disgusted!

But VERY glad everyone at real risk is okay!

--- Laurie

 

[momhappy]

A good friend of mine has a friend who lost her son in one of the Alabama. Very sad. We woke up this morning to tornado sirens, got the kids out of bed, and huddled in an interior bathroom. Scares me to death because where I grew up, we had basements or storm cellars to run to, but here, we have nothing….

 

[JewelFreak]

How sad for your friend, Momhappy. I'm so sorry. The lack of basements in the South is a problem where tornadoes occur. We don't have one either, & the only interior room is the powder room -- which boasts a mirror taking up half a wall. I picture us hiding in there & being shredded by glass splinters. I guess we could all crowd into the coat closet & spend 3 hours sitting on each other's laps.

 

[momhappy]

How sad for your friend, Momhappy. I'm so sorry. The lack of basements in the South is a problem where tornadoes occur. We don't have one either, & the only interior room is the powder room -- which boasts a mirror taking up half a wall. I picture us hiding in there & being shredded by glass splinters. I guess we could all crowd into the coat closet & spend 3 hours sitting on each other's laps.

Yes, we have the same problem - the bathroom is less-than-ideal because one entire wall is covered in mirror (above the cabinets and counter). We'd probably be better off huddling together in the interior hall. We have a "lower" living room (where you takes two steps down into it), but it's not really getting us any further down and again, one wall is made entirely of glass windows and patio doors. Maybe it's time to build some sort of bunker...

 

[ame]

The weather hasn't changed, Ame -- the population has. There is so much more development now, more towns, houses, buildings, people, to be hit. Coverage has also changed -- tv & internet show every damage molecule by molecule.


--- Laurie

The climate actually has changed enough to impact the weather, so it has actually changed, not just population and city planning impacting how storms impact communities and temperatures. It's significantly bigger and badder when it comes to storms. The quantity of F4 and F5 tornadoes has gone way up, and multi-vortex storms, as well. And hurricanes are bigger and badder as well.

 

[JewelFreak]

Actually, they aren't worse. If you research other than the silly UN reports, you'll find that weather goes in cycles. We are in the beginning now of a cycle very similar to the 1950s & '60s, mostly governed by changing ocean currents -- look up Joe Bastardi, one of the smartest climatologists there is. He explains it well. We had a warm cycle, now it's going into one like what made Time Mag headline a new Ice Age 20 yrs ago. All kinds of people make all kinds of money & get big grants by scaring the world -- if it's not weather, it's what we eat, drink, breathe, touch. Wisest to take it all with a whopping grain of salt.

--- Laurie

 

[TC1987]

I concur that the media coverage of these storm events, and particularly the way they seem to celebrate the storm damage and the wreckage, is very insensitive and offensive. I blasted Jim Cantore on Weather Channel's Facebook page last year, for acting like he'd just hopped off the rollercoaster at some amusement park instead of somberly discussing a tornado that caused numerous deaths and very extensive destruction and damage.

 

[ksinger]

The weather hasn't changed, Ame -- the population has. There is so much more development now, more towns, houses, buildings, people, to be hit. Coverage has also changed -- tv & internet show every damage molecule by molecule.


--- Laurie

The climate actually has changed enough to impact the weather, so it has actually changed, not just population and city planning impacting how storms impact communities and temperatures. It's significantly bigger and badder when it comes to storms. The quantity of F4 and F5 tornadoes has gone way up, and multi-vortex storms, as well. And hurricanes are bigger and badder as well.

Nope.Nope.And Nope.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2012/10/20/tornado-damage/1644991/

and this:
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/severe-weather-and-climate-change/62715

"Our best effort is to try to take care of those changes in reporting and indicate that we really haven't seen any changes [in severe weather]," Harold Brooks, research meteorologist at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., said.
However, with advancements in technology and social media, news of extreme and severe weather spread very quickly to all corners of the U.S.

"The big reason why we think that severe weather has gotten worse is our ability to communicate information about it. If you think back 100 years ago, a tornado that happened 10 or 20 miles away, you might not even be aware of it, if it didn't affect where you live directly. Now, you can watch people chasing tornadoes online live," Brooks said. "So it's the fact that we are more aware and able to communicate that information about events so much better than we used to be able to that it makes us think severe weather has increased."

 

[JewelFreak]

Hit the nail on the head, ksinger. Joe Bastardi, in fact, was one of the founders of Accuweather. I really like listening to him when he's interviewed on tv -- he has a new weather company now, I think.