WooHoo, it's tornado season!

[MadHound]

"Line of severe thunderstorms, heavy rain, high wind, baseball size hail, possible embedded tornadoes. Severe thunderstorm warning, tornadoe watch until seven"

I love big storms. The power, the fury, the utter disregard for all things human.

It's springtime in Missouri

Hey, we've got a live twister one county over! I'm stoked!

And yes, I'm a bit strange too:crazy:

[MuseRider]

1. Tornado watch here

tornados are well to the north of us though. It remains to be seen if anything develops south.

Have you been to the weather group?

I too love the storms, always a little upset to be missed by good storms.

[MadHound]

4. Thanks, I'll have to check out the weather group

Nice to see I'm not the only crazed person around. I think living in tornado alley you have to be:silly:

[MuseRider]

5. Oh you are not alone.

I find the weather exciting and interesting. Here is my favorite picture, I have posted it several times. My neighbor took this last year from my farm, I left about 10 or 15 minutes before this little baby appeared. I wish I had not missed it but it is now my computer wallpaper.

[DrDebug]

2. I'm glad I'm not in a Tornado Zone

It's shows you that nature is very powerful source indeed. We often think that we humans are capable of greatness but Mother Earth has tools at her command which makes us like little ants crawling through the grass.

[Maddy McCall]

3. We've been under three warnings in the past several weeks...

Warnings as in a tornado has been spotted coming your way. Run for cover.

My son absolutely freaks out. I put him in the closet and cover him with blankets and pillows while I go outside and watch the skies.

I hate this time of year.

[MadHound]

7. I've been through eight tornadoes in my life

Rip the roof off, tear up the trailor park experiences, and while I have a great respect for the storms, I'm not afraid of them. I think that it is more of a sense of awe at the power and the fury.

And yes, I've been known to go outside and watch them come in. If Columbia Mo gets hit, and you see a video of the storm that suddenly goes fuzzy, its probably mine:evilgrin:

What's funny is that I find people who live in fire or earthquake zones a bit off, but there are disadvantages everywhere.

[CBGLuthier]

8. I'm with you. No fun in tornados for me

Of course, the fact that where I am sitting right now is about 400 feet from the path of the F5 that hit Oklahoma City on April 9, 1999 may have something to do with that.

The thing most non-Oklahomans don't know about that monster was that if it had taken a few more minutes before turning east the devastation would have been even worse. Maybe even more than 100 dead instead of the 40+ that were killed.

As for the movie Twister mentioned below, it lost most of its entertainment value for me that night. But that's just me.

[rstlne]

36. We had one here in Ohio that day

It was pretty scary too since it was around 4 or 5 in the morning, couldn't see it coming... My sister and I were on the phone, had stayed up all night talking to each other coz we had a feeling one was on the way (we love to compare storms while they're going on). Anyway, she heard on her scanner that a tornado had been spotted about 5 miles from my house and then the phone went dead. My house is 100+ years old with no basement, needless to say I was scared shitless!
One of my neighbors' house was destroyed, the rest of us only had our roofs scoured. I really needed a new roof too!
I still love severe weather, maybe it's because they're so scary? I dunno. Besides, what are the odds of another one ever getting that close again?

[Left Is Write]

6. That must mean it's time to watch "Twister" again.

[Wapsie B]

9. Stupid question time.

What do people do when they live in a region where the homes do not have basements? Are there shelters around to go to or does everyone just pray they stay out of the path of one of these suckers?

[MadHound]

10. A little of both

Most of the older, pre '80 homes here have basements. Most of the trailer courts have a community shelter you can dive into.

However since 1980 an ever increasing number of houses are being thrown up on slabs, and what's even worse, the construction is increasingly shoddy. I watched a development go up about fourteen years ago in which the houses didn't have nail one holding the wood together, just those spike sheets you hammer in:eyes: Thus, when a very mild tornado came through(so mild that the experts had to come in and make certain it was a tornado, not high winds) it just shredded that development.

My opinion is that the construction industry around here is simply insuring future work. Put up a shoddy house that blows down in a decade or so, thus they will get paid big bucks to put up more shoddy housing. What a racket.

And yes, there have been a couple of times I prayed.

Oops, gotta go, sirens are going off, it's hunker down time. Woo Hoo!

[Maddy McCall]

11. You pray that you stay out of the path.

If you are in a trailer, you get out of the trailer and go to either a stronger home or a ditch.

My house is up on 6' pilings. It's a rustic cabin, very tightly put together, but still, it's up on piers. If one ever comes my way, I'm fucked.

Not many people in the south have cellars or basements. And I've never heard of a tornado shelter anywhere around here.

Most people I know listen to the weather radio and the scanner, and hope they're not in the path.

[Wapsie B]

13. That would be so strange to me,

not having at least a basement to get to. Guess there's a tradeoff for living in an area without many snowstorms.

[Maddy McCall]

30. Yeah, I guess so.

When I was married, when I lived in tornado alley in Texas, we always made sure we kept an extra fifth of tequilla handy and some frozen margarita mixer, so that, in the case we were under a warning, we could have a Tornado Party. Our attitude was, if you're fucked, you're fucked. :D

Now, though, I have a kiddo to protect, so I stay sober and listen to the radios during warnings.

[Wapsie B]

35. Tornado party.

Cool. Let the good times roll.

[tammywammy]

12. And also, when a lot of homes around here

are built they add dirty to "level" the ground, so you can't build a basement.

I hate tornado season. I hate hail. I hate that I work in a pretty much glass building.

Last year, we had to stay after we closed to wait for the storm to pass. That's when I realized this is a building of glass.

But, thankfully, no really had tornado or hail damage in the last few years.

[MadHound]

14. Ouch, that's gotta suck

Big storm in a glass building:crazy: That's just asking for problems. At least I work in a building that is designed for withstanding major shit, a nuclear reactor.

My house has a sturdy basement so I'm set there also.

[tammywammy]

18. It's a car dealership.

So there's pretty much only glass on the front of the building. But, the bathroom is pretty sturdy.

Yeah, last year during June it rained 20 of the 30 days. Across the highway, the wind was so strong, it knocked down some powerlines. It looked like fireworks going off, thankfully, it was across the highway.

[MadHound]

22. That's good, bathrooms usually are the best place to go

If you don't have a basement.

I lived in Springfield Mo for awhile, had a tornado tear the roof off my the house I was living in, but the biggest danger was afterwards, all the powerlines were down. Spiting and sputtering it for about an hour. Had a buddy of mine get caught in his car with a powerline draped over it. Had to stay put for over two hours until fire rescue got around to getting him out.

[Wapsie B]

16. Glass?

Oh boy.

[tammywammy]

19. I remember when I was 10 or so

a storm came through it baseball sized hail and broke all our windows on the north side of our house. My room was on the East side, with my bed right next to the windows. I remember my parents waking me up, and that's when I watched all the other windows break.

That's probably why I'm so scared of hail. That's and here, you never know when a bad storm like that's going to pop up.

[Wapsie B]

23. We had a bad hailstorm several years ago here.

You wouldn't believe the number of construction crews that follow these storms. It's a whole industry unto itself. Almost overnight we were inundated with roofers and insurance adjusters setting up shop all around town.

[MadHound]

24. Yep, entire gangs of them start roaming the midwest about now

Sad to say, a number of them are con artists to boot. Always always go with a local contractor after a disaster like that.

[tammywammy]

25. 2 new roofs in 10 years.

They make some good business after a good hail storm.

[Wapsie B]

26. OMG!

Yes they do make a good business. A town north of here, St. Peter, Mn. had a real bad twister a couple years ago. I'd hate to think of what it cost in property damage.

[tammywammy]

27. We had a tornado touch down in 2 spots about 4 or 5 years ago

It flattened a few building in Arlington, and hit a building in downtown Fort Worth. The building in Ft Worth was totally destroyed and had a ton of damage and for years there was plywood up on their windows (such an eyesore for downtown).

Last year during one storm the wind just ripped the roof off a building and threw in on a gas station.

It can be bad for sure, but thankfully DFW is on the lower end of tornado alley and not like Oklahoma.

[Wapsie B]

34. May 15th, 1968.

A day that will live in infamy. I grew up on a farm near Oelwein, Iowa. And that day an F5 hit the town something fierce. The Jr. High School looked like it was hit with a bomb, a gaping hole on the side. Churches were destroyed, so many other buildings were demolished. That same storm cell hit a number of other towns that day with similar force. Charles City and Maynard were in its path. The sky in the SE was nearly as black as the Ace of Spades. I'll not forget that day.

[CBGLuthier]

15. Basements are a rarity in Okalhoma City

High water table is the reason I heard but I have only been in a few houses with basements and that includes some very old homes.

If possible, you seek shelter at a large facility. I live across the street from a large mall and that is where we would probably go if one came close.

Otherwise, you find an interior room like a bathroom. Some suggest pulling a mattress over yourself in the bathtub. That will help with most of the smaller tornados. But the rare F5 with 300 mph winds will get you anyway. All though I think a few peope may have survived ours that way.

[MadHound]

17. Yep, if you don't have a basement,

Get in an interior room, without glass preferably, and under something sturdy. I rode out one storm underneath a pool table, with couch cushions over me, I survived.

Well, looks like the storm is chewing up the countryside just south of town, and moving east. Hopefully it misses my house.

[tammywammy]

20. Bathtub with mattress over you

or we have a closet in the middle of the house that we can hide in.

[Maddy McCall]

31. Yeah, we get in the small central closet...

and pray. :D

[Wapsie B]

21. I don't know of much that will survive an F5.

"The hand of God" as some call it. Tornado season and the red dirt in Oklahoma would really be an adjustment for me.

edit: Iowa's got tornado season too, but not like tornado alley.

[Maddy McCall]

32. Yeah, I lived in tornado alley in N. Texas.

But since I've been back in Mississippi, we've been under as many, if not more, tornado warnings.

In 1975, an F5 came through my hometown and destroyed several schools, churches, malls, and lots of homes.

Elvis did a benefit concert for my hometown. He did all of the PR himself, paid for all expenses for the concert, and then gave the couple hundred thousand he made to the town.

Hate to get off topic, but Elvis was ONE COOL CAT. :D

Thanks to ForrestGump, I have a photo of the costume he wore at the concert (and my mom has an autographed picture that I shall inherit one day :D )

This is a photo of him performing at the benefit for my hometown:

[Wapsie B]

33. Nice Pic!

Yeah, I'd think you'd get your share of twisters down there. But I'd still like to live along the Gulf somewhere.

[Red State Rebel]

28. Nothing like Springtime in Missouri to get ya going!

Bad hail and thunderstorm woke me up at 3am and now we have a nasty yellow and red blob on the weather map moving our way. Hot dog!:popcorn:

[uppityperson]

29. Safest place in ND is next to my father.

He's lived there 75 yrs and never seen a tornado. He missed the one that come past 7 houses away in the 50's, he missed all the others too. Go stand by him and you'll be safe. Otherwise, bathtubs are good because it's all the debris blowing around at a bazillion mph that gets you hurt.