When an OK tornado unwinds...

[vicrider 0]

then it doesn't spin around but blows in a straight line up to and over 100mph. Last Friday a line of supercells came through western OK and there were a couple of small spin downs but no damage from them but between us and the town 20 miles south winds tore through at hurricane force and took out several poles and our internet tower. Lost power for about 12 hours and would have been longer but neighboring towns send their power line crews to help out. We lost internet from the same time and just got that back this late morning. A weekend with only a phone that does not work for me at all is kind of a PITA when you're used to high speed internet. Speaking phones a lot of locals have phones with T-Mobile and they lost us of phones for that period of time but at least we did have the phones.

So this spring we've had one tornado in town that took one life and did a lot of structure damage but missed the main part of town. We've had multiple storms, lots of hail, lots of wind, enough lightning and thunder to traumatize the Chihauhau until the 4th fireworks, and lots of rain guage action. The good of this is that local farm ponds and our small reservoirs that were drying up are now at full pool and boat ramps are all usable again. Except for the lost life and some storm damage this has actually been good for the area in breaking the drought in the TX Panhandle and western OK, something badly needed for the farmers and ranchers and fishermen.

[vicrider 0]

And on a night with no precip predicted on forecast it's now 4:55AM and a huge thunderclap pulled me the computer to watch radar and here comes another supercell with the red/yellow and a bit of purple (hail) closing in on us. Right now the rain opened up and wind picked up and temp dropped so hopefully no sirens on this one. Don't know if I'd go to the shelter or just take our chances on this one. Looking at radar and backed up storms we should be good for another 2-3" of water in the well used rain guage. Just got a notice on cell phone that they changed from 0 precip to severe storms for next hour.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Hope all is well there Nick. I don't think I could live out there in the plains of Ok or Ks or somewhere like that, tornadoes are one thing that freak me out 😑

We got lots of rain here finally as well. Much needed, but would have been nice if it were spread out over a few days rather than 2" in one day. There were even places here that got almost 5" in one night. Crazy for this part of Michigan.

[Mark Knapp 0]

That's not OK. 🤢

[vicrider 0]

VERY PUNNY

[mikechell 0]

Good luck up there this summer.  Hurricanes are one thing.  Wide spread and catastrophic damage.  BUT!  We have notice ... time to prepare.  Tornadoes are a completely different threat.  Local damage that is complete and devastating with little time to duck.

As far as rain, our ground is still saturated from last year's Hurricane Ian.  We're getting 0.5 to 1 inch of rain (normal daily rain) and it's filling up the front yard and ditches.  Fortunately, at this time, the water's daring through the sand within a quick day or so.  If we get another slow moving tropical storm or hurricane, it'll be another summer of mushy yards and flooded streets.

[vicrider 0]

Every state has it's pluses and minuses Mike, but Florida is not for me. Living in a swamp with months of hot, humid, rainy weather is something I could not contend with well on a long term basis. Besides that you have to content with all the cue tip drivers on your roads, which are straighter and flatter than ours even. Nothing like a little white haired head sticking up just high enough to know it's not a self driving car many of my motorcyle friends say is a daily challenge, plus the Love Bug season makes riding a bike without a wimpshield impossible. I would love to fish you canals and inland waterways and the Keys but I have this thing about gators and crocs and lizards and snakes that keeps me from a bucket list trip out there. Lots of reasons to live in the Sunshine State but for me they are outweighed by the downers. I'd love Michigan in the  U.P. but I'm down with serious winters, which is why I'm not still in northern MN. Western OK was not so much a choice but a chance for wife to have a huge ready family to move to and housing costs ridiculously low, taxes on property less than almost anywhere in country, and winters livable and even mild on may days. 

For the most part "tornado alley" has moved east of it's origianl paths and here in western OK we watch almost all serious supercells that are tornadic move from TX up through central OK and into KS, AR, and north and west of us. They say global warming is shifting the tornado belt and the one did have here was the first in this town and though any loss of life and structure is tragic, ours was really very minimal to what the serious tornadoes have done to many towns like the one in TX that is nearly gone and 4 lives lost. Some day in the far, far future they may be able to control weather enough to stop tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards and whiteouts, oppressive heat and humidity and create a near perfect climate for farmers and population but until then we generally just try to make the best of our surroundings and tolerate and survive the worst. 

 

[niveker 0]

8 hours ago, vicrider said:

Some day in the far, far future they may be able to control weather enough

Good Lord, I never thought of that.  Can you imagine the complete cluster**** the gubmint would make of that.  

Glad you're okay out there.  

[dogfacedoc 0]

Each time the weather picks up and I see Cheyenne on the local coverage I hope you're doing alright, Nick. 

The deal with living in tornado areas is keeping an eye on the radar through TV news or radar app, having a go-bag ready and a shelter accessible. We go to the in-laws 1/4 mile away. 

A few years ago we were driving home from Chickasha and about drove into a tornado because the NBC, ABC, CBS affiliates were all about to orgasm over calling the first tornado of the year, throwing out all sorts of jargon rather than "the tornado is here, headed this direction". All of the sudden the rain stopped, and the grass laid sideways and debris started blowing across the highway in front of us. I slammed on the brakes and did a u turn, wife flipping through the radio stations for some better sense of what was going on. Found the local FOX station and the meteorologist was calm as a Hindu cow, clear and concise. That's who I pay attention to now. Sorry David Payne, I don't need a meteorology lecture when a threat is imminent.

[vicrider 0]

I'm a David Payne fan dogfacedoc. He does get pretty excited about things but is really on top of stuff and his station has the most thorough radar of any station in OK. A friend of his calls him CrackPayne because he acts like he's on crack at times. I do think it's funny to see him almost orgasm when he gets to call a "Channel 9 Tornado Warning" for an area but at the same time he has saved lives by having an area blow the sirens even before the National Weather Service calls it. I've lived here 13 years now and only used our shelter twice. Cheyenne did have it's first tornado this spring since I've been here and lost a local life. This is always sad but for the most part storms stay east of us and you guys in the big city (OK City) are a lot more likely to get hit. Poor Moore seems to be in the bullseye for so much of the activity and if it's not tornado it's hail and high winds doing damage.

All we can do in OK is keep alert, have shelter available, and know a tornado is always a possibility. Very few places in the country the weather doesn't try to kill us in one way or another and all we can do is rebound, rebuild, and keep plugging away at living our lives.