Freak January Tornado Outbreak: Algore Smiles
We're fine. Nothing amiss, aside from some pulled up tin on the barn roof.
Christ, was that a mess last nite!
Tornadoes in January are unusual here, but not unheard of. But this one was a doozy!
The front stalled right over Springfield and the storms just kept "training" along the same track from Oklahoma and kitty corner across the lower part of Missouri. We had been enjoying a warm spell and the air was very hot and juicey for storms. I had told the kids Sunday that when this finally broke it would be bad. It was.
We were lucky, by the time the front finally nudged down our way the fight had been pretty much sucked out of the storms. But lordy! To the north of us they were dealing with tornadoes occurring in almost the same areas every 20 minutes...all evening long!! Man, that'll drive you to drink, or at worst a nervous breakdown. There's at least 2 fatalities, so far.
I stayed up all nite. Yes, I never went to bed. Just drinking coffee and watching the tv. Quite frankly, this was scaring the hell out of me and I wanted to be ready if I had to grab the younguns and head for the hidey hole. That finally happened around a quarter to 4, and by then it was only a squall line-with 80 mph winds. Uh, yeah...maybe we better hunker down for that, just in case. That was strong enough to tear off the shingles or launch something through a window. So, let's err on the side of caution. We cowered for about 10 minutes in there, the house shuddered from the winds, windows rattled and then it was over. Upon emerging, my eldest said, sleepily, "Well, that was a whole lot of nuthin'!" and promptly went back to sleep in her own bed.
I have to hand it to the weather guys at KY3. They did the yeoman's work last nite and earned their keep. From about 4:30 p.m. yesterday 'til 5 a.m. they were on air keeping us poor dumb bastards informed. No local news, no network programming, just these guys and the radar images non-stop. They literally talked themselves hoarse and the exhaustion was showing by dawn. I know everyone makes jokes about tv weather guys, but when crap like this happens, I really admire our local guys.
Ok. Now I'm off for a power nap.
Christ, was that a mess last nite!
Tornadoes in January are unusual here, but not unheard of. But this one was a doozy!
The front stalled right over Springfield and the storms just kept "training" along the same track from Oklahoma and kitty corner across the lower part of Missouri. We had been enjoying a warm spell and the air was very hot and juicey for storms. I had told the kids Sunday that when this finally broke it would be bad. It was.
We were lucky, by the time the front finally nudged down our way the fight had been pretty much sucked out of the storms. But lordy! To the north of us they were dealing with tornadoes occurring in almost the same areas every 20 minutes...all evening long!! Man, that'll drive you to drink, or at worst a nervous breakdown. There's at least 2 fatalities, so far.
I stayed up all nite. Yes, I never went to bed. Just drinking coffee and watching the tv. Quite frankly, this was scaring the hell out of me and I wanted to be ready if I had to grab the younguns and head for the hidey hole. That finally happened around a quarter to 4, and by then it was only a squall line-with 80 mph winds. Uh, yeah...maybe we better hunker down for that, just in case. That was strong enough to tear off the shingles or launch something through a window. So, let's err on the side of caution. We cowered for about 10 minutes in there, the house shuddered from the winds, windows rattled and then it was over. Upon emerging, my eldest said, sleepily, "Well, that was a whole lot of nuthin'!" and promptly went back to sleep in her own bed.
I have to hand it to the weather guys at KY3. They did the yeoman's work last nite and earned their keep. From about 4:30 p.m. yesterday 'til 5 a.m. they were on air keeping us poor dumb bastards informed. No local news, no network programming, just these guys and the radar images non-stop. They literally talked themselves hoarse and the exhaustion was showing by dawn. I know everyone makes jokes about tv weather guys, but when crap like this happens, I really admire our local guys.
Ok. Now I'm off for a power nap.
posted by white trash republican at Tuesday, January 08, 2008
3 Comments:
Good old Al might be a smilin regardin the twister, but what about the major snow storm in Iraq, and a few other places. Did ya read my post today about the Rooster....might remind ya of somebody...
Whew! You definitely need your power nap.
Boy Howdy. I ain't no spring chicken any more, so it's good I only have to pull these all-niters infrequently when the weather gets weird. Even with a good nites sleep, I'm still a bit loopy this morning.
Sucks to get old.
So far they have tallied about 6 tornadoes that touched down in the area. One was an F3. The weather feds are still surveying the region, so we may add to that count today.
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