Please allow me to interject my feelings about Mother Nature

Being told there was a tornado and then seeing the moon in the sky kind of hurt as a kid.

But as an adult living in Torpedo Alley and covering a few aftermaths as a grown-up, I grew a healthy respect.

 

Severe weather, especially tornadoes, has always fascinated me. I loved meteorology as a kid, still do, and I have regrets that I didn't go into it professionally. Even living most of my life in Colorado I have seen three tornadoes in person. One from my front porch in Denver, interestingly enough.

I lived in Omaha for four years, not far from Elkhorn, and despite those interests, a day like Thursday was my biggest fear living in that area. There was one time some ridiculous hail hit the side of the house with some eerie spinning clouds, but no real tornadoes happened. I helped cover a really bad outbreak near Lincoln at the Omaha World-Herald in 2004 (couldn't totally remember all the details, but there was an EF4 involved).

Anyway, didn't love seeing at all what happened there a few days ago. Amazing no one died, and it shows the amazing force of nature that those were "just" EF3 and not stronger. All my Nebraska friends still there are safe.

 

My mom and dad's house has a basement. When it was built, they pulled out a rock about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. The guy with the bulldozer just dug a hole in what would become the middle of the front yard and buried it.

 

The awesome power of the atomic bomb.

 

Good friend of mine had a grandparent die in the Greensburg tornado back in 2007.
That was an absolute monster.
EF-5 with winds to 205 mph.
At one point, it got to over a mile and a half wide.
If memory serves, that was also at night.

 

I’ve always loved severe weather.
Years ago, I was a trained storm spotter.
I had the cb in my pickup (pre-cell phones) the weather radio…took the NWS classes…..the whole bit.
If you’ve never been on a tornado chase, that is an unbelievable adrenaline rush.
After I decided not to do the spotting anymore, when I was in radio, I would always be the first to the radio station when we did our severe weather coverage.
You can always tell when there’s severe weather around here, because most people are outside looking at it (for it) instead of getting into a basement.

 

I guess it's similar to my perverse fascination/hatred of hurricanes.

 

While we were living in Houston, a small tornado, EF2 maybe, went over our apartment at night. It was on the ground two or three blocks away, skipped into the air and went over us, then touched back down about six blocks on the other side. We heard it, and had the TV on the weather at the time.

Pucker power for sure.

 

Another tornado in Joplin, Mo. area.
I swear…..after the disaster in 2011, these people krap their pants when there is a cloud in the sky.

 

Northern Harris County/Houston and East Texas have caught 15-20 inches of rain in the last four days or so.

 

Houston is screwed every time it more than sprinkles. Bad urban planning there.

 

Abbott would't give a drowning man a glass of water.