This past week has been a form of Hell for friends in the Mid-West United States, with over 200 tornadoes and continous violent thunderstorms, with flooding downpours.
I just hope that all members here that in that area are safe and dry.
MarkB
I don’t want to embarrass her, but I am a little concerned about NancyF. She hasn’t posted or visited the chat room for about a week. And someone said she lives in an area hit by tornadoes. Just wondering…
Susan
I feel so terrible for those who were involved in the tornados.
We were listening to the Weather Channel last night when one of the meteorologists came on and said that a tornado was on the ground in Oklahoma, headed toward Tulsa. He made mention that it was especially massive and destructive. Then paused and sighed heavily. I’m pretty sure it was in the same area the other tornados struck. It was eerie and humbling to think that whilst I was on the internet and watching TV, and that in my life, everything is relatively calm and peaceful, a tornado was on the ground at that very minute completely tearing apart people’s lives which had already been destroyed by previous tornados just a few days before. It is so scary and I feel horrible for everyone who was involved.
My husband and I were avidly watching the storm last night. We live SW of Tulsa, OK. Thursday night the storm fizzled out just before reaching us. Last night, we stayed up till 1:30 AM watching the tornadic storm aiming right at our area. It ended up moving a few miles south of us. The major damage seemed to be focused in the Oklahoma city and Stroud areas again. Our prayers are with those who have been effected.
Tornados have been hitting all around us, but we;ve gotten away with just a couple of serious thunderstorms. Lots of lightning an thunder and some hail - six miles north of here it was baseball sized but here more like big marbles. Pretty much continuous watches and warnings for the last two days but oddly only about three inches of mostly welcome rain. Southern Illinois got hit harder but nowhere near as bad as farther south and west.
It may well be that anyone not online is the victim of a power outage.
My thoughts are with all those affected by these storms.
I live in Sacramento, California and Thursday night my wife called from work to say that she wouldn’t be coming home on time because of tornado warnings. Yes, believe it or not, we had sightings of several funnel clouds forming in the valley with a couple of them touching down in unpopulated areas for a brief peroid of time. We had sleet, thunderstorms and micro-bursts. In some parts of the state, the snowpack is over 200% of normal.
Very odd and severe weather over much of the country this year. I can’t remember a winter/spring this odd in a long time.
Wishing everyone well,
Eric
I think I’ve heard we’ve had about 40 tornadoes within 60 miles of Kansas City here in the past week alone (about 6 actually hit suburbs of KC). We had a couple of F4 level (houses blown to shreds, horses & trucks thrown up into trees, etc…), but most of have been smaller. I think there are about 500 houses totally destroyed between KC and Lawrence.
I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never seen this many tornados in such a short time.
I shall be glad when this stormy season is over. And pray that those harmed by them, and those suffering from losses, can rebuild their lives. I also hope and pray that the weather settles. I’m thankful that so many have been spared the miseries. By divine grace we have been fortunate.
Oklahoma City seems to be the lightning rod for tornados with two in two days. The May 8th tornado that hit Moore (a OKC suburb) missed our home by about eight miles. Last night’s (May 9th), however, went right by our house a block away and, fortunately, had drawn up into the sky as it went by (It must have hit a giant prayer bubble). The damage would have been a thousand times worse had it stayed on the ground. We could have been victims of debris fallout or higher winds had it done so. Everything shook, the windows rattled and the wind blew hard enough to break telephone poles in half. The family, the animals, and all of my whistles are safe. Safe also is my favorite coffee shop Panera Bread which would have also been directly in the path of the tornado had it stayed on the ground. God is good. As the song says, “Sometimes He calms the storm. At other times He calms his child.”
Cinead, I just cannot imagine. Glad you’re OK.
Adding my prayers to every one else’s. Be safe, folks!
Tornados scare the pants off me. Earthquakes I can handle, volcanos and hurricanes (except for when they spawn tornados), no problem, but I’m nearly scared sick of tornados (even have nightmares about them). Remember the bad tornado spring about four years ago? That was the year we moved back out here from NC, and we actually chose the slightly longer southern route rather than relatively-straight-shot I-40 because of my twister-phobia.
Redwolf
Funny. Those of us in ‘tornado alley’ learn relatively early in life to respect but not fear them. OTOH, earthquakes terrify me. I have no idea how you left coasters can just calmly sit there waiting for the end of the world like that.
What about Serpent? He lives in parts of Missouri that got hammered.
Serpent lives about 40 minutes north of me. I don’t think any tornados hit up in his town. Luckily, those of us not personally hit by the tornados have had tons of hail dropped on our heads, too.
BTW - It’s very, very windy here tonight. Another front moving in, but no tornado predictions tonight, yet…
I’m with Chuck that tornados are not nearly as bad as quakes. I guess it’s what you get used to. Last Sunday when the two tornados tore through KC, I took my son out when the sirens went off so he could learn about clouds, wind circulation, and funnel formation. I was worried he’d be scared, but he was quite the brave little 4 year old.
When I was at KU, we use to joke that you could tell the locals because when the tornado sirens went off instead of heading for the basement they all went outside to look at the clouds to see if the sirens were warranted.
Yeah, I always felt it was thoughtful of the city to install tornado sirens so we could all run outside to watch when they went off.
The bad weather’s not over yet - just had the Weather Channel on and most of Illinois and parts of Iowa and Missouri are in the “greatest danger” area of severe storms with all the stuff they bring. Heading up into Wisconsin too, some tornado warnings, but it looks like it should stay west of me.
Tornados scare me, but I’m scared of thunderstorms too (not as much as I used to be), and I suppose I’d be scared of earthquakes and hurricanes if I lived in those areas. I just don’t like bad weather. I also have tornado dreams. Never the same dream, but I do have dreams that prominently feature tornados. Although they never do damage or hurt anyone, the dreams are still scary. Don’t know what that’s all about…
Beth
I am praying for the safety of all the people in the path of these storms. We have been having alot of thunderstorms lately with lots of lightening and even hail. Thankfully no tornados here of late but we have had a few around here in the past and it sure is a scary to me 
Kathy 
I can’t recall, it was either last year or 2001, but a while back a very rare tornado hit downtown Denver. At the time there was a big convention in town and they were using a large pavilion type tent.
When the storm struck, the folks from the flyover states all headed for big, sturdy buildings. The Californians all ran for the middle of the street or an open field. No one was hurt, so potential tragedy became comedy, but it clearly illustrated the difference in how we perceive storms.
A couple of years ago, there was a local tornado warning, so the Springfield sirens were sounded and we all headed for our assigned ‘safe’ areas in the building, a massive State Armory structure. However it was hot and stuffy, and the safe area badly ventilated, so I snuck back downstairs and slipped out a door (the tonado would have come from the other side of the building, leaving plenty of time to run for cover.) Other people started to do the same thing, soon there were about 40 of us down there. I began to worry about repercussions (paramilitary organization) until I looked around and realized that my entire chain of command was in the breakout group.
I’m glad you’re all alright. I saw the devastating power of tornados when I lived in Ohio. I stood outside in awe and watched as two funnel clouds formed at once one afternoon during my first summer there. After I saw the scar it left across a farmer’s field about 5 miles north of my house, I didn’t stand outside for any more of them.
We sure are well represented by Oklahomans (is that the right word for you?) on this board! Have any of you heard from Kim in Tulsa (actually Bixby)?
And Cinead, I’m glad the Panera bakery was spared. It’s the only place I’ve found outside of NYC that has a decent bagel!
Tulsa escaped the wrath of the tornadoes, unlike OKC. The one heading our way on Thursday night fell apart just before getting here, and the second wave of storms that hit OKC on Friday night turned south of Tulsa. Bixby is a little south of Tulsa, but I haven’t heard of any damage or injuries around here, so hopefully everyone is OK.
Gail