Spring Storms and the Fujita Scale

Before I get into todays post , I have to say thank you to Renee for awarding me this cute award!

I have to pass this on to 10 other bloggy friends, which I will think hard on and do tomorrow.

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Okies, for todays post.  ANYONE that has read my blog for a while knows that I am scared to death of thunderstorms.  Specifically  ones that produce supercells, which can and do lead to tornadoes.  

I am fine with light rain, and can sleep peacefully.  Even a mild thunderstorm that has no possibility of producing tornadoes.

The reason I am bringing this up today is it is raining.  It is also starting tornado season here in the midst of tornado alley.  For those of you not familiar with the term, Tornado Alley refers to a particular area of the states that is more likely than most to get tornadoes.  This is the area highlighted in yellow.

Knowing this scares the crap out of me.  Now I am NOT neurotic enough to think I'm going to get struck during a nomal storm.  What we look for when we have bad storms,are wall clouds OR see the sky turning green. The air is also very sticky and there is NO wind.  If you have ever seen the movie Twister when the character Bill is looking at the sky and says " going green' hes not kidding.  The sky takes on this eerie gray greenish color before going almost black when a tornado is a comin'.

I currently live in an area that has been hit by tornadoes.  Its been a while , but memories still abound.  Two F3 tornadoes touched down during one particularly bad storm in 1992. ( you can Google Lancaster Texas Tornadoes - 1992).   There was only one death in our actual small part of town - an old man that walked outside afterwards , saw the damage to the town he had lived in all his life and had a heartattack.

Not too long after we moved here there were some bad storms around and I had to go to the store.  Chris told me to hurry.  While I was at the store he called and said to hurry home, tornadoes were popping and it was moving our way.  I paid for the few groceries, and as I got to my car in the parking lot the sirens went off.  I freaked.

I threw the groceries in the car and ran my butt back into the store.  That poor manager on duty was trying to keep everyone calm and I was the loon following him around like a scared puppy.  

Nothing actually came down in our area, so I took off for home as quick as I could and called Chris to tell him to have the door open, I was on my way home.  We were still under a tornado warning, but the sirens had died down.  As I was turning onto our street the sirens went off again.  OH. MY . GOD.  I was scared to death.  He met me outside , got the bags out of the car and they went into the bath tub with us until they sounded the all clear.

There have been bathroom shuffles in the middle of the night.  The middle bathroom in our house that has no walls on the outside of the house is not that big.  But we sit in the tub or on the closed toilet lid .. my bird in her cage is on the floor and the dogs are in there with us and our radio.

I just pray that nothing bad happens this tornado season, in our town or anyone elses.

I am unable to post the actual Fujita Scale - none of them would copy correctly.  Please click HERE to see exactly what it is, if you are unfamiliar with it.

Have a great day!