WHEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo

[kungfuwaynewho]

My sister and I were driving to work when the tornado sirens went off.  Like all good Kansans, instead of saying, "We must be under a tornado warning!  We should seek shelter!" we said, "Whee the sirens this'll be a really good storm!"  Then we went to Big Lots as planned.  She started work at noon, I didn't start till 12:30, so I sat upstairs in the break room and ate my lunch.  Unbeknownst to me, everyone else was huddled against the back wall, staff and patrons alike.  My sister was finally like, should we get Shannon?  She's just, like, eating cereal upstairs next to a whole bunch of windows?  But by then we got the all-clear.

This also reminds me of the time the sirens went off a few years ago and my family all turned to look at each other and said, no, we will finish watching Rio Bravo and then if they're still going off, then we'll go down to the basement.

(Lest you think I'm too flippant, because of our local geography most storm systems tend to split to the west of us and head either north or south.  We do always make sure we unplug our computers, though, because we've been hit by lightning three times, and replacing all our electronics is a pain.)

Now, of course, we have bright sunny blue skies outside.  Oh, midwest, you're the best.

Comments

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

My first rule of "should we go to the basement": Look outside. People up here have become pretty indifferent about "tornado warnings" because they blow the frickin' sirens for EVERY. STUPID. LITTLE. THING. There is no requirement for anyone to actually have SEEN a tornado, just that "doppler radar indicates a storm capable of producing tornadoes." It's such a joke.

Which means someday we're going to get a big one and it will be deadly because honestly NO ONE FEARS THE FRICKIN' SIRENS ANYMORE.

I miss the days when I was a kid and there was a more clear line between a "watch" (conditions are right) and a "warning" (someone's actually seen a tornado on the ground.)

/rant

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what we usually do, too. We did actually have some tornadoes touch down to the east and south of us, though.

When we had an F-4 go through my area in 2004, I was away at school. My family apparently was all standing outside watching the storm come in, as one does, when a neighbor pointed up to the sky and exclaimed, "Is that a tornado?!" I think everyone who lives in an area prone to whatever type of severe weather ends up getting jaded about it.

My rant is about our local news, which treats every single individual storm cell as a possible source of doom. They really don't help anything - the sirens actually tend to be a good indicator of when it's at least a good idea to know where shelter is.

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

My rant is about our local news, which treats every single individual storm cell as a possible source of doom.

I love when the weather people get a new toy. Remember a couple of years ago when the whole red-and-green thing was new? Oh, how cute were they with that! Like a bunch of little kids!

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the red-and-green thing is! Or maybe I do and I've repressed it to save my sanity.

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

It's this thing where they turn the cold air mass green and the warm air mass red and the closer those are together the more likely there is to be a tornado. Or something.