It's that time again...

It's that time again...

Tornado season. I only bring this up cuz they started testing the sirens weekly again. Its some what of a bittersweet irony to look outside and no clouds in sight but hear the eerie sound of the sirens blaring all around you for 10 minutes. Anyways, I got in the mood and found a cool video...makes me want to hop in my car and find another one of these b*tches. I've lived through one tornado that hit us directly (weak one but it caused a whole lot of damage everywhere), saw one in the distance, and had whats called a gustnado pass directly over our current house (which are just as scare cuz you cant tell the difference between a gustnado and a tornado when its directly above you)

move

somewhere

else

...

We get em baaaddd here too. We recently had tornadoes in Dumas, Arkansas, and last year has some bad ones in Dyersburg, TN and Jackson, TN. We had a horrible one in December 1987 that hit West Memphis, AR and killed a HS classmate's mom and 5 others. She worked at the Waffle House then and it wiped it off the foundation killing all 6 who were in it. The tile floor is still there to this day though.
On July 22,2003, we had something called a Derecho that wiped out the entire city's power, about a million folks worth, (mine was out for a week though some took 4 weeks or more to come back) and left buildings and infrastructure destroyed all over the county. It was nuts. Like a hundred little tornadoes hit us all at once over a huge area.

I sometimes think about moving, but when you think about it, where can you go that doesn't have natural disasters? You've got hurricanes, blizzards, mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires, droughts...everywhere has their own little piece of hell to deal with.

the only thing here is heat... none of that other mess

Well I should correct myself. It was actually my aunt's house that was directly hit by a tornado and me and my cousins were all staying there cuz it was after school. The red cross even came out for a few days and gave us some MRE type food.

There's a city about 10 or so miles south of us called Beggs. They rebuilt parts of their school to be tornado proof. Its quite a unique sight to see cuz its several massive domes with thick walls. And we also had something similar to your tornado outbreak. Back in 1999, in May I think, we had like 66 tornados in like a 3-4 day time span. They always air a special on it at the beginning of tornado season. That was also the time period where the strongest tornado ever to have touched down, touched down. It was a true F5. That outbreak wiped out so much sh*t tho. Moore, which is really close to OKC, got the worst of it. Then the one place I wont ever forget is the outlet mall at Stroud. We use to drive from Tulsa to Stroud just to shop there cuz they had some pretty cool and unique shops. Now, if you drive down I-44 between Tulsa and OKC near the Stroud exit, all you see is a vacant parking lot with a church in the backdrop...

But yea, like you said, no matter where you move, there's always the threat of some type of danger...earthquakes in LA, hurricanes along the coastal areas including NYC, terrorism at the major cities, tsunamis, blizzards throughout the northeast, etc.

I always wondered. What does a big tornado sound like up close, does it sound like a freight train?

I couldnt tell ya cuz the one I was in wasnt all that powerful. Probably an F1...but the most comparable noise close to what I experienced would sound like the low pitched rumbling noise (not the initial loud pop) from a bomb going off all around you along with loads of wind. I wouldnt even dare imagine what an F5 is like....

I remember that in 99. We had a similar outbreak in April 1998 and in January of 99. There were warnings all night long and it seemed like any minute you were going to get blown away because the wind was fierce even outside of the cells with funnel clouds.
I remember hearing about Moore and that tornado in Texas that literally scrubbed the slab foundations from the homes off the ground. There wasn't even concrete left, it took it all.
Bad part about this area is that our tornadoes hit at night. We also have a large rural population that doesn't have sirens and also tend to live in mobile homes so we have a higher than average number of storm casualties. Bemis, which is just south of Jackson, TN took a direct hit by an F4 in 99 that killed 6. In 2003, the same exact area took two F4's in one night and F1-F3 damage for 18 miles in a continuous path approximately 200 yards wide destroying downtown Jackson. 11 people died that night.

lol, did I mention we have an active fault line here too? One that produced the largest earthquake in the contenintal US's recorded history? Dude, I soooo need to move.

I bet that is really some scary stuff to go through. I hope you guys have some sort safe room built into your home in Oklahoma.

no tornados for me =]

wtf, I didnt kno bout a fault line in that area....simply put, if you live there, you'd be all kinds of f***ed, lol, sorry man. Since we live close to the big city, we still have sirens at every other city block but of course the further out in the boonies you get, the harder it is to come by a siren. We just got all new ones a year or two ago and they're louder and just as annoying. But I guess it kinda makes sense that you guys have tornados at night. We usually get them in the early afternoon...then I guess we pass it on to you guys, lol, i dunno.

yea, im not gonna lie, it is a bit freaky to see one initially or if you've never seen on, but after that, its like an adrenaline rush that you feel like you have to get a closer look at it or something. Its the weirdest thing too cuz like within a five mile radius of a tornado are all kinds of traffic cuz everyone is just as curious and wants a closer look for themselves. The one I saw in the distance, I was probably like 10+ miles away from it and with my dad who didnt want to go closer, but in the distance, there was a long line of cars going in the direction of it. If you get real close to one, like a mile close, then im sure you'd just get pelleted by debris. Even then, you'd still have to deal with the hail falling all around it too.

In Texas and Oklahoma, they have places that sell all steel framed houses which is a far cry from conventional 2x4 frame houses but are super expensive. Tornado proof safe rooms are super expensive too but I heard they increase the value of your house. Like us, we don't even have a cellar....most of the people that live around here (near or in the city) don't have one either.

It's the New Madrid Fault. One earthquake made Reelfoot lake by causing a sinkhole which made the Mississippi river flow backwards into it.

We don't have many stormproof rooms, or tornado shelters...or even basements here. Most homes are either on a slab or conventional foundation. I have a siren less than a qtr. mile from the house(which is tested year round on Wed. at 3:30pm) so if the storm's headed my way I just grab the cat and hop in the tub or coat closet.

Just to update on this thread. Everyone probably knows by now that I live in Oklahoma. Well we've had the most exciting tornado season in just a few months that I can recall. It seems like there are constantly watches and warnings all around us. Well western Oklahoma has been pretty bad lately...same with southwest Kansas. One of my cousin's friends is a meteorologist for a local news station and he sends out people to go storm chasing. He's called my cousin almost every other day, it seems like, saying that he guarantees tornados almost all the time if he ever wanted to come and chase with the crew.

A few of my buddies had a couple days to boot so they set off to western Oklahoma and southwest Kansas hoping to capture a tornado on film a couple days ago. They brang their laptops, camera's, road maps, and a weather radio. They heard that there was a powerful storm system churning up near the panhandle so thats when they left. They saw some exciting storms but no tornados. Then they made their way up to Greensburg, Kansas. This is where they saw their first ever (potentially an) F5 tornado (the strongest possible). They said that the base of it was huge and the largest they've seen by far. If you look on the news, they're saying that 95% of the town was wiped out. He will be posting pictures of it when he gets back and i'll keep you guys updated. This should be exciting. I haven't gotten word yet if he videotaped or not but he's gonna try and sell his stuff to news stations cuz they shell out mad cash for grade A material.

we had a few near us Saturday. I was in Linden, TN for Rally Tennessee. They had a couple confirmed tornadoes about a county over. Luckily we just got the rain from it. A Tornado would have sucked as we were just out in the woods with no real place to safely shelter ourselves from one.

Thank God I don't have to deal with tornadoes in California. But the trade off is we get some pretty nasty earthquakes. But so far nothing.

don't forget that when we get a drop of rain the roads turn into a disaster since most drivers can't handle it.

hahahaha so true

i used to work at fletcher jones collision center and when it would rain our lot would fill up real fast... usually more cars than we had spots to park them.

up until now ive been blessed with the ability to handle treacherous southern nevada roads when it rains. knock on wood

This is what my friend got of the Greensburg tornado...

those are some nice tornado pics

Nice explosion on the first pic. I hope everyone stays safe