Playing Twister During a Twister

I know what you’re thinking.  “Why is she writing about the weather.  Can there be a more mundane subject?”  True, true.  But, I’m a couple days behind my posting schedule and only a couple more subjects spinning around in my head.  So, I’ll make this a quick one. 

Hurricanes, tornadoes, it doesn’t matter where one lives, bad weather or seismic events exist everywhere on the planet.   With tornadoes, you get the usual watches, warnings, but the whereabouts of the funnel is a bit more restricted although there can be more than one funnel.  Unlike hurricane season, which is officially June 1-November 30^th, tornado “season” is commonly a spring event, although not always. 

Over the years behind the corncob curtain I’ve seen a few tornadoes form right outside my front door.  I’ve also slept through one while it wrecked havoc less than a mile from our house.  But on November 14^th, after some days of mild temperatures, the corncob curtain was forecast to experience strong thunderstorms.   However, as the afternoon wore on, the winds picked up and the temperatures dropped and the tornado watches and warnings began and the sirens sounded.  For anyone who hasn’t experienced this, the warnings given tend to be localized: towns, major road ways, warning everyone to take cover.  Given the weather that afternoon, John and I didn’t need a siren to tell us when to “hunker down”.  Without much time, we grabbed the cat, our wallets and a weather radio and scrambled into our 6x8 bathroom, the only room in the house with interior walls.  Now, if we had heard train-like sounds, we would have grabbed the comforter from the bed (and possibly some pie) and climbed into the bathtub, crouching down, covering ourselves.  Again, another absurd game of Twister, but with a lot more drama!  Don’t you all wish you were here?? 

Anyway, the front passed quickly and we emerged from the bathroom after 10 minutes, which seems like an eternity for two people with a squirmy cat!  Fortunately, everyone maintained “company butt” (Thanks Dee), so it wasn’t too awful. 

turd-nado watch area

However, the weather map for that afternoon suggested that perhaps the tri-state area was in for a whole lot worse than tornadoes?   Whaaaa?????  Luckily, we were spared that!  But seriously, what weather service uses brown to highlight weather fronts? 

Here’s a brief, time-lapse video shot near east-central Indiana about 30 seconds. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxbVIyDgkcg&feature=related