lady_karelia | (no subject)

Tornado Initiation or Mother Earth ~~hat ein Huehnchen zu rupfen~~ is angry

I tend to ignore weather alerts for the simple reason that there are so many, and they usually result in nothing, so all they get from me these days are eye rolls. If the rain is heavy while I'm traveling to and from the kids' dojo, I take the back roads and go slow rather than taking the interstate, and that's all there is to it in general. I don't *have to* do grocery shopping on days of heavy rains, it can wait for a day or two, no problem. I got annoyed with the weather service, thinking it's all cry wolf, and when there is a real reason to warn people, nobody will heed the warnings. Yup. Evidently, I'm not the only one, considering the amount of traffic this afternoon and evening.

I rolled my eyes when I saw the weather alert on yahoo on Sunday. I mean, come on, do they now have to put people in a potential state of panic two days before the alleged thunderstorms hit? Evidently so.

Today, around midday, the sky clouded over. It went from bright, sunny-ish sky to needartificallighttoseeproperlyinside within a couple of minutes. It was unseasonably and unreasonably warm, about 74 degrees, apparently a record for this February day. At just past 9pm, it still is 70, with the next storm approaching. I see the lightning out west, hear the thunder, but so far, it's heading north rather than east from what I can make out.

Anyway, we left a bit early for self-defence classes, as we saw very dark clouds and lightning to the north, so I figured I should allow extra time. And if we get there early, we'd pop into Starbucks. ;-)

We did get there early and enjoyed coffee, despite sirens howling from every public building, then drove over to the dojo, only to find classes were cancelled because of the weather alert. We were so not amused! I mean, this is the second Tuesday in a row. Last week, the strong winds knocked the power out of half of Memphis, but at least the place was open and LM got some valuable play time while everyone waited for power to come back, which never happened. Tuesday has now officially become worst day of the week.

We drove off, and I thought, nah, I'm not gonna take the interstate now, the clouds are getting nastier looking by the second. Something also told me not to use the usual back roads, so I took a route I know, but rarely take because it's the slowest. And aren't I a lucky bird for following my gut feeling...

Very suddenly, the skies opened. It wasn't raining cats and dogs, honestly. Raining cats and dogs is a drizzle compared to that rain. I managed a speed of about 20mph because there suddenly was about a foot of water on the road. Then the skies opened some more, to the extent that I could not see the actual road. I did manage to pull to the side, and not by sight for sure, continued driving at snail's pace until I saw the bright light of some motel and turned into the parking lot.

There I had the sense to switch on the radio. A tornado had just touched down about 500 yards from where we live, another one was wreaking havoc in Southaven right then. Uhuh. If we had taken the usual back roads, we would have met that tornado in person as it was heading north at 55mph. Several cars on the i55 had been turned over by the winds. Uhuh. If we had taken the interstate, that's where we would have been. We stayed in the parking lot for about fifteen minutes, then the rain let off, and we continued on our way home, which we reached without further incidents.

Right now, 9.45 pm, another tornado is about to hit West Memphis, moving towards downtown. The tornado watch is in effect until midnight, but now I have hope that we'll be spared from that second onslaught. That said, the lightning has come closer and the thunder's getting louder.

The thunderstorm went around us. The thunder was loud, the lightning lit up inside bright enough to be mistaken for daylight, but other than that, no tornadoes, and no more than a mere thunderstorm. I credit the orgonite *grin*.

This has been an amazing experience, both exhilarating and scary. I'm not looking forward seeing the damage tomorrow—by the sounds of it, there has been plenty—but I feel incredibly alive. Shaky too, yes. But alive.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: home