The tornadoes missed me

[not Michael]

There were 1 or 2 tornadoes in Omaha today. And I do mean IN, well inside the city limits, near Boys Town. I live outside the city limits, off the south west corner, about 15-20 miles from today's tornado. This area (Omaha) has had thunderstorms every day since Sunday.

This is getting old.


BTW - I'm still reading here often, even when I don't post. And I'm on Notes a couple times most days.

[RustyMcNuggets]

We had a few touch down in southern Illinois. One touched down 15 miles away and headed straight for our town. By the time the storm arrived it went back up into the clouds, but we clearly saw a couple funnel clouds in the system as it passed over. The storm dumped 4.5" of rain in 15 minutes. It didn't make our basement very happy. Gutters overflowed thanks to the maple tree's propellers stuffing our downspouts. The rain poured over, landing on the patio and filled the window well. And that's how I am now aware there are two areas in the basement window caulk that are no longer sealed. Yay us! Could've been much worse.

[Tamianth]

Glad to see they missed you all though :)

[AliceofCheshire]

[not Michael]

AliceofCheshire - that trick probably still works with old, analog TV sets. Here in Tornado Alley we just watch TV, a local station, in real time. When a storm gets bad the big 3 stations switch to all weather until the danger is past.

Last night my weather radio drove me crazy. I live near a corner where 3 counties meet. My weather radio is set to alarm for my county, the county north of me, and the county west of both. Several storms went diagonally from west of me to north of me. That damn radio must have gone off at least 6 times.

The alerts were real. Some places got inches of hail. In others the hail was washed down the street by the rain and plugged storm drains, flooding the streets. They even called out snow plows to move some of it. A house in my county but way south of me was hit by lightning and burned down. But none of that mess was within 30 miles of me. All I got was interrupted sleep.

[AliceofCheshire]

[RustyMcNuggets]

When a storm gets bad the big 3 stations switch to all weather until the danger is past.

We see the same thing regarding local channels. They'll stay on the "storm watch" until the threat is out of the viewing area.

We had the sirens going off full-song yesterday for a half hour straight. Longest amount of time I can remember it going on. Started at 4:30 straight until 5:00. Rain was horizontal, baseball and softball sized hail as well. My wife was stuck waiting at a RR crossing and said there were a couple cars in front of her. Out of nowhere a queen sized mattress flies into the second car in line, bounces off and disappears into the downpour. She said she sat there and whispered to herself, "Wonder where the cow is?" a la the movie "Twister".

Apparently the sirens went off again around 11:30pm last night, but everyone in our house slept through it.

In our area that makes three bad storms so far and not far apart. I think prior to these last three storms the sirens have gone off a total of four times in the last 3 years. Hopefully Mother Nature decides we all made quota for the year and that's the end of it.

Glad you were safe NM.