Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Tornadaho
Midwesterners will call me a pussy. In fact, I'll pre-emptively call myself one. Yesterday, I made one of the poorer decisions of my life (I know, that's saying something) when I heard there was a tornado warning in a nearby part of the county and decided to drive there to do some storm chasing. It very quickly went from "Awesome," to "Oh, shit."
It's been a strange, rainy spring here in the high desert of southern Idaho - we've already had two reported tornados in a state that averages about a three a year - and it's not even officially summer yet.
The weirdness continued yesterday with unusually humid conditions leading to a weather pattern more like the Midwest or South than the Rockies. A line of severe thunderstorms came crashing into southwest Idaho bringing large hail and at least one funnel cloud. When I heard the storm was going to hit nearby Kuna in about 20 minutes and possibly bring tornados I decided to drive out there to see what I could see.
On the way over I could see sinister clouds with a very clear rotational pattern and lots of lighting. But the rain and winds were light and I still wasn't thinking too much of it. Then I got to Kuna a few minutes ahead of the storm predictions and the rain picked up a little, but still nothing I haven't seen before.
Soon, though, I heard a crash on my roof and I thought a rock had hit my car. Then it sounded like it was raining rocks and I saw sheets of nickel-size hail pounding my hood and windshield. The sky was nearly black, it sounded as though my windshield was going to break from the hail and all the drivers around me suddenly lost their minds, swerving, pulling off the road and generally doing their best to make it even more dangerous to be driving through a potentially tornadic system.
"Hmm," I thought, "I'm a fucking idiot."
So what could I do? I continued driving down the increasingly waterlogged roads praying my windshield would hold and hoping to see the tornado and not be the tornado.
Ten minutes later it was blue skies. No tornado, no broken glass (although the storm did break car windows in the mountains), just some very minor street flooding. And I drove back to the office, knowing my hardy, storm-tested Midwestern relatives would be ashamed I was afraid of a little thunderstorm.
It's been a strange, rainy spring here in the high desert of southern Idaho - we've already had two reported tornados in a state that averages about a three a year - and it's not even officially summer yet.
The weirdness continued yesterday with unusually humid conditions leading to a weather pattern more like the Midwest or South than the Rockies. A line of severe thunderstorms came crashing into southwest Idaho bringing large hail and at least one funnel cloud. When I heard the storm was going to hit nearby Kuna in about 20 minutes and possibly bring tornados I decided to drive out there to see what I could see.
On the way over I could see sinister clouds with a very clear rotational pattern and lots of lighting. But the rain and winds were light and I still wasn't thinking too much of it. Then I got to Kuna a few minutes ahead of the storm predictions and the rain picked up a little, but still nothing I haven't seen before.
Soon, though, I heard a crash on my roof and I thought a rock had hit my car. Then it sounded like it was raining rocks and I saw sheets of nickel-size hail pounding my hood and windshield. The sky was nearly black, it sounded as though my windshield was going to break from the hail and all the drivers around me suddenly lost their minds, swerving, pulling off the road and generally doing their best to make it even more dangerous to be driving through a potentially tornadic system.
"Hmm," I thought, "I'm a fucking idiot."
So what could I do? I continued driving down the increasingly waterlogged roads praying my windshield would hold and hoping to see the tornado and not be the tornado.
Ten minutes later it was blue skies. No tornado, no broken glass (although the storm did break car windows in the mountains), just some very minor street flooding. And I drove back to the office, knowing my hardy, storm-tested Midwestern relatives would be ashamed I was afraid of a little thunderstorm.
# posted by Druz @ 9:38 AM 
Comments:
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Last summer my husband was either very nearly hit or hit by lightning in our front yard during a monsoon thunderstorm.
That was nifty.
That was nifty.
Well, he wasn't sure. He was all tingly...
He's pretty tough.
I don't know what word the Druz was thinking of...maybe...insane?
He also took the opportunity presented by our first summer thunderstorm to play "Deadliest Catch" and BBQ out in the pouring rain...yeah, he's "insane".
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He's pretty tough.
I don't know what word the Druz was thinking of...maybe...insane?
He also took the opportunity presented by our first summer thunderstorm to play "Deadliest Catch" and BBQ out in the pouring rain...yeah, he's "insane".
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