People in OKC? Are you guys OK?

[Tommy Coyote]

Watching on TV. This is just awful.

 

 

[Gideon's girl]

Pray for these poor people.

[Root Beer]

Not from OKC, but praying for those who are . . .

[Tommy Coyote]

Has anyone heard from people in Oklahoma?

 

Used to be that Kansas was right in the middle of tornado alley. Now it seems like Texas and Oklahoma and Arkansas are the ones taking the brunt of the storms.

 

We have tornadoes here in Missouri once in a blue moon but they aren't ever those huge F4 or F5 kind. And ours are scary enough. One went over the top of my house one night. It was the stangest sound - like a huge wind everywhere. We did have a big one years agobut people have pretty much forgotten about that one.

[Laurelin]

I know I don't post here much anymore but I live in OKC and saw this. Lots of friends in Moore, several of them have lost their homes completely. I am very lucky though that none of them were injured although a lot of pets were. We've been busy doing disaster relief but there has been SO MUCH help around here. People are coming in from all over the country and there are so many supplies now that they're having to turn away some donations. I haven't actually been to Moore yet, it's where most people are headed but the smaller surrounding towns and Shawnee are also hurting and that's where we've been. I've never been around anything like it. You can't look anywhere without seeing Red Cross/Salvation Army/etc.

 

We definitely appreciate the thoughts and prayers.

[Liz P]

MO gets F4 and F5 tornadoes, but those are rare all over the country. The smaller tornadoes are much more common.

 

F5 tornado, Joplin, MO 2011

 

Even places like New England get tornadoes. There was an outbreak right before I moved back. The week before that a tornado had come up my street in KS. I joked around with people that I could leave the Midwest but not escape the weather. Just last week a tornado was spotted in a town not far from me. I think that was the same storm system that spawned the OK tornado.

 

New England outbreak 2011

 

When I was a kid a tornado went right through our backyard. This was in CT. It wasn't a big one, but it took down a wide path of trees. I still remember playing on the twisted maze of trunks that were left behind.

 

I do think that with climate change we are witnessing, extreme storms are becoming more common. Just since moving back to New England I have lived through 2 "once in a lifetime" snow storms. Both dumped about 4 ft of snow. One was in early October and left hundreds of thousands without power for weeks. There were still leaves on the trees, so the heavy wet snow caused damage that looked like a bomb had gone off. (Down trees every few feet.) Just last month I had snow drifted to over 10 feet and had to crawl out a window to get out of my house. In the last 2 years I have also been through 2 hurricanes. One caused major flooding that prevented me from getting to work for days (the hospital was closed anyway because there was no power).

[Tommy Coyote]

^{Oh, I think these big storms are getting a lot more common. We have two 100 year floods here in the past 20 years. So much damage all along the rivers.}

^{We had an F5 here in Ruskin Heights but it was back in the 50's. And we have had a few smaller ones pretty close to where I live - but nothing like what hits Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. People in this part of the country really pay attention when bad weather is coming in.}

^{Those places should all have storm shelters in every neighborhood.}

^{I just saw where 13,000 homes were destroyed this time.}

^{I'm taking care of two dogs for a FEMA worker who got deployed to OKC. She e-mailed pictures and it is just unbelievable.}

 

^{Take care everyone. And if the sky gets weird get under cover.}

[Laurelin]

F5s certainly aren't that common in OK either. We mostly get piddly little tornados. the one that touched down near my house was pretty small- it just took some roofs off houses/knocked fences down. The damage in Moore is not the usual even for around here. About 5 years ago a tornado came through the neighborhood next to mine. It was just me and the dogs at home so we took shelter in the bath tub. It sounded like the apocalypse outside.

 

As far as storm shelters go- not many people have them. I rent right now so I don't have one. The apartment complexes don't either.... my work doesn't. We stayed on the 37th floor and watched the storm ride in. I don't have any idea where I'd go if a storm like the one in Moore hit my neighborhood. I guess at that point you pray. You certainly don't want to try to outrun them. I tried that last year (hail storm) and they build up fast right on top of you.

 

Moore always gets the worst of the tornados. I am not sure why but I have long said you could not pay me to live in Moore. They just seem to like that path.

[Liz P]

Laurelin, it's been known for some times that cities/landscapes affect weather via uneven reflection of sunlight, heat sinks, evaporation, etc. Maybe OK City is creating a microclimate that is making tornadoes more likely to go through Moore.