SPRINGTIME IN OKLAHOMA
Sing it with me: “OOOOOOOOklahoma! Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. The waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain!!!”
(Picture of tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma yesterday)
Ah…spring time in Oklahoma has now arrived. We may have had record temperatures in the 90’s for weeks now but springtime doesn’t become official here in Grapes of Wrath Ville until at least 30 mobile homes and a car dealership are carried into Missouri or Kansas on the winds of a tornado. If several thousand cars are beaten into salvage yard fodder by tennis ball sized hail…well, that just makes the arrival of spring even more special.
I was conducting choir rehearsal at church last night when we heard the first tornado sirens of the year go off. We immediately stopped rehearsing, proceeded to the middle of the building, laid down flat on the floor, and covered our heads with cushions from nearby furniture.
HA! If you believe that, you’re obviously not from Oklahoma. I continued rehearsing the group until the sirens got so loud we couldn’t hear the piano any more. Then we scattered outside the sanctuary where half of the choir gathered in our all-glass atrium to look up at the sky and the other half went out into the parking lot so they could experience any tornadoes coming over up close and personal. A few of us gathered around a TV and found out the center of the storm was going to pass about two miles north of us. So…we did what any choir in Oklahoma would do under such dire circumstances…we went back to rehearsing.
Yes, we are a little jaded when it comes to Tornadoes in Oklahoma. Thousand of people lose property and are injured (or even killed) each year, so ignoring them is our folly. However, we have so many of them that people tend to be pretty nonchalant about it unless the tornado is actually knocking on their front door like an Amway salesman.
Oklahoma television weather men are not nonchalant about tornadoes, however. Being a weather man in Oklahoma must be weather man Nirvana because when these guys are reporting on tornadoes they look like they are on the verge of having an orgasm. They report for six or seven hours straight without breaking for commercials, standing in front of green-screens, droning on and on about how their Triple-Double-Doppler radar is TWICE as accurate as the one those hacks at Channel Eight have. They fly helicopters over the tornadoes, and guys named Bubba chase them in their pick up trucks. If you saw the movie “Twister” and you thought Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton were stupid for getting so close to a tornado, they have nothing on how crazy the people are that actually do this for a living. If you don’t believe me, watch this video from yesterday:
Sneaking up on a twister |
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watch this
Meteorologist David Payne and Photojournalist Kevin Josefy snuck up on a tornado and captured this F1 or F2 from about 100 yards away. |
(If the video doesn’t start – scroll down the page to “Stories in Video” and click on “Sneaking up on a Twister”)
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I’d better get off the computer. The sky is turning that familiar green color, it’s starting to rain, and I think I just saw a cow fly by my office window. Maybe that means that Helen Hunt will be by soon in that white tank top she wore in the movie. We can only hope.
Comments (23)
I’d also like to point out that [almost] everything on Xanga’s featured content page is crap.
$Z.C.$
Weather like that terrifies me. I need a deep, dark basement and a shot of whiskey.
Green sky and yellow ground…..ahhhhh…..the colors of spring. You’re hilarious.
xoxoxo
LOL. poor cow…mooooooooooooooo…. : )
I find tornados and hurricanes rather frightening. But then, I’m a westerner; earthquakes don’t faze me at all.
Sounds like your TV weather forecasters respond to tornados the way our Portland TV weather folks respond to a few snowflakes and some sleet. Every station becomes the “all storm, all day long” station. I imagine visitors from Minnesota having a good laugh at our overreaction.
RYC: I meant for the computer, as for the other I just use the twisty tie off of the bread.
I could DEFINITELY be a storm chaser. I am SO fascinated with the tornadoes…it’s like a rush or something so I had to laugh really loud reading the part about your choir going into the all glass atrium to check out the sky…that sounds like what we would do….or sit outside on the metal glider watching the clouds roll in! lol I am guessing that Oklahoma weather and Illinois weather is pretty much identical. Thanks for a good giggle….so glad you are all ok! Take care!
That was pretty awesome! Why did the videographer-guy have his visor-hat on and prance around like he forgot to take his Ritalin?
Like an Amway salesman….LMAO!….you are too funny!…and yes, people that chase after tornados are NUTS!…Then again, I think nothing when the ground below my feet shakes and moves….I am just too used to it here in CA…so I guess that is par for the course when things are commonplace in your neck of the woods.
Mark you forgot to mention…that when the TV crew arrives to assess the damage it’s Bubba in his overalls they interview and put on the national news. “”GAWWLLLY That was some Tondaner there”
While they like to make a big deal about tornaodes up here (Ontario), we hear about them a lot more than we see them.
Lived in OK for awhile then TX, then back to CA, now in MO. I think the weather men here just use a dart board and say plan for all types of weather in one day.
So sad that you remember Helen Hunts white tank top….but its not just Oklahoma, we have hurricanes heree in Texas and we do the same thing…go stand int he yard and see if we can get the winds to blow us over and stuff.
We don’t get that many tornadoes around the Black Hills. How bad of a tornado is it if the cow ends up wearing the white tank top?
In the news biz, we call tornadoes like those in El Reno “awesome video!” Of course, we’re a bit jaded. At least no one got hurt, except whomever was insuring those airplane hangers.
My niece is playing Gertie in that show next week. I was cast as Ado Annie but lost the part to a music major who needed a performance credit to graduate. Such is life! In 1997, we had tornadoes go ripping through Minnesota in February. That was scary. Not at all expected. We see them more in July and August. The nuts around here chase them with their video cameras also. My Nell wnted to be a storm chaser for a couple of years. I thank God that ambition changed. We had hail last Thursday. That was enough. I’ll let you all keep the tornadoes. Do you have seat cushions you could cover your heads with? I’m impressed. Those wood seats get mighty hard after a while, especially as I get older.
Hi, Mark! LOL about those weather forecasters. One of our local stations suspends all regular programming, too, so they can look just as you described.
Today, although there was no severe weather here, I saw an “Official Storm Tracker Vehicle” car. It was one of those dorky little station wagons, and the lettering was the silver press-on kind, like they have on country mailboxes. There were stickers and weather comments all over the car. I just had to get a look at the driver. He must have weighed 350 with massive amounts of facial hair, but the clincher was his bright orange “Official Weather Tracker” uniform, complete with said patch on his sleeve! Now that I think about it, it was probably Bubba escaping from the county jail, disguising his bright orange jumpsuit!
Kathi
Laughing my arse off as usual
We have our share of tornados here in Michigan, not as much as in Oklahoma from what I hear. My husband loves to run out to see if he can catch a glimpse while I am cowering in the basement. I don’t understand not taking cover when you see something so powerful headed your way! Our weathermen practically drool when they are covering the big storms, but they seem to alway interview the local kook when they survey the damage.
RYC: I know what you mean. People get so offended when we jump outside their box. I tell my students that if they try to peg me, be careful, because I will jump out of the conception every time. It’s a shame it has to affect your business. They don’t know what they are giving up, I guess. I enjoy your perceptions on life. But I’m quirky.
Are you waiting for another tornado before you update again????
That was some video. I grew up in Oklahoma City and always viewed twisters as kind of fun. Of course I was little then and didn’t know any better.
Hey, update already….miss your biting wit!