Just another tornadic Monday (oh, oo-whoa)
We were warned over the weekend that Monday's weather could be special, particularly during the morning commute. There was even an isolated chance for a tornado, but it's February; that's pretty unlikely.
Sure enough, my drive to work yesterday was not the most fun ever. Pouring rain while trying to pass semis on Route 38 is not what my ideal commute looks like. The rain was heavy, it would lighten, it would get heavy again, but when I got to work it wasn't too bad.
That's why it was a surprise when, at 9:56 AM, the tornado sirens started going off. What the heck? DW got an alert on his phone about it, and when I went to check mine, I had the same one. DW would hear shortly that there was a brief touchdown at Warrenville and Washington streets, which is about 2.5 miles away--at a forest preserve I used to frequent. Much later, after I finally got home, it turned out the tornado started just north of my job. Had I been a few minutes later, I may have encountered it. The timing was from 9:52 to 9:54, so by the time the sirens went off, it was past us. This is why it didn't seem like anything was amiss at work, because it was done by then. Still pretty wild.
Less than an hour later, I noticed the sky to the north seemed an odd color, a gray that I've associated with severe storms. I pointed it out to DW, who then noticed, hey, there's a rainbow! This was to the northwest, and very low on the horizon, but sure enough there it was. I have never seen that before. I managed to get a picture of it before it disappeared; it only lasted a few minutes. By then, things had moved east into Indiana and it was relatively calm. It ended up just being DW and me for a bit, at least in the front building; the office manager had something going on and was gone until the afternoon, and the boss' mom had gotten ill last week and was in the hospital; he was waiting for his sister to arrive before he left his mom and came to work. I'm really hoping the rest of the week gets calmer from there. That was too much excitement for a Monday.
Sure enough, my drive to work yesterday was not the most fun ever. Pouring rain while trying to pass semis on Route 38 is not what my ideal commute looks like. The rain was heavy, it would lighten, it would get heavy again, but when I got to work it wasn't too bad.
That's why it was a surprise when, at 9:56 AM, the tornado sirens started going off. What the heck? DW got an alert on his phone about it, and when I went to check mine, I had the same one. DW would hear shortly that there was a brief touchdown at Warrenville and Washington streets, which is about 2.5 miles away--at a forest preserve I used to frequent. Much later, after I finally got home, it turned out the tornado started just north of my job. Had I been a few minutes later, I may have encountered it. The timing was from 9:52 to 9:54, so by the time the sirens went off, it was past us. This is why it didn't seem like anything was amiss at work, because it was done by then. Still pretty wild.
Less than an hour later, I noticed the sky to the north seemed an odd color, a gray that I've associated with severe storms. I pointed it out to DW, who then noticed, hey, there's a rainbow! This was to the northwest, and very low on the horizon, but sure enough there it was. I have never seen that before. I managed to get a picture of it before it disappeared; it only lasted a few minutes. By then, things had moved east into Indiana and it was relatively calm. It ended up just being DW and me for a bit, at least in the front building; the office manager had something going on and was gone until the afternoon, and the boss' mom had gotten ill last week and was in the hospital; he was waiting for his sister to arrive before he left his mom and came to work. I'm really hoping the rest of the week gets calmer from there. That was too much excitement for a Monday.