holy crap, auntie em
we had a tornado here today. in washington state, in january. it passed by about ten blocks from my apartment - or, if google maps is to be believed, about 6,000 feet from my bed.
my favorite picture in the link above: what the discount tobacco place put on its sign. incidentally, the picture of the big rig blown over on its side was taken in the parking lot of the fred meyer's ten blocks away from me, where i do my shopping at least once a week. my favorite quotes came from a cheerfully unfazed lady on the evening news, whose backyard had been destroyed: 'well, this used to be a gazebo structure where we'd sit and drink tea in the summer. now it's a recycling project...' i'm also fond of the shot they showed of a lady with a fish in her front yard, from where the tornado touched down in vancouver lake first before moving on to the residential areas.
to be honest, i didn't even know it was a tornado at the time. sometime just after twelve noon, i heard a funny noise, which it took me a few seconds to identify as thunder since i never hear it in this part of the world. then came the lightning, which was strong enough to make the power flicker briefly - again, something that's never happened out here...thank the lordy godiva i still use my surge protector. my first thought: 'shit, one of the mountains finally blew' (amongst a few other local active volvanoes, mount saint helens is RIGHT in our backyard here, clearly and largely visible on the horizon). then came the hailstones, which were tiny by midwestern standards; but what they lacked in size, they made up for in enthusiasm. even miyuki was impressed, darting back and forth trying to catch the little bouncing ice pellets as they fell outside on the balcony.
by then i figured it was just a freak thunderstorm. so, once the ice show was over, i went and took a shower. and then - half an hour after all the fuss had finally ended - i heard a weather warning on the radio about a thunderstorm with possible cloud rotation. way to be on the ball, weather monkeys. anyway, most of the damage is a few blocks to the southwest of me, so i didn't see much on the way to my appointment today. although i did see a news van or two covering the story.
and speaking of which - even though it sounds trite, i'd like to echo the news monkeys by saying how completely miraculous it is that, from all available reports, absolutely no one was hurt or killed in this thing. it was only an F-1, but the usual warning signs weren't there (tornadoes usually happen in the late afternoon/early evening and have some cloud discoloration associated with them), and twisters are pretty rare out in these parts anyway - plus, as i mentioned, there were absolutely NO weather warnings whatsoever.
we're doing pretty well in my neighborhood, considering how close the storm came to us...we didn't even lose power, thank goodness. the whole thing has made me a trifle paranoid, though...the midwest had some january tornadoes earlier in the week, and the vast majority of weather patterns in the states move from west to east, not the other way around. so either global warming works...or the kansas weather mafia sent out a hit-tornado to come and get me. *furtive eyedart*
Q
imagining the conversation up in the atmosphere: 'dude, you're really lost...you want kansas or ohio in april, just around rush hour...this here's earthquake country.'