My fascination with tornadoes started at an early age.
From my first experience of running from a tornado in a vehicle when I was
almost five on May 8th, 1986, to my experience directing storm
spotters in a local civil defense department on the acclaimed May 3, 1999 when
I was 17. It didn’t help when the movie Twister
came out twenty years ago on May 10, 1996. It only made me want to become a
meteorologist more. When a character was asked in the movie what it was like
being in the tornado, the reply was, “The Finger of God.” Hence the title. It’s
tradition in my house to watch the movie as we usher in the current year’s
tornado season, as inaccurate as the movie is. My goal was to become a
meteorologist. With poor math skills, that dream was killed by high school
graduation. Although I still find myself “arm-chair storm chasing”.
There is something tantalizing, hypnotically beautiful
about the dancing, swirling column of clouds tearing up landscape, eating
livelihoods, and claiming lives as its own. As I sit here working on this on
May 9th, the tv is on one of our local stations doing live footage
of a killer tornado down in Katie, Oklahoma. A multi-vortex, counter-clockwise
twister. Although the spinning, earth-eating monsters are common, the
multi-vortex and counter-clockwise spin is a rare occurrence and tells of great
strength and power of the tornado. But as I watch the live footage and think
about past experiences, I can’t help wonder what the people of the plains a
century and a half would have done.
Pictures litter the web of “oldest know photograph of a
tornado”. CYCLONE NEAR WAYNOKA, OK MAY
1898. AUGUST 28, 1884, 22 MILES SOUTHWEST OF HOWARD, SOUTH DAKOTA. Some
even have the same cloud formation with different landscape. OKLAHOMA CYCLONE, NO. 1 & 2 COPYRIGHT
1892 by North Losey, Oklahoma City, Okla. Are examples. I’m not debating
that there wasn’t a “photoshop” trick that even photographers of that age could
do with the glass frames and put different backgrounds to different landscapes.
But what did the pioneers do with tornadic activity? They didn’t have storm
spotters to keep them warned, or doppler radar to see a forming hook echo, or
softball sized hail coming towards their farm. They didn’t have tv to inform
them that the supercell mesocyclone heading straight for their home or town.
No, but they did have a few things that we have today. Past experiences, they
kept an eye on the skies. And dugouts. Wait, what? We don’t live in dugouts today.
True, but let me explain. What were dugouts? They were holes dug out in either
the ground or in the side of a hill. Sometimes they were incorporated with sod
houses, structures that were made out of grass and the underlying dirt and root
system. They provided excellent insulation and the dugout was a natural root
cellar to keep foods stored and a storm shelter! So, in a way, the settlers of
our great American West were lightyears ahead of us today.
I have a friend who is originally from Montana and now
lives in Oklahoma said, “I can’t understand why homes in Tornado Alley
don’t have building codes to have a storm shelter of some kind in every home. Like California has codes
for earthquakes and some states in the east a certain degree of pitch in the
roof for heavy snow fall.” A very good question! Why haven’t Tornado Alley
homes been built with some kind of shelter in them? Then again, why aren’t any of
the homes built to a universal measurement to allow a wheelchair through, or an
ambulance stretcher? That’s a topic for another time. While I am a bit jealous
of the natural insulation of the sod houses and dugouts, I will admit that I do
not mind missing the muddy drips from the rain soaked dirt roofs, the snakes
coming out of their holes in the walls. Oh! I won’t be missing a cow or horse
stepping through the roof! Makes sense though. Roof is part of the pasture!

Our granddaughter and her family live in Norman. He is a meteorologist with the NWS there and she's always talking about the stormy spring weather. Our 5 year old grandson hates going into the storm shelter when they have a tornado warning. Your area has really suffered a lot of damage in years past from tornadoes. They are scary storms.
ReplyDeleteI hear you there! They are very scary! Today also marks the third year anniversary of an outbreak that affected Edmond, Arcadia, Luther, Carney, Norman and Lake Thunderbird, Shawnee, and two near the town of Prague. Unfortunately, two people lost their lives in Shawnee.
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