Warnings: Thunderstorm, Wind, Tornado

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[carverII]

That's one of the reasons I left Oklahoma.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[Mitsouko]

we have weather here too. one of the local stations just fired the best weather guy so no idea what is happening.

don't be too down on the guy, they live for this, especially if they are not from tornado alley.

 

[shereads]

So we're staying awake until the worst part of it has passed.

The problem?

The new chief meteorologist on our local news channel.

He's excited. REALLY excited.

I think he'll do well with some experience but at this moment his stammering pronouncements of impending doom are really annoying.

"Killer tornadoes! They're alive and headed this way!"

Oh god.

I know just the kind of guy you mean.

Before Hurricanes Katrilma, our local TV weatherpersons used to get so hyped up about hurricane season, you'd have thought they were forecasting the Second Coming of Christ.

They pretty much burned out that summer. Disastrous weather stops being fun to report when the weatherguy is sweating out the same power-outage and gas shortage as everybody else, for the third time in three months. By Week Five, they're as irritable and snappish and over it as the rest of us.

~ ~ ~

Most Embarrassing Example of Weather Guy Dramatics: a few years ago, Hurricane Frank or Bob or Maureen or somebody seemed to be heading directly for our part of the coast. For local TV meteorologists, Hurricane Whoever-It-Is promised to be their closest brush with stardom since the golden days of Hurricane Andrew, which had garnered one local guy a cameo role as himself in a TV docudrama.

When TV weather is your life, you don't get many chances to bask in drama.

As Hurricane Francois or Bill or Wally made its inexorable way toward Florida, one of our weather guys got so excited he had a near break-down on the air. For the remainder of the afternoon and evening - in fact, and until Hurricane Fred or Elvis or Mamie had a last-minute change of plans and headed north to menace the Carolinas, leaving Florida untouched - I was so terrified I could hardly load batteries into a flashlight.

Why?

Well, it was his delivery, for one thing. The guy was bug-eyed with excitement. But the thing that pushed me over into panic mode wasn't just the visibly throbbing vein in Weather Guy's forehead; it was this:

"People of the Bahamas! Listen to me! You have to get OUT OF THERE!"

Like they could just make their airports reopen and book a flight to New Jersy; or maybe gas up the dinghy and zip down to Hispaniola.

Weather Guy's Message of Doom for the People of the Bahamas was followed by this personal anecdote, during which he nearly broke down in tears on camera:

"I just got off the phone with my mother. Her neighbors are helping her put up her storm shutters...It's times like these, when we're faced with our own mortality that we find out who our friends really are."

Mortality?! HolyJeebus! We're going to die!

What else was I to think? That's when I decided to stop loading batteries into flashlights - or is it loading flashlights into unperishable canned goods? - and to start doing the only thing that seemed to make sense in light of what I'd just heard: cower in a closet.

I came out later when I realized that we weren't even going to get a tropical storm, much less a Killer Hurricane.

As for Weather Guy, I don't remember what happened to him after his on-air breakdown. I suspect they took him down with a tranqulizer dart and sent him someplace to relax - like the Bahamas. No doubt, the People of the Bahamas wanted a word with him.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[starrkers]

*hugs* Sarahh. Sounds like you're getting the weather we had last weekend, only meaner.

Thank god our weather men are more laconic. It's the reporters covering bushfires and the aftermath of "killer hail storms" that get my goat.

 

[shereads]

Okay - the warning has gone into the next county.

Thunderstorm, sure. Solid downpours of hail, fine.

Killer lightning, bring it on.

But the tornado has moved on.

Goodnight, Litsters.

You're not faced with your own mortality?

That's good!

At least I guess it is...You must also consider this a missed opportunity to find out who your friends really are.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[rgraham666]

Glad you made it through OK, beautiful.

Weather sucks here in Toronto as well.

 

[DesertPirate]

If I really wish to know, I'll put a story up in Loving Wives.

*coffee spew*
That is one way to find out who your friends aren't!

Since KC got hit this morning please check in!

 

[millennium_bard]

Damn, and here I thought that I was having troubles with weather.
It's only blizzarding here. Snowing like hell with 40 MPH winds.
I think I prefer the blizzard. At least I don't have to worry about something relocating my house.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The people in Chattanooga swear that they never get tornadoes. "The mountains keep that kind of weather away." Uh-huh! I'll live with 'quakes. I understand them.

 

[rgraham666]

Things are good. Just a lot of limbs blown down here and there.

They're disputing the possible tornado touchdown in Lawrence in favor of microbursts.

Whatevuh.

Glad to hear damage was pretty much limited to your sleep.

We're due for thunderstorms here tonight.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[rgraham666]

Thanks.

I had to tie the window of my room down again. I was hoping not to have to do that again until fall. Sigh.

You know the weather is really strange when it's warmer in Yelllowknife, which is farther north than Anchorage is warmer than Toronto.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

We got it today. Had two tornado warnings back to back. The first one was for our part of the county, but the second one was for further south. A tornado actually did go overhead (husband and daughter saw it) but it didn't touch down. It's thundering right now, so I don't know if that means another storm is coming or if it's just lingering after effects. Still under a watch for another couple of hours.

 

[lisa123414]

Dorothy!

Dorothy!


I mean, Sarah!