15 April 2006

Some rain!

We're getting a big ol' thunderstorm hitting my town right now. It was a tornado supercell but after it moved across the river out of Kansas it downgraded to a severe thunderstorm. Now it's raining so hard it's like being inside the dishwasher, except the water is cool and not soapy. Downspouts are gushing and Miss Thang is peeking out the window on her tiptoes watching water spill down from the roof, where our over-full gutters can't take all the excess.

When the storms were hitting northeast Kansas, I had the maps out and was tracking the progress of the storms from what the guys on the radio were saying. When I look at radar on the internet, it's just like, "Big red blob eating Andrew County." But when I'm tracking the storm with my maps and the radio, it seems more exciting and immediate. And Bill Spencer, local weather guru for the northeast Kansas radio stations, is giving all the color commentary, explaining how supercells form. Once when I was listening to Bill Spencer commenting on more Kansas weather, I got to see a huge weather formation that was over Kansas collapsing upon itself and create some new weather beast. I don't know what it was called, but I think the weather formation, as it collapsed, created these huge winds that knocked down stuff in Kansas. I was in St. Joseph at the time, where it was clear, but he was describing what was happening as I watched the thunderhead collapse like some 10,000-foot-tall souffle, and it was pretty cool.

This has absolutely nothing to do with writing, but what the hey. I get all excited about severe weather. Am I the only person to sit around with maps and radios, tracking storms? If I start DXing stations out of Columbia, Mo. and Omaha to follow their tornado warnings (which I have done), does this mean I'm obsessed?

Hey, it beats taking drugs and shooting up stuff.

On the i-Pod: Jascha Heifetz playing the hell out of Tchikovsky's Violin Concerto (Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony on a wild ride with him).

1 comment:

Melinda R. Cordell said...

Whoa! Weather as it happens, eh? Blogs are fun.

Yeah, the supercell I was referring to was passing through Brown and Doniphan Counties. There was some stuff down around Topeka, but I never switched over to Topeka radio to see about it -- getting too much distraction from the kid. (But I can't grudge her that; she's all excited about the Easter Bunny. What a doll.)

There were a couple of tornadoes to the west of us, but by the time it crossed the river it got tired out. Most of the really severe t-storm stuff was just about five miles to the north, and we already had a little tornado mess up some farms up there in March.

Now that's scary to get caught in a hailstorm like that. They did say something on the radio tonight about "Don't stop under an underpass and block those who are trying to drive to safety." Maybe that's what they were referring to. But that was just damned selfish, to block a highway because you don't want hail damage and not allow everybody else to pass. I'm glad you all came out okay.

Whew!