We're not in Kansas anymore!

[sundial]

I have spent most of the morning either huddled in the fraidy room or checking the clouds. We have had severe weather with tornado warnings. The system has moved on but we're still getting straight line winds and a neighbors trampoline just blew across 3 back yards. :eek:

For TE'ers in AR, TN and MS, here's the latest updates.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/2dogcrew/NWSTN.jpg

Tornado Watch Update

/O.CON.KMEG.TO.A.0009.000000T0000Z- 080109T0300Z/
TORNADO WATCH 9 REMAINS VALID UNTIL 9 PM CST THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS

IN NORTH MISSISSIPPI THIS WATCH INCLUDES 22 COUNTIES

ALCORN BENTON CALHOUN CHICKASAW COAHOMA DESOTO ITAWAMBA LAFAYETTE LEE MARSHALL MONROE PANOLA PONTOTOC PRENTISS QUITMAN TALLAHATCHIE TATE TIPPAH TISHOMINGO TUNICA UNION YALOBUSHA

IN WEST TENNESSEE THIS WATCH INCLUDES 20 COUNTIES

CARROLL CHESTER CROCKETT DECATUR DYER FAYETTE GIBSON HARDEMAN HARDIN HAYWOOD HENDERSON HENRY LAKE LAUDERDALE MADISON MCNAIRY OBION SHELBY TIPTON WEAKLEY

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF... ABERDEEN...AMORY...BARTLETT... BATESVILLE...BOLIVAR...BOONEVILLE... CLARKSDALE...COLLIERVILLE... CORINTH... COVINGTON...DRESDEN...DYERSBURG... GERMANTOWN... HUMBOLDT...HUNTINGDON... IUKA...JACKSON...LEXINGTON...MARTIN... MEMPHIS...MILAN...MILLINGTON...NEW ALBANY...OLIVE BRANCH... OXFORD... PARIS...SAVANNAH...SOMERVILLE... SOUTHAVEN...TUNICA... TUPELO AND UNION CITY.

[crazycanuck]

:eek:

Which room is your fraidy room??? Do most houses in the southern US have safe rooms in the basement for times like this? Are there sirens?

I've no clue!

Take care!!! Crazy-thankful that she lives south of the Western Australia/Northern Territory cyclone zone-canuck

[sundial]

The National Weather Service Has Issued Tornado Watch 9 In Effect Until 9 Pm Cst This Evening For The Following Areas

In Tennessee This Watch Includes 12 Counties

In Middle Tennessee

Benton Cheatham Dickson Hickman Houston Humphreys Lewis Montgomery Perry Robertson Stewart Wayne

This Includes The Cities Of...ashland City...camden... Centerville... Clarksville...clifton...collinwood... Dickson... Dover...erin...hohenwald... Kingston Springs...linden... Lobelville...new Johnsonville... Pegram...springfield... Tennessee Ridge...waverly...waynesboro And White House.

[sundial]

CC, our fraidy room is the master bathroom, lol. ;) Some people will have storm shelters outside in their yards or have an interior safe room. Many will head for the central room in the house which is often a bathroom. We like to set up camp in the master bath and closet. :rolleyes: It's pretty entertaining when you have 4 dogs, a dog bed, radio, emergency tote, and your imagination when crammed in together. Hubby and I have been known to eat pizza and share ice cream with the dogs while sitting on the side of the tub listening to the weather alerts.

Our town does not have sirens that go off when threatening weather comes. Instead, I check weather.com and watch the skies.

Here are some pictures of a 2006 tornado that hit a nearby town:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/2dogcrew/walking_the_streets.jpg
Rescuers canvas the remains of a neighborhood.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/2dogcrew/cat_in_cabinet.jpg
This cat was hiding in the cabinet. Note the missing roof and the water tower in the background.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/2dogcrew/Marmadukemotorcycle.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/2dogcrew/Marmadukeforsale.jpg

[OakLeaf]

Our town does not have sirens that go off when threatening weather comes. Instead, I check weather.com and watch the skies.

A weather alert radio is a good investment ($40-70). Tornadoes have come through here in the middle of the night more than once, when most people were asleep and not online.

Unfortunately we have a hill in the way and haven't bothered to run an external antenna up our existing tower... so we only get the weather alerts for the counties downwind of us. :rolleyes:

Glad you're OK. Hang in there.

[sbctwin]

I hope you are safe Sundial. We are having some winds at present with another front moving through, but I am sure, nothing like what you are experiencing...

[maillotpois]

Wow, Sundial. Having gone through some weather related nastiness over the last week I really feel for you. Take care! Keep the fraidy room warm.

[sundial]

A weather alert radio is a good investment ($40-70).

We have a couple of NOAA radios--one for the house and one for the car. I really like them and they will sound the alarm when severe weather is headed for our county. I just heard that AR was rated #2 for tornadoes. Ack!

Looks like KY and IL will probably get these storms. Hope everyone is safe tonight.

[Brandi]

Please be safe. Strange to have them this time of year isn't it?

[Zen]

Sundial, that's just terrifying. I can't imagine what such devastation must be like. Please let us know you're OK.

[melissam]

Sundial,

I'm wishing you and other TE'ers in AR, TN and MS continued safety & shelter.

Keep us posted!

-- Melissa

[sundial]

Strange to have them this time of year isn't it?

One year Memphis had a tornado in December. Ack!

Tuckerville, did you get any storm damage in your area last night?

We're ok here. The temps have dropped 20+ degrees and it's now cool and a little windy. Tomorrow I should be able to get out and play. The dogs and I are doing much better after knoshing on snacks all afternoon.

I just love living in tornado alley. http://bestsmileys.com/storms/1.gif

[sundial]

Here's another update from National Weather Service:

TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 11
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
640 PM CST TUE JAN 8 2008

TORNADO WATCH 11 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 100 AM CST FOR THE
FOLLOWING LOCATIONS

TENNESSEE COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

BEDFORD CANNON CLAY
COFFEE CUMBERLAND DAVIDSON
DEKALB FENTRESS FRANKLIN
GILES GRUNDY JACKSON
LAWRENCE LINCOLN MACON
MARSHALL MAURY MOORE
OVERTON PICKETT PUTNAM
RUTHERFORD SMITH SUMNER
TROUSDALE VAN BUREN WARREN
WHITE WILLIAMSON WILSON

[Popoki_Nui]

Hope you're all ok down there.

Keeping you in our thoughts,
~Sherry.

[sundial]

TE'ers in AL, you're in the line of this storm system:


Significant Weather Alert

LAUDERDALE-LAWRENCE-LIMESTONE- 747 PM CST TUE JAN 8 2008
...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT FOR LIMESTONE...EASTERN LAUDERDALE... AND NORTHERN LAWRENCE COUNTIES UNTIL 815 PM CST...

AT 747 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING STRONG THUNDERSTORMS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 5 MILES SOUTHEAST OF LAWRENCEBURG TO 6 MILES EAST OF KILLEN TO TOWN CREEK...MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.

PEA SIZE HAIL...WINDS UP TO 55 MPH... FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING... AND HEAVY DOWNPOURS ARE EXPECTED WITH THESE STORMS.

* LOCATIONS IN OR NEAR THE PATH INCLUDE... RED BANK. WHITEHEAD. WHEELER. MT ROZELL. RIPLEY. CARTWRIGHT.

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 100 AM CST WEDNESDAY MORNING FOR NORTHWESTERN ALABAMA AND CENTRAL TENNESSEE.

[yellow]

It all seems so....biblical. This, from the NWS page for Whydaho, not too far from where Shiraz and FlyBye live:

IF YOU LIVE IN A HIGH RISK AREA, UNLESS YOU KNOW THAT YOU LIVE IN
AN AVALANCHE-ENGINEERED HOME...WE ARE RECOMMENDING YOU DO NOT SPEND TONIGHT IN YOUR HOME.

Hmmmmm.

[makbike]

The storms have arrived here in Kentucky. The wind is howling! Driving home from the trainer tour was an adventure. I'm off to bed to listen to the storms. The radar screen does not look too bad. A beautiful day is forecast for tomorrow.

[Tuckervill]

My little town is right on the edge of Oklahoma, tornado mecca. For some reason, the worst storms seem to always dissipate right as they get to us, on the edge of the Ozarks. We are less than 2 miles as the crow flies from the state line, and time and again we watch the tornado warnings expire or the storm curves north just as it reaches us.

Last night was a scary one, though. The sirens were going off and we had steady tornado warnings. We huddled in the hallway with the dogs (I can see the leashes still lying there) a couple of times. Yet, the storms just broke up. We have 7 pecan trees and many others, and none of them so much as dropped a twig. We did get 8 inches of rain, though!

Karen

[bmccasland]

It's morning, did y'all make it through the night OK? :confused:

[sundial]

It's a beautiful morning here. Cool, sunny and little wind. :)
Southern gals, are you all ok?

I'm interested in getting one of these some day:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/2dogcrew/familysaferoom.jpg

www.stormxshelters.com

This shelter is designed to withstand an F5 tornado. I'll bet it would withstand an earthquake as well since we are sitting on one of the biggest faults in the US. :eek:

[Bad JuJu]

Glad to hear you're OK, sundial--that's so scary! Our safe room is our bathroom, too. Most houses around here don't even have cellars/basements--just built on a slab or on pilings.

We get an occasional tornado and more than our share of hurricanes here. We evac when we can and for times when we can't, we've got a hand-crank radio and flashlight--along with all the other stuff we keep handy just in case. The radio even has a place where you can plug in and charge a cell phone--for those times when even the phone lines are down. :eek:

[OakLeaf]

Bump, because the weather radio just went off while I was surfing and reminded me of something.

The NWS website only displays warnings. Why, I don't know - that seems really stupid. But it is what it is, and the weather radio will alert any time you're under a watch.

[sundial]

Southern TE'ers, looks like we get to play tornado watch until this evening. Right now the winds are gusting 50+ mph and I'm watching all kinds of debris dance across my neighbors' yards. http://bestsmileys.com/eating1/16.gif

[sundial]

Our high school just lost the roof to the gym. Cripes! :eek: http://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/scared/scared0016.gif (http://www.allboxingstats.com/)

[bikerchick68]

aw jeez... that brings back little kid memories for me... we lived in OK right in the middle of Tornado Alley. :eek: We were VERY poor and lived in a mobile home aka Tornado Magnet. I remember my mom putting us in our El Camino and drving it into a ditch to keep it low and safe...

hope you stay safe and warm...

[sundial]

I remember my mom putting us in our El Camino and drving it into a ditch to keep it low and safe...

Oh my gosh, were you in the back of the Camino?? :eek:

[bmccasland]

All I can say is that at least those of us on the coast get two days warning that we're about to be creamed by a hurricane. I can't imagine the panic of short notice warning for tornadoes. And tornado warnings are much better than they used to be. Not moving to tornado alley, nope, not me!

[sundial]

True, but your hurricanes cost $$$ in preparation. ;)

[Starfish]

Hey Sundial, you guys OK this morning?

[sundial]

I woke up to everything in God's creation that was blown by the wind. We had flower pots, trash, aluminum siding, and wind swept cardinals against the house. A couple tractor trailers traveling on the highway were blown over but fortunately no one was killed. Some of the small portable buildings did cartwheels but other than that, our house is intact. :)

Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts. The girls and Luke were sooooo glad when the wind finally started to die down.

[bikerchick68]

glad to hear you pulled thru!

and yep, we were in the back of the El Camino. The ditch was by the mobile home we had so she'd just drive over, and pull it in. The next day the farmer next door would get it out with his tractor. This went on for 2 yrs before we moved to a place that was safer to stay indoors. As a kid, I just assumed EVERYONE did that and never realized how terrifying it must have been for my poor mom.

[sundial]

Any TE'ers from Kansas City, MO? Are you guys ok?

Arkansans?

[Mr. Bloom]

One year Memphis had a tornado in December. Ack!


It was actually 1993 the weekend after Thanksgiving in Germantown. We were putting up the Christmas tree that day when the tornado touched down 1/4 mile south of us and killed several people 1/2 mile to the east. A freaky freaky day! A do recall that it took me about 10 minutes to clean out the closet under the stairs to get into...of course, by then the tornado was gone!

Sundial, we've survived two near misses with tornados and know how terrifying it can be. Very glad you (and all others) are OK.

[sundial]

Yes, and I'm glad the Silvers house was left intact. :eek: I know with these erratic weather patterns that this is just the beginning. :(

[Tri Girl]

Twisters are scary stuff, especially if you've ever been in danger of getting hit by one. A few years ago a rather large one passed within a mile of our house. There were 4 adults and 6 dogs huddled in my neighbors underground storm shelter. Glad the Silvers and others are safe here. Let's hope everyone fares as well.

Sadly, I've become so accustomed to tornadoes I hardly get scared anymore. Thursday night there were tornado sirens going off in my neighborhood (when one goes off in OKC, they all go off), but I knew the rotation was about 10 miles to the East (past us), so DH and I rode to the grocery store on our bikes to go shopping. We looked a sight- tornado sirens blaring, us on our bikes with our panniers. It was kinda funny seeing the looks from people in cars. There was a small tornado east of OKC. We're not reckless, but you get this so often here, you know when you're potentially in danger. We had some really strong straight line winds later that night with gigantic hail, but we're OK. Now those storms are beating up the SE. I hope everyone down there is OK!

Just a side note, 9 years ago today (May 3, 1999) was our worst outbreak of tornadoes in history when we had the highest measured F5 tornado on record. My poor city was pummeled (OKC). Those of you in the central plains remember it well.

Hang tight everyone, and stay safe!!!