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| Photo Credit: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/resources/teachable-moment/nasas-eyes-on-extreme-weather/ |
JENN McKINLAY: When it comes to the weather or weather events, Arizonans are somewhat smug. It gets a little hot here (ha!) and we do have occasional catastrophic wildfires but by and large, we don't have seasons of horror like PA and NY's blizzards or coastal FL's hurricanes, or CA's mudslides, wildfires, or earthquakes. I love you, Cali, but you can be rather dramatic.
But here's the problem with that smugness. What we do have in AZ is the haboob. What's a haboob? So glad you asked. Here's the video from my front yard of last week's drama.
A haboob is essentially a dust storm on steroids and is characterized by a massive, thick wall of dust that forms from the strong winds spreading out from a collapsing thunderstorm. Seriously, when it hits it feels apocalyptic. Mercifully, they don't generally last that long and the rain the follows washes the dirt away. Also, it keeps us Arizonans humble.
Now it's your turn, Reds and Readers, what major weather events happen where you live? Is there any event that you will avoid at all costs?
For me, it's tornados. No, thank you!
Our weather can be particularly scary at times . . . winter snow, summer hurricanes . . . but [so far] we've not had to deal with dust storms or tornadoes [thank goodness] . . . .
ReplyDeleteThe dust gets everywhere. Bleh.
DeleteI live in “dramatic” California and wildfires have become a problem not just here, but everywhere the winds can blow and the precipitation can drop for extended periods. In other words, most of the planet thanks to climate change. I don’t think earthquakes are a weather phenomenon, but as a native Californian, we just live with the unpredictability of them. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. — Pat S
ReplyDeletePat, a geologist friend had a theory that the increase in earthquakes were partly because of all the oil and gas and water we have removed from the earth's crust. So not directly attributable to climate change, but a side effect of human activity, in the manner of climate change.
DeleteThat makes total sense to me, Karen. Do you remember the margarine commercial from the 70s where the tagline was “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”? That’s what I think of when I realize how much damage we humans have done to our planet. — Pat S
DeleteYeah, we can't keep fouling our own nest. It's unsustainable.
DeleteI do remember that commercial - 50 years later - and it was so right!
DeleteWe are used to thunderstorms, blizzards and ice storms in Ottawa. Thanks to climate change, we now get tornadoes. So far, 4 tornadoes have touched down in the city in the past 3 years.
ReplyDeleteBut the most widespread dramatic weather event was the DERECHO in 2022. This long-lasting straight line wind travelled over 1000 km/620 miles with 180 km/120 mph winds across most of southern Ontario & Quebec. Thousands of power poles and tens of thousands of trees were felled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2022_Canadian_derecho
This type of event happens once every 20 years. So of course, we got no weather warning, except for normal thunderstorms.
Grace, with your time with Environment Canada, are you surprised with the way that the weather is so obviously changing, or did you have an inkling that this would be in our forecast?
DeleteMARGO: No surprise. We always knew that more extreme events would be happening with a changing climate. More floods and drought, more intense storms, more wildfires, more heat waves.
DeleteMy research focused on adapting to extreme drought and water availability. Canada had a country-wide drought in 2001-2002, and we are facing similar nationally dry conditions this year, including here in Ottawa and in the Maritimes.
Hub and I were just watching a documentary about Derechos - I had never heard of them. Terrifying.
DeleteInteresting there's a documentary about derechos. I had never heard of it until it struck here, Amazing that a line of hurricane-force winds could travel for 9 hours across much of the Great Lskes Region & there was no warning here that it was coming.
DeleteIn Minnesota we had blizzards, extreme cold, ice storms, severe thunderstorms, hail, floods, straight line winds, and tornados. Each is scary in its own way, but the unpredictability and devastation of tornados is the worst.
ReplyDeleteHere in Ocala, Fl we live where the people from the coasts evacuate to for hurricanes, and we have met several people who have moved here permanently from places where they have to board up their homes and evacuate. We were here for Milton last October. We had 5” of rain in I think a 16 hour period, sustained winds of 38 mph, and highest gusts of 58 mph. We did not lose power or internet although some older areas of town did have trees down and outages. It was nothing we had not experienced in Minnesota. Milton did spawn tornados but not in our area.
Brenda, our daughter lived in Minnesota for about 15 years and we always visited her on MLK weekend in January. We would joke that if the prediction was a 20% chance of snow, that it snowed 20% of the time. The year that the temps did not rise above zero Fahrenheit for over 60 days in a row, was the year they decided to move to Delaware.
DeleteI definitely don’t miss the cold. We were more concerned about withstanding the heat and humidity of a Florida summer than we were about hurricanes. I’m happy to report that our first summer was not a problem. we did have heat and humidity like this in SE MN just not for such a long stretch at a time. Easy to adapt to doing outdoor activities early or late in the day. I stand by my credo—at least we don’t have to shovel it.
DeleteBlizzards. I'm still scarred from the blizzard of '78 in CT.
DeleteI remember the blizzard of '78, Jenn. I lived in a condo in Newington and had to leave my car in a gas station on the Berlin Turnpike and walk home. I drove it as far into their side yard as I could then locked it and left. THe worst part was walking up the busy hill that my car had slid down and that other cars couldn't make either. The local vet who lived near our condo complex saw me walking about 40 minutes into it, wearing fashion boots (who knew I'd have to walk home?) and drove me most of the rest of the way in his pickup truck. The snow was up to my calves by then. When the snow stopped, everyone went out with shovels and one car at a time shoveled everyone out. I got my car a couple days later.
DeleteThat dust storm looks terrifying, Jenn. In NE Massachusetts, I have lived through plenty of serious blizzards and heavy snow winters, plus a few hurricanes. We don't get as much snow anymore (although by virtue of my writing that, I assume I have just brought on a major snow winter in a few months!), and it's hotter in the summer than it used to be. But in general, it's a pretty pleasant pocket of the world to live in.
ReplyDeleteMy son lived through Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, on the other hand, while he was living and working at the permaculture educational farm. They had solar panels and water collection and filtration devices and a cement block building to shelter in. But we had NO contact with him and it was so scary. Finally somebody drove down to the coast to a relative who had a satellite phone, and set up a kind of phone/email tree to all the families on the continent who were worried.
DeleteI remember a few years ago when Boston got so much snow they were plowing it into the harbor. No thank you!
DeleteJenn, that video made my Lottie bark! Unfortunately we live in two places that can and have been hit by hurricanes. I'm always on edge this time of year...
ReplyDeleteYes! I remember being evacuated from college in New Haven during Hurricane Gloria. Madness.
DeleteTornados. I'm on edge all spring, watching and waiting for them. We have a village siren, weather alerts on my phone, and a basement.
ReplyDeleteEEK!!!
DeleteWe have all the cold and wind weather issues Brenda mentioned having in Minnesota, but the one I fear most is fire. Despite development, the Adirondack Park is a six-million-acre forest. My area of the Adirondacks hasn't burned since 1903. Pests like spruce budworm have left thousands of standing dead trees covered with old man's beard lichen. I picture them all as flaming torches. When, as this summer, we have a severe drought, especially when combined with the heavy smoke from Canadian fires, I have a sick feeling. We live set back from a highway. This road is the major, indeed for 15 miles, the ONLY artery in and out of the area. When the Ironman competition is held every July, this road is closed and we are basically confined at home. I often think about what would happen in case of fire. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteSelden, the Adirondacks are lovely. I totally understand your fear of fire in that area.
DeleteThe LA fires last year were terrifying to watch from afar, I can't even imagine.
DeleteWhat happens in a haboob? Do you run indoors and seal every crack shut? Do critters do something special to survive? I have always wondered. Guess no one hangs laundry out to dry in Arizona.
ReplyDeleteLiving two miles from the Ohio River, we are wary of annual flooding. Luckily, our home is hundreds of feet higher than the highest possible flood level, but when the river overflows it becomes a real mess here, in three of the four major routes off the steep hill that is our community. Ice storms in Cincinnati are worse than ice storms other places because of the hills, too. I still have nightmares about losing control of my car on a steep street downtown, and sliding half a block, finally stopping just feet from a guardrail, and looking out over a view of Over the Rhine below me.
Tornadoes ARE terrifying. However, you usually get plenty of warning, and the local tornado siren is facing directly our way. The tracking has gotten incredibly precise in warnings, too, down to the streets in the path, so it's possible to know when to take cover. Now if the National Weather Service had not just been decimated, thousands fired, and the satellites actually removed. That is scarier than any possible tornado to me.
You are right, Karen. That should scare everyone, no matter where they live.
DeleteYes, the gutting of the NWS is the most terrifying thing of all.
DeleteDuring haboobs you batten the hatches - thankfully, they are short.
Our house is in the lowest spot in the neighborhood and we flood. The water rises in the street and in the yard next door and heads towards us. It is terrifying. When this happens, the clean-up is awful. We've lived here since 1984. You cannot really predict when the rain will cause this event. We don't know if we can ever even sell the house. I think it has occurred 6 times over 40 years.
ReplyDeleteThat's horrible Judy. Have you tried installing French Drains?
DeleteWe used to have extreme flooding in our yard and house as well. We ended up putting in French Drains around the property about 30 years ago and haven't had flooding in the house since. It is a very simple solution, relatively inexpensive and so effective.
French drains would definitely help with that issue. When we were selling my mother's house we had to do that. Luckily my son has an excavator and was able to do it.
DeleteRain gardens also help, especially if the cause if sewer backups. There is a big national push by water resource agencies to help educate about using and creating rain gardens, and now there are actually companies that will come out and design a solution for homeowners and businesses, then implement the plans. I started to take a Master Rain Gardener course and had to quit, but I had already built a successful one at our old house, after 30 years of having the nearby neighborhood's runoff flood our basement over and over again. Redirecting the water from the house, slowing it down to harmlessly filter into the ground, or be taken up by water-hungry plantings, made all the difference. Water goes to the lowest point; making an even lower point is crucial. French drains, swales, and caches would go a long way to keeping your basement dry, Judy.
DeleteI've never heard of rain gardens. Huh.
DeleteThe amount of water that arrives all at once will not be contained in French drains or in rain gardens. If I showed you the photos of the lake that surrounds my home in instances of this type of flooding, you'd realize that there is nowhere lower until the storm drains clear. Imagine a lake, my home being the island in the middle of it, waves breaking against the house as cars attempt to navigate through the water that is over 3' deep on the road.
DeleteYikes, Judy. Does your communuty have a blended storm drain system? In other words, the same system has to handle wastewater and storm runoff? Cincinnati has that older style in some areas, and it causes that kind of extreme flooding locally. It is a huge hot button issue right now, since we are getting more extreme rain events. I am unclear how they fix it, though.
DeleteKaren
Wow, Judy, that sounds HORRIBLE and scary. I'm so sorry. (Selden)
DeleteWith the climate catastrophe on us, even "safe" places are vulnerable (look at Asheville, NC last year) In Oregon, we've had wildfires in the summer and fall and ice storms in the winter. These disasters aren't new, they are just larger and more frequent now. It's the 8th anniversary of the huge fire in the Columbia Gorge that stranded people on the Eagle Creek trail, and the 5th anniversary of the deadly fire near Detroit Lake. In Portland, the main problem from the fires has been smoke. This year, so far, Portland has been extremely fortunate. There have been several fires, but the smoke hasn't blown our way. On the other side of the coin, I know someone who lost her home a couple of months ago in scenic Lyle, Washington overlooking the Columbia River. Rain is coming this week, so hopefully there will be an early end to fire/smoke season.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have much flooding here, but I flash back to February of 1998 when just after an ice/snow event, the rivers rose. Mayor Vera Katz was out helping place sandbags at the seawall in downtown Portland. The main threats to humans were on other waterways. Cars and parts of houses were swept away on the Sandy River. We at 9-1-1 were very busy, and our building served as a hub for the National Guard, which meant free food for us. I had a call from someone on the east coast who was having trouble reaching her relative in Portland. I asked where the relative lived, and when she answered, I almost laughed out loud.They were about as far from any flooding as they could be.
I so admire your 9-1-1 work. The stories!
DeleteI live in central Ohio, where tornados are our biggest weather threat. I have to admit, having lived with them all my life I am not that panicked by each warning. I respect the damage they can do, and I keep a watchful eye open during threats, but mostly try to go on about my life. My parents and decade-older-than-me siblings swear they used to experience real blizzards in the winter, but I have no recollection of those.
ReplyDeleteI don't think of Ohio as a tornado spot - you have enlightened me today!
DeleteI have been through an Ice Storm 1998 – 30 days in January, inches of ice everywhere, and no power for 30 days – challenging with pregnant livestock and no water. Well below freezing, so all food was popped outside in the snowbank, meaning we had lots to eat (fresh milk and eggs from the barn), lost no food, and since we heated with wood, we were warm. My father, in Nova Scotia mailed us wicks for an antique kerosene lamp. We had some oil.
ReplyDeleteDaughter went through Hurricane Juan in September 2003 in Halifax. We were in Ontario at the time and asked her about it. She said “sort-of like the ice storm, but warmer, less time without power, and chainsaws everywhere. It was cleaned up (in the city) faster”.
Hurricane Dorian - September 2019. By the time it hit us, it was mostly spent, but lots of rain, lots of wind (removal of a lot of shingles and a couple of windows blew in). We were finishing with our monarch hatch, and they decided to migrate in the middle of the storm! Power out for 2 or 3 days – a mere peccadillo.
September 2022 – Post tropical storm Fiona – a doozer! She is known as the most intense post-tropical cyclone to hit Canada on record. She made landfall here, and although post tropical, the winds were strong enough to make us seriously wonder if the basement was a better place to be. The patio doors were warping with the strength of the wind, so there was no contemplation of going out – the poor dog was keeping his legs together! The seas were wild, the trees were tumbling like toothpicks, the greenhouse popped a hole and then basically exploded, and so did the chicken palace. Power was off for about 14 days. A few days in a neighbour brought us a generator, which was used to power-on a few times a day – enough to keep the fridges/freezers going, charge the ipods, and watch an hour or two of tv for news and sanity. Family came from away with chainsaws and helped clear fallen trees and rebuild the chicken place using the fallen trees. My son in New Brunswick brought a griddle, which was new to us, and meant we could have food other than hamburgers/hot dogs from the barbecue. Two chickens died – one would not leave her nest, and the other was the rooster who tried to remain outside all the next night only to be a foxes breakfast.
We now have big sheets of plywood formulated to cover the south side windows, and have our own generator in its own little house. Let’s hope they are both something never to be needed again.
This year our worry has been wild-fires. We have not had rain since June, which will soon make us as arid as Arizona. We have had our escape box ready all summer just in case we need to run.
Margo, you have a lot of experience surviving natural events!!
DeleteWhen I was designing our house, I made several choices/requirements in order to keep us more secure in weather events: sturdy basement with outdoor access; wood-burning fireplace in case of long-term power outage in winter; whole-house surge protector to protect from lightning; all plumbing run through inside walls, to keep pipes from freezing in power outages. I lost the fight on solar, geothermal, and a whole-house generator, which would have given us even more autonomy. But I keep a well-stocked go kit, and a supply of fresh water that I refresh every six months, and an area in the basement with blankets, flashlights, and other stuff, in case of tornado.
My mom has been in her cottage on the Bay of Fundy since June and she said some days the wildfire smoke was so bad, she couldn't go outside.
DeleteIf anyone has Apple tv, may I suggest ‘5 days at Memorial’ – a story of hurricane Katrina and the Memorial hospital. The rise and effect of the storm, the politics, and what happened is thought-provoking. I suspect the politics of the social system has not changed much in the years that follow the rebuilding of the city. I tried to read the book, but found it hard plowing, so ‘enjoyed’ the series.
ReplyDeleteThe sad fact is that some of NOLA has never been rebuilt to this day.
DeleteHub just watched that (he's on a weather kick) and it is horrifying.
DeleteJenn do you wt much warning when a haboob is coming so you can seek shelter?
ReplyDeleteUsually everyone's phone starts going bonkers about fifteen minutes before it hits.
DeleteOh Jenn, I saw your haboob on the news and wondered how you deal with it. It must have been terrifying! Here in upstate NY we do get periods of heavy snow but the last few years it seems we get less snow than the year before. And the summers have gotten to be a lot hotter. Not AZ hot, not yet. But we have had many days this summer of temps over 90 degrees. I'm thinking of getting an air conditioner.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I go back east, I'm shocked that people don't have air conditioners and then I remember that we never needed them. The climate has definitely changed.
DeleteJenn, I saw the videos of the haboob on the National News (with David Muir). It was impressive!! Yikes.
ReplyDeleteI live in Southern Calif. and we haven't had to much to speak of recently.
But, years ago (2003) a fire wiped out about 300 homes north of us. Our close friends' home was burned to the ground and eventually they moved to Phoenix. The one thing about Phoenix is the extreme heat from about June to Sept (maybe longer?). I don't go to visit anymore because I just can't deal with it. But they love the heat and love Phoenix.
We live on the southern CA coast so this past year has been unseasonably cool.
Many visitors ask us if we aren't worried about the "big one" (earthquake) and I think back and realize I've never experienced a big one here in the San Diego area. Occasionally we get some shakes but nothing really dangerous.
BTW, JENN thanks for a great week of your thoughts, experiences, and keeping us laughing!!
We get blizzards here in Boston ! For years as a reporter, I was out in the middle of them, and it was sometimes kind of exciting, and sometimes absolutely ridiculous. It’s kind of amazing to see the power of a blizzard, and be in it, but they can be really devastating and destructive. I’ve seen snow higher than the cars on the street, you can’t even see that there were cars parked. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteEven days later you couldn’t put money in a parking meter because the snow covered them and you couldn’t even reach them from either the sidewalk or the street side
DeleteJENN: We have wildfires and earthquakes here in California. I remember there was a big fire the day before I was travelling to Toronto for the Bouchercon in 2017. To my surprise, the flights were not cancelled. I went to the airport and yes, the plane still is scheduled to go! I remember the drought years, including the summer I went to study abroad in England.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the dust storms in Arizona, I wonder if the Native American tribes in Arizona faced these dust storms before the European settlers arrived.
Oh my, Jenn! That haboob looks terrifying! Where does the name come from? I love a little southwest of Edith Maxwell - we have all sorts of weather. Just last night we had a tornado warning! Luckily it was a warning only! We’ve gotten effects from hurricanes, we’ve had blizzards, heat waves, droughts, not much in the way of earthquakes, fortunately! So far no dust storms.
ReplyDeleteThat haboob video is terrifying and fascinating! I've been lucky so far. Living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as a child, I experienced torrential rains as hurricanes came close, but we were never hit directly. I've been in big snow storms in Boston and Bern, but I was never in any danger. Small earthquakes often in Berkeley but never a big one. When we are in the Alps hiking, I'm aware of the danger of avalanches, but we are always on well-prepared paths. So far, so good.
ReplyDeleteAccording to our friend Colin, a retired state police officer, the term haboob originated in the Middle East and it was a term that our soldiers brought home with them! My experiences - I drove home from my office in Boston in my brand new car on the MA turnpike. It took so long that I made an emergency stop at the state police barracks and ran in to use their bathroom. I lived in an apartment complex right off the turnpike in Framingham with open parking under the building. Some who had to park in the lot outside found their cars balanced on top of 20 foot snow piles! We now have a whole house generator hooked up to our natural gas line! Snug as a bug in a rug!
ReplyDeleteBlizzard of 1978! Forgot to mention that!
DeleteColin was a trooper in Phoenix, AZ!
DeleteI live in dramatic California. Earthquakes, wind/rain/flooding, earthquakes, fire storms. Yes. Snow is rare, and we have had a couple tornadoes, which are extremely rare, in my part of the state.
ReplyDeleteDiana mentioned that the airport was open when she few to Toronto in 2017 through there was big fire. I changed airports when I flew to Dallas for Bouchercon due to the Kincaid fire. Cal Fire has an air attack base at the Sonoma County airport, so between those planes having priority and visibility, I knew my flight might be delayed and I could miss my connection. Airline was very nice and helpful.
I've found smaller airports are super accomodating.
DeleteJenn, are you aware that Cali is the capital of Columbia. It's not in California. As a native Californian we never call it Cali. Calif is ok. CA is ok as it is the "official" abbreviation.
ReplyDeleteI love my home state. I can't imagine living anywhere else in the US. (I can imagine spending significant time in the UK but it does snow in the winter there and I don't know if I could deal with that.) I don't mind the earthquakes as they don't happen very often. I live in the S.F. Bay Area. Wind isn't too bad. Rain is reasonable most of the time. In my 75 years we haven't been flood but once and that was in the early '60s. Once the Army Corps of Engineers fixed the creek it's never flooded. Fire storms are scary. I don't live in a fire area but have friends that do. The smoke from the fires can be back. In my life it's snowed here once in the '60s. I've never seen a tornado.
LOL - LL Cool J would beg to differ on "Cali" and the youngsters seem to be following his lead, but the Hub is a Californian and he says no to Cali or Calif :)
DeleteJenn, maybe you don't want to visit me in the spring or the fall! We are in tornado country. It can flood here, too, but fortunately our house is on fairly high ground and we've never had worse than a soggy back yard. We can have winter ice storms, too. Such fun. But I still don't think I'd trade you for your haboob!
ReplyDeleteWell, when I was 19 and living in Louisville, KY, I watched a tornado go by. It eventually tore a swatch through one of the oldest parks in the area as well as destroying a number of homes. To this day I marvel at our stupidity in doing that. Young and stupid, indeed. In Tampa, FL, I lived through four hurricanes in six weeks. During one of them, I sat at my window and watched a broken limb on one of the trees in my front yard balance on another one and blow from side to side as the hurricane rotated through our area. Amazingly, it never fell. In the lulls between swaths of rain, I would dash out and gather up tree limbs and other debris. That pile grew to be taller than me by the time the hurricane was done. I admit the waiting for hurricanes to decide exactly where they were headed can make me a bit crazy.
ReplyDeleteOne hurricane was forecast to come ashore near a coworker's home so he evacuated to Orlando. The storm took a wild turn and ended up going right over where he was staying in Orlando and damaged his new car. Give me a tornado any day. At least you know it isn't going to change its mind at the last minute and hunt you down in your new "safe" place.
Also enjoyed traveling home during an ice storm that pretty much shut Atlanta down for a few days. My boss wanted me to come into work the next day. I said I'd love to if he came to get me and return me home. He grew up in Wyoming so this wasn't a problem for him. To his credit, he transported me for two days until sanity and reasonably clear roads returned to my area.
I hate droughts. Those really bother me because I think they are a prelude to what will come our way in the very near future. That being said, we've had so much rain this summer and strange temperature fluctuations that it is difficult to know where we're headed weather-wise. -- Victoria
Northern Ohio chiming in--we get pretty much what Brenda listed for Minnesota. The tornadoes are the scariest, and while these last few years they seem to take a path along the lake or to the south of us, they're getting closer. The straight line winds are also scary--I heard two loud booms during one such event--the wind had sheared off two trunks in a maple at the corner of my house. The thump-thump I heard was the trunks bouncing off the ground. Luckily, they fell away from the house.
ReplyDeleteWell, Jenn, if tornados aren't your jam, then stay away from Kentucky. I don't remember anything about tornado warnings or watches when I was growing up. The first time I became really aware of tornados was when I was in college at the University of Kentucky in the spring of 1974, and they had all the students from my side of the campus, the newer side, go to the tunnels for the whole night (no school the next day). What was especially worrisome was that my parents had come to Lexington to take me out to supper, which we did because the warnings hadn't started yet. But, my parents were driving home, about and hour away, and I was so glad when I heard they were home because all hell broke loose that night in our state. Here's a Google description. "the 1974 Super Outbreak on April 3-4, 1974, involved a widespread swath of tornadoes across Kentucky, with notable events including a deadly F5 tornado that devastated Brandenburg, a destructive tornado that hit Louisville, and an F4 tornado that impacted the Stamping Ground area. The entire outbreak produced 148 confirmed tornadoes, resulting in 335 fatalities and extensive damage throughout the affected region." It was awful, but our campus wasn't hit. Then, after I married and moved to Owensboro, there was the tornado of Jan. 3, 2000 that tore through Owensboro, and F3 that did lots of damage, but the area I lived in was spared. And, there was a tornado I witnessed driving back from Bowling Green, KY where my son was in college. I was listening to the radio to find out where the tornado was because I knew it was near me somewhere as I was driving on the road. Well, all I had to do was look to the left to see it. It looked someways off and from the trajectory projected for it, it wasn't coming my way, so I continued to drive to get out of the area of danger. The instructions are if you see a tornado near you, to pull over to the side of the road and get in the ditch. Did I really want to get in a ditch when I was so sure I could drive out of the danger zone? Well, stupid is as stupid does and I drove on, arriving safely home. My poor guardian angel probably has to drink. Western Kentucky, where Owensboro is, is a hot spot for tornados, but not so much Owensboro itself. However, I just read something from Google that said Tornado Alley is shifting and not in my favor. "Yes, "Tornado Alley" is shifting east, with tornado activity decreasing in the traditional Plains states and increasing in the Midsouth and Ohio Valley region, including states like Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky." What scares me more than anything though is an ice storm. We had a major one in 2009, and I went through no electricity for over a week (finally MIL said I could bring my dog over to her house, which had electricity, I wasn't leaving my dog) and while waiting in traffic, a huge icicle crashed through the back window shattering it and my nerves. It was so cold in the house that the living room fireplace only helped if you were right next to it. The dog and I mostly stayed in bed with as many covers as I could put on, until after about four days I got to go to mother-in-law's. She finally accepted my terms of my dog sleeping in the bedroom I did and not in her unheated garage. She really didn't like dogs in her house, but she softened up over the years.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I don't want to live where hurricanes are a threat or tsunamis. Further north would bring snowstorms, and while I love some snow, I don't want to be in a dangerous blizzard. I'm not happy thinking about and earthquake either, but then the New Madrid Fault produces small quakes and is set to produce a big one sometime, and, of course, it runs through Kentucky. My hometown had an earthquake that did quite a bit of damage some years back.
So, I guess I'm staying put and taking my chances. It does seem there is a dangerous weather element almost anywhere you go.
I live in beautiful Maine with 4 special seasons. I love three of them (I tolerate summer). I love a huge blizzard where I can stay home and be cozy and ski afterward, but sadly it’s been awhile since we have had a snowstorm that lasts more than a day. We have lived all over the country and I wouldn’t live anywhere but here again (plus we are close to Quebec and closer to Europe for when I need a break from politics!)
ReplyDelete