Catching up

[Murfreesboro]

I can't remember every time I've been near tornadoes, but I do recall one evening when I was 15, probably Feb of 1970. That was a day when there was a massive tornado outbreak up in the Delta, maybe 27 or 30 of them in one day. Jackson isn't in the Delta, but as the storm system pushed through the state, things got wild. Back then folklore taught that you should open all the windows in your house to equalize the pressure, so that the tornado wouldn't explode your house. They say now that's not true, but we believed it back then. So my mother was racing around, opening all the windows. Meanwhile, in addition to the wind, we heard the baleful tornado sirens wailing. It was the middle of the week, and I had loads of homework due the next day. I sat on my bed and thought, "Well, one of two things is going to happen. Either the tornado is going to hit, or it isn't. And if it doesn't hit, I'll have to turn in homework tomorrow." So I sat in the middle of my bed and diligently completed all my homework, while it sounded as if the world were ending.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I hope that you and your family remain safe this weekend Murf.

I'm thankful that I live in a geologically stable geographic region and so far we haven't ever experienced anything worse than hail and massive snowfall.

My mother told me that when she was growing up in California she experienced a few earthquakes but there wasn't any really big ones when she was there. She said that back then people were more afraid that they were going to blow up the world with nukes, and that was far more scarier to them.

Both my grandfather and grandaunt have told me some of the unbelievable disasters that they have lived through, and my grandaunt is at the point where she is numb to them now, as she often just laughs when a storm hits Florida. She says that she has survived so much destruction that she doesn't fear it anymore, and that she will go when the good Lord is ready for her.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

It looks like I was writing my post while you posted that story so I just saw it.

You certainly were brave to sit there and do your homework with the threat of a tornado hitting your home. Was there actually school the next day?

[Murfreesboro]

I believe there was school, yes, so I turned in my homework. I guess the tornado either didn't touch down, or didn't do so in the city.

When I was growing up in Mississippi, spring was just tornado season. One of the things I enjoyed about middle TN when I first moved up here was that we didn't have as many of them. It seems to me they are maybe more numerous here now than they were then, and the winters aren't as cold. But I don't know if that really constitutes climate change, or just a normal variance. Back in the '70s, it was so cold that Time magazine had a cover story on the possibility that we might be entering a new ice age. Climate change meant freezing back then. It's one reason I don't get so worked up about that topic now. The earth is never static, and I suspect the sun may have more to do with its variations than we do.

We survived the first round of storms just fine, though the thunder was so strong it woke us up c 4:45. Since then it seems to have cooled down a smidgen, which is good. The thing to watch is whether or not the sun shines much before round two this afternoon and early evening. If it does, it will warm up and destabilize the atmosphere, strengthening the storms.

[Andybev01]

HH; yes, those pix are from my balcony, looking across downtown and the other direction, out toward the Cascade range.

This one is looking down Main st. It's a Victorian era gold mining and lumber town.

I have lived in volcano/earthquake, ring of fire, my whole life. As a matter of fact there are extinct volcanic cones all over the PNW, several in my area.

We got a dusting of ash after Mt. St. Helen's blew her top in May 1980, and rock-n-rolled through the Loma Prieta quake in 1989.

I will take that over feet of snow (although we get the occasional blanketing here) or hurricanes and tornadoes any day.

[Murfreesboro]

My CA cousins say they prefer earthquakes to tornadoes. IDK. To me, nothing would be quite so terrifying as not being able to count on the earth beneath my feet. Of course, we aren't immune to that, either. The New Madrid Fault over near Memphis produced the granddaddy of all earthquakes c 1810 or 12. The Mississippi River ran backwards, Realfoot Lake came into being, and churchbells rang as far away as Boston. I think about that whenever I cross the river at Memphis.

We survived the storms. At one point we were under tornado warning, but the storm dodged our part of the county. My daughter did get dismissed from work early. She was supposed to work until 6:30, but the owners closed up at 3 due to the forecast.