Tornado Season

Coming from the mountains of British Columbia tornadoes are something we never had to think about.  Avalanches, snow storms, rockslides, bears in your back yard and hitting a moose on the highway, now those are things we had to be concerned about....but never tornadoes. Now that I live in south central Kansas tornadoes are something I take VERY serious. When the weatherman is telling us to 'get into your storm shelter now or the lowest part of your home'...I do what I'm told! Heck...even if you don't see one on the ground now it doesn't mean it can't drop out of the sky on your head!! Right? My step daughter (a native Kansan) is a very funny girl....always has a good joke for her Dad and one of her most recent ones is...'where do Kansan's go when there's a tornado?  OUTSIDE!!! And guess what.....it's TRUE! At least as far as my husbands family is concerned and our former neighbors from the city. While I'm panicking and wanting to drag him to the basement...he's out on the porch or on the road looking at the sky! Maybe I'm a bit paranoid not having been born in Tornado Alley.....but geeeeeez. Living in cities or towns in areas prone to tornadoes you have the sirens to warn you when there's a tornado on the ground or if there is rotation in the clouds coming your way or overhead. When you live in the country as we do you don't have that luxury...so you get a weather hazard/alert radio. Ours just got pulled out of the drawer and will be set up today. Recently I just saw on the news that they are predicting a particularly bad year for tornadoes here in Kansas. The Wichita Eagle said that "local meteorolgists are anticipating a potentially active tornado season in Kansas this spring". The president of WeatherData Inc stated recently "I'm quite concerned this could be a very busy tornado season". He states this because the United States has been wetter than usual and because there is a high pressure dome situated over British Columbia (!!!!!) that is directing the jet stream right through Tornado Alley. Well...who'd have thought British Columbia could have something to do with tornadoes down here in the middle of the US of A! So...it looks like there's a chance this could be a very 'interesting' spring down here on the farm. One thing for sure...I'm going to make sure my hubby wears his cell phone at all times when working outside around home and the weather radio is going to be turned up loud and clear. If we start hearing Professor Marvel from the Wizard Of Oz start shouting "Better get under cover Sylvester. There's a storm a blowin' up, a whopper..." we'll be doing exactly that!

Photo from The Wizard Of Oz