Tornado Season

Tornado season has arrived in Kansas. Yesterday we prepared our "safe" room (the room in our basement that is 3 sides concrete) with the necessities of spending time there when necessary: water, granola bars and mandarin oranges (in easy open plastic packages), a mattress and some sleeping bags, shoes (thanks Cindy!), flashlights, batteries, radio. The first potential for severe weather was forcast to arrive yesterday evening, and sure enough, the tornado sirens did go off at about 8:15 last evening. One thing we have noticed about severe weather forcasts here in Kansas - they know exactly what they are looking for and they keep the public well informed. So, while the tornado sirens were alarming and we could hear them well, we went to our basement but not the safe room. Why would we not go in the safe room if the tornado sirens were sounding? We were informed by the television weather broadcasters that the sirens are activated on a county wide basis, and the storm trackers (both in the weather station and out in the weather) keep you well informed of exactly where the trouble spot is. And, thanks to our wonderful flat terrain and straight road grid system, not only can a funnel cloud be easily spotted, you can tell exactly how far you are away from it just by counting the grid blocks that the roads create! So, it was quite easy for the weather forecasters to pinpoint exactly where the trouble spot was and using the storm direction and speed, tell you exactly how long you had to seek shelter. They were able to tell us and show us that although the western edge of our county was in the path of the storm, we were about 20 miles away and the storm was tracking to the north and west of our little grid point. So, we hung out in the basement for about an hour, switching channels on the TV back and forth between a silly movie and the storm trackers, until it was apparent that the storm was loosing intensity and the warning was lifted - thankful that we have a safe room, but even more thankful that we didn't need it - this time. We do wish they made a weather radio available that would alert you only of tornado warnings ( not all severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings, etc.) and only in our area of the county instead of county wide - the alarm on those things can lift you right off the bed when you are in the midst of a sound sleep! (We learned that a little later last night, but gratefully went right back to sleep when we learned it was "only" a severe thunderstorm warning in a different area of the county.) So, hopefully the rest of the season will be as uneventful as last night was. Oh, by the way - the shoes are in case when you open the door of the safe room you are greeted by broken glass or other hazards. Like I said, hopefully the rest of the season will be as uneventful as last night!