A Sight to See!

I should have posted this the other night, when it actually happened. Which was Wednesday the 21st.

I have just had the most incredible experience of my life. This was going to be a rant about 20 minutes ago…but I just can’t rant about this. It’s long, but I have to tell this!!!

I live in Oklahoma, right along a strip of highway that is a tornado alley. Today, we are under a tornado watch until midnight. I’ve been scared to death all day. Last year’s constant batterings by them have left me freaked out.

So they were showing a storm cell that had split away and was working its way down my highway. It stalled out in a town 6 miles away. My husband is a volunteer fire fighter and it is policy that they go to the fire house during this time and be ready for what’s coming—leaving their families at home. :)

So we were in countdown mode, they were telling us it was coming our way, sirens were blaring, my washroom was ready. This same storm had broken off in a town 20 miles away, had rotation and was forming a hook when a cold front down low hit it and sent the hook back up. It was moving to the town 6 miles away and the hook was coming back down. There was extreme rotation but the hook was undefined. On top of this, these clouds were “rain wrapped’ which makes it very hard to discern when and where the hook will be. Rain wrapped are some of the most dangerous for that reason.

Anyway, I was sitting in the living room with my front door wide open and with my TV turned all the way up and ready to run my son, my dog and I into the washroom at a moments notice. They were warning about the storm. The storm chasers were reporting that it was rotating and right over my town. They were warning everyone to shelter. My living room was so hot, it was steamy. All of the sudden it was very cold in the room. I looked out side and the sky was blackened. So, curiosity got me and I stepped out onto the front porch to watch it.

This all happened in the course of maybe 2-5 minutes, I really can’t say—I was too excited.

About a ¼ mile from the front of my house, the clouds were moving in. The rotation was obvious. It moved towards my house—almost directly. I watched a tree top about 1000 feet from my house, part down the middle because of the air pressure. (Not split, just the parting of the leaves.) I watched the clouds rotating, and the sides form. It reminded me of when you watch a piece of pottery on a potters wheel form from a lump to a formed cup (except upside down, of course.) The sides of the funnel/vortex formed like the pottery, getting sharper and more defined. I kept thinking, “OH GOD!! No one will believe this!!” then I remembered my camera. I raced into the house and grabbed my video camera only to discover it was dead. (I am going to murder my teenage son for good measure.)

It was coming down in a hook, forming a tornado and it was less than 100 from the front of my house. I could not get off the porch; I could not move I could not do anything but watch the funnel form. I am guessing, but I think it was 150-200 feet off the ground–the funnel stopped dead from coming down and began to lose it’s sharp edge of definition. RIGHT OVER MY HOUSE!!!!! The cold air that came through stopped it from coming down. Can you believe this!!!???? No camera, the most intense moment of my life and, NO DAMNED CAMERA!!!!!!

-30-