Springtime in Oklahoma

Last week, after 41 years of living in Oklahoma, I finally saw my first tornado. Not for lack of trying, mind you. One of my earliest memories is of being in a storm cellar in a neighbor's garage with my grandmother and all the other women and children, and being pissed as all hell because I wasn't being let up into the garage, where the men were standing around watching the storm.

Of course, I didn't have my damn camera with me on May 10 (May is official Tornado month in Oklahoma, when all the lunatic storm chasers go hang out in Moore and wait for the next one to blow through. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Moore's population is made up solely of meteorologists and stormchasers, because nobody else wants to deal with the tornadoes that can't seem to resist the place).

But I digress. On this particular Monday, I was nowhere near Moore, being on my way to Karate class in Mustang, and had just hung up from talking to my mother, who was most concerned for my safety and made me promise to be careful. I suppose it's fortunate that I hung up when I did, because the next words out of my mouth were "HOLY SHIT! THERE'S ONE NOW!!", which I suspect might have triggered one of her heart episodes, had she heard it. My periodic reckless impulses come solely from the paternal genes.

Since I didn't have my damn camera, the photos that you see here were taken by people who obviously *did*:

Cute little thing...might've been an F1, though I don't think it ever got the chance to touch down; the storms that day were moving 60-70 mph, & that little rope never had a chance. We pulled in behind it to make sure it hadn't damaged anything, then chased it until it faded.

The ones that hit further north and east were a lot meaner. An F-4 tore across I-40 and trashed several service stations, including this Love's:

Amazingly enough, none of the nearly 20 people inside were killed (they packed into the walk-in cooler & the bathrooms), though two people did die in the storms that produced an estimated 24 tornadoes across the state in one day.

And then there was the hail. Hail is another fact of life in Oklahoma, and just about every spring, you can count on seeing scenes like this:

Pea-sized up to quarter sized is pretty standard stuff, but Mother Nature was evidently in a nasty mood last week:

Yes, that is ONE hailstone, and it was far from the only one of that size. Cars and roofs across the metro area took one helluva beating, and people with swimming pools took some cool videos:



And according to the weather reports, more fun is in store for tomorrow. Got the camera charged and ready.