The Laughing Wolf

Snow Or Tornado: Some Thoughts On A Storm

I got an e-mail from a friend this morning, who has to deal with snow a great deal and wondered if they might not prefer dealing with the occasional tornado. I thought I would share my reply, even if it is a bit rough:

Having lived with both, I will take snow. Snow is a pain, it is cold, it can clog and block, and it can collapse structures if care isn't taken. Tornadoes, on the other hand, chew up large sections of landscape, drive leaves and pine needles through bodies and boards, rip off roofs and walls, and generally reign havoc on the world. I've been concerned recently because the last time this area was this unseasonably warm, this humid, this late in the year was when a large tornado took urban renewal into its own "hands" and revitalized a large chunk of south Huntsville. And points west and east. Quite a few dead, millions/billions in property damage, and some things never found. It happened right as I was moving here for the first time, and a friend drove me through the worst hit area a week or two later. There was an apartment complex on the side of a ridge, and one wall had been sheered off as with a knife and you could see into all the apartments in one or two blocks of buildings. It was like carpet bombing, but without the craters. Because this town tends to see tornadoes on a regular basis, they are a bit weather cautious -- some might even say panicky and overly sensationalistic. Ifni only knows that I pretty much don't watch one station here anymore because of how they do severe weather (among other things), but they do have a right to be as they are. Before moving here, I had been through only a couple of tornadoes. Since moving here, I've been through quite a few, mostly small, and that is quite enough, thank you.
*****

It is good that the weather was not as bad as predicted, and that the damage is not worse. The National Weather Service is now saying the tornado spotted in south Huntsville/Redstone Arsenal was not a tornado but just straight line winds. I am going to take that with a small grain of salt simply because this area is a highly political subject for the National Weather Service, but agree that if it was indeed a tornado it was only a small one. Not all were as lucky as we were here, but all in all this area and most of the state seems to have gotten lucky yesterday. For that, I will indeed be thankful next week and now.

LW