Weather Radar Site

[Maggie]

I've been watching this website with great
interest today since the weathermen in
my area are predicting a tornado outbreak.

You can search for radar for your
area in the USA, by city and state
off this page which is the radar for the
Oklahoma City, OK radar.

Maggie

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest.../si.ktlx.shtml

I hope I don't end up saying the phrase "I don't think we're
in Kansas anymore, Toto" later today!!!!

: : : :

[Maggie]

HI Star,

Thanks for your message.

It was a violent weather afternoon and evening in
Oklahoma yesterday. A very severe storm formed
out in Western Oklahoma and travelled eastward.
It formed a huge wall cloud and tornadoes were
coming out of it off and on all afternoon and evening.
I was very scared as the storm was moving straight
towards my city. It came into my county, putting
down tornadoes that did damage. When it came
within just a few miles of my home, it started
to turn towards the northwest and moved over
the northern part of my city. Thankfully it moved
off into the next county and away from my city.
I had made tornado preparations as best I could,
by getting my bedroom closet ready, so I could
jump into it at a moment's notice. I also had
flashlight and battery powered radio at hand.
I put cash, driver's license and a credit card
in my pocket, just in case.

This was quite a close call for my city, and
I am just happy to be here at MG, writing
to you all this morning.

Maggie

[Vonnie]

Glad you and your home were spared.
I was watching the weather channel and it did look bad up there.

[acejones]

Originally Posted by Maggie

HI Star,

Thanks for your message.

It was a violent weather afternoon and evening in
Oklahoma yesterday. A very severe storm formed
out in Western Oklahoma and travelled eastward.
It formed a huge wall cloud and tornadoes were
coming out of it off and on all afternoon and evening.
I was very scared as the storm was moving straight
towards my city. It came into my county, putting
down tornadoes that did damage. When it came
within just a few miles of my home, it started
to turn towards the northwest and moved over
the northern part of my city. Thankfully it moved
off into the next county and away from my city.
I had made tornado preparations as best I could,
by getting my bedroom closet ready, so I could
jump into it at a moment's notice. I also had
flashlight and battery powered radio at hand.
I put cash, driver's license and a credit card
in my pocket, just in case.

This was quite a close call for my city, and
I am just happy to be here at MG, writing
to you all this morning.

Maggie

where are you at Maggie? my wife and I live in Tulsa. The same storm that went through OKC made it here about 1:00 AM. for reference, we live at 61st and Memorial in Tulsa, and the tornado actually went through town at 81st and Memorial. we spent about half an hour in the tub with blankets and crap on top of us. we stayed up a while to watch the storm and i guess it went all the way to arkansas. i saw where there where some fatalities in missouri from a tornado, i'm not sure if it was from the same storm.

we are ok, i'm glad you are too.

[Maggie]

HI Vonnie:

Thanks so much for your message. I was flipping back
and forth on the TV between the Weather Channel
and the local TV channels. Here from about 4 PM on,
the local TV stations went to continuous coverage
of the weather until the threat passed. Do the local
stations in Texas do the same? It would be interesting
to know how local TV stations in other states handle
severe weather events. Do they do updates
every so often or do they do continous coverage.

Hi Ace: I live in Edmond. I stayed up until a little
after 10 PM and the threat had passed Edmond
but the storm was still going strong and heading
East. It sounds like that storm started at one end
of the State and went clear to the other side of
the State. Sorry to hear you had to take cover
but glad you and your wife are OK from the storm.

Maggie

[OverCooked]

Originally Posted by Maggie

HI Star,

Thanks for your message.

It was a violent weather afternoon and evening in
Oklahoma yesterday. A very severe storm formed
out in Western Oklahoma and travelled eastward.
It formed a huge wall cloud and tornadoes were
coming out of it off and on all afternoon and evening.
I was very scared as the storm was moving straight
towards my city. It came into my county, putting
down tornadoes that did damage. When it came
within just a few miles of my home, it started
to turn towards the northwest and moved over
the northern part of my city. Thankfully it moved
off into the next county and away from my city.
I had made tornado preparations as best I could,
by getting my bedroom closet ready, so I could
jump into it at a moment's notice. I also had
flashlight and battery powered radio at hand.
I put cash, driver's license and a credit card
in my pocket, just in case.

This was quite a close call for my city, and
I am just happy to be here at MG, writing
to you all this morning.

Maggie

Im glad you got through it. Our whole area is under a tornado watch untill 10:30pm. There has been storms rolling in and out all day. We even a surge that messed up my display on the tv.

:

cooked

[Maggie]

Overcooked:

I hope no tornadoes come your way!!!!

Good luck and stay safe!!!!!!

Maggie

[OverCooked]

Originally Posted by Maggie

Overcooked:

I hope no tornadoes come your way!!!!

Good luck and stay safe!!!!!!

Maggie

Thanks, The moment i hear some sirens i am going straight to the basement. With my computer in my arms of coarse.

:

cooked

[Maggie]

Overcooked:

You're lucky to have a basement. Where I live
not too many people have them. Alot of
people around here have had storm shelters
or safe rooms installed at their homes after
the F5 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma and the south sides
of Oklahoma City, May 3, 1999. That was
a monstrous tornado and not easily forgotten
by many here.

It's interesting that you mentioned bringing the PC to the
basement. I was thinking the same thing
last night, like how quickly could I get my
computer unhooked and carry it to
the closet with me. Darn, I wish I had
a laptop! HAHA!

Maggie

[OverCooked]

A basement is a good thing to have. We have a family friend who lives out in kansas. A basement was too much so the whole first floor of his house is double reinforced. It has saved him a couple of times to.

I already have my computer unhooked and ready to go. Right now i am using an old junker that i had laying around....

Well here comes some thunder and lightning. My news station has been coming up durning the nascar race every 15min updating the warnings. Im keeping my finger crossed.

:

cooked

[Maggie]

Overcooked:

Best of luck to you! I hope nothing bad comes your way!

Is Jimmy Johnson still leading the race? Last I heard, he
was way ahead.

Maggie

[OverCooked]

Well right now its Dale Jr. (my favorite)

Ill be off for a while i got to find my brother. He is out at a friends house and he dosnt have the sense to come home when it gets bad out.

:

cooked

[F18delta]

Hey Maggie!

Being from Moore, I can understand where you are coming from. I had already moved to Houston by the time the '99 tornado hit. Oddly enough, everyone that I knew that lived on 12th street was just fine. A house that I used to live in had the roof ripped off and my aunt's house was stripped to the dirt with all the tile being ripped up as well.

Now for the really scary part:

Houston doesn't have any type of real tornado alerts like sirens and such. Most of the time, the tornados are already on the ground and gone by the time that they are even called a tornado. With most of the hurricanes spinning off tornados, it makes me wonder just how safe I am here.

Anyhow, I am glad that you made it though! Listen for those sirens and keep an eye out on the western sky.

[G.T.]

Probably the same front clobbering Memphis area right now. 5 twisters sighted, one about 20 miles southwest, that one went east of me. Just heard the Missouri bootheel got hit hard; most of it without power. I've been listening to the fire sirens for the last half-hour and watching live weather coverage. Must-See TV. :D

[Vonnie]

Originally Posted by Maggie

HI Vonnie:
Thanks so much for your message. I was flipping back
and forth on the TV between the Weather Channel
and the local TV channels. Here from about 4 PM on,
the local TV stations went to continuous coverage
of the weather until the threat passed. Do the local
stations in Texas do the same? It would be interesting
to know how local TV stations in other states handle
severe weather events. Do they do updates
every so often or do they do continous coverage.
Maggie

They dont have contiuous coverage unless one is spotted.
They break into any program to update us on what is going on.
I sure do like the weather channel for the continuous coverage.

[OverCooked]

Well its all done over here. We got a lot of rain 1.45in and some really heavy wind gusts that knocked down some heavy branches. About 30 miles south of us however, they think a tornado hit. damaged a few houses and cars. The national weather service still has to check out the area to confirm the tornado. We all got through it well, and hope that there wont be any more severe weather threats soon.

Hey did you see the tornado in kansas: 1/2 mile wide!!!

:

Cooked

[G.T.]

Originally Posted by Maggie

It would be interesting
to know how local TV stations in other states handle
severe weather events. Do they do updates
every so often or do they do continous coverage.Maggie

Hi Marge. Here in Memphis, they run continuous weather warning streamers at the bottom of the screen if there's thunderstorm or flood warnings or tornado watches. If the storms get dangerous, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX all go to live coverage, even if tornado warnings haven't been issued yet. Radio stations owned by ABC also go to live coverage from the TV weathermen. Memphis has the latest doppler radar and software to display it on TV. They can zoom the radar map in literally to street level, and track rain, wind, potential twisters and hail neighborhood by neighborhood. Loose network of spotters, and they take call-ins live from anybody in/near problem areas. This time of year, there's hardly a week that goes by that we don't have at least tornado warnings, if not actual twisters. I can follow the storms live and guess pretty accurately when the fire sirens are do to go off. Haven't heard any damage reports, but 5 twisters were identified last night. I'm from Chicago, where they do intermittent warnings at the bottom of the screen, and may break in live to report a tornado sighting and talk about it for a bit, but I've never seen weather coverage like here. Of course, I've never seen as many tornadoes as here either.

[Maggie]

F18Delta:
I was very interested to
read that you used to live in Moore.
I'm sorry to hear about your Aunt's house.
My parents live in Norman and a few
days after the tornado on May 3, 1999
I travelled to Norman. The I-35 highway
had finally been cleared for travel. As
I drove into the area of the south side
of Oklahoma City and then through
Moore, I was just STUNNED. I could
not believe what I was seeing. It
was as if a bomb had exploded there.
It was one of the most shocking sights
I have seen in my life.

Does Houston have a tornado season,
as we have here or is it most often, as you
mentioned, that tornadoes are spawned
off of hurricanes during the Hurricane Season?

I was pleased to find that Weather Radar
website that I listed the link for in my
first post on this topic. I have used it quite
a bit this Spring and have found it quite
helpful. I hope it might help you as well,
as you monitor the weather in Houston.

The next few days we have chances for
thunderstorms again. I certainly hope
it is nothing on the scale of the other
night.


GT
I hope you are doing OK from the storms
in your area. I'm sure you're right, it's
the same storms that came through
Oklahoma, that are hitting your area.
Our sirens here went off three times
during the storms. Your comment of
"Must See TV" is quite interesting.
I was thinking the same thing. For
real Reality TV, just watch the weathermen
on TV in Oklahoma (or elsewhere) during
a severe storm outbreak! THAT is
reality TV!!!!! WOW!

Maggie

[G.T.]

. Yeah, I'm fine. Tornado is like a bullet. A near miss will get your attention, but doesn't hurt. May knock the power out for a while, and I've had a few things fried by near lightning strikes, but nothing damaged. Being hit is a whole different thing, but so far, not yet...

[Maggie]

Hey GT

Glad to hear you're doing OK there!

We've got a chance of storms possibly starting
this evening so I suspect I'll be checking
out the radar website from time to time.

I've also had some adventures with lightning
strikes near the house. Zapped the microwave,
garage door opener, window unit air conditioner
that was for my back room, plus a couple of
devices on the old computer I used to have.
This was several years ago, but it seems like
my scanner "got it" and maybe the external
modem I was using at the time.

Anyway, it will be a relief to get into good
old summer time when the weather is
boring!

Take care,
Maggie