The Weather

Well, tornado season has really come in with a bang. On Tuesday night we all went to bed thinking that the storms they were watching weren't really anything to get nervous about... then the storm radio started going off around 3am.

Growing up in Virginia we had numerous tornado drills, 2-4 per year... and never a single tornado warning or reason to assume the position:

Tornado Crouch

It really desensitized me to the threat of a tornado. I have to say that after living here for a year, I am now sufficiently scared.

Harrisburg was hit by a tornado early Wednesday morning. This is probably the most famous image from Harrisburg that you have seen:

Source

Harrisburg is about a 45 minute drive from Carbondale. You can help by donating much-needed supplies, including non-perishable food items, cleaning supplies, bottled water and toiletries to the First Baptist Church in Harrisburg, which is acting as a relief center, or the Little Egypt Network of the American Red Cross.

Yesterday, another set of storms moved through.This was the view from my window at lunch time:

Winds were blowing and hail was falling. But after about 20 minutes, the rain cleared and I was able to go back to work. However, another storm blew through and knocked out the power in our office for about 45 minutes.

What's you weather like?

A Few More Things From Saturday

Yesterday morning, Brandon and I drove around Murphysboro to look at some of the flooding. We drove right up to where Old 13 was blocked off:

We also drove down to Riverside Park. Check out the difference in just one week:

 Also, is it just me or does this billboard confuse you too?

It's a McDonald's ad for their new Frozen Strawberry Lemonade. I think the text is horrible. Brandon says it's supposed to be an argument between two people. I think it makes it seems like the whole drink is artificial...

Water Water Everywhere

The waters are rising! Thanks to the nonstop rain these past few weeks, this was my view on the way to work:

Flooding just off of Route 13 between the Jackson Co. Health Dept. and the Southern Illinois Airport. This pooling water is coming from the Big Muddy River.

For those who need to know about road closures, click here.

Weather Radio

Guess who got an emergency weather radio for Easter? I did:

Dang thing went off just a few minutes after I took the picture - "tornado watch warning" came across the screen and a horrible alarm sounded, you have to go to it and press "snooze" and then the weather alert plays.

People are serious about storms out here! My first inclination was to roll my eyes and tell them to get on with their lives but with the recent tornado that ripped through St. Louis, my view has changed a bit. Back in DC we would just ignore weather warnings, but then again the severity of the storms just isn't the same as it is out here - and now I have proof. I mean the last tornado shut down the airport and took away my only way out of here!

Source

The same tornado also ripped through a nice sub-division.

Source

While the houses were demolished, there were no fatalities - amazing. Reports indicate that the families were given a tornado warning and headed to their basements. ... So I guess those alerts DO work. Therefore, my weather radio will happily reside on my living room floor.

Could the antenna be any longer?

Severe Weather

... does not make for a good night's sleep. Yesterday, starting around noon, the radio started mentioning storms that were to come into the area around 9 pm. It was really windy for most of the day and dark clouds loomed in the sky. When I got home from work, Brandon was watching the weather and his mom was already calling us to come over. Although we live in a first floor apartment, we do not have a basement, so she was worried about us. I wasn't too concerned (sorry, I don't get it yet... I'm Virginian). We decided to make a homemade pizza for dinner - so good! About a half hour later, the regular prime-time shows were being interrupted by the local weatherman and there were tornado warnings in Missouri. That's when we finally decided to go over to Knute and Nancy's. A short drive down the road and a pit stop at DQ later we were at their house. Soon after, the tornado sirens sounded and and we headed to the basement to wait it out. It wasn't too scary, lots of lightening and wind that passed quickly. About an hour later we decided to head home. Unfortunately, on our drive back home we could see that the power was out from just past Hardees to Walmart on Rt 13 - right where we live! So we packed up our clothes and headed back to Brandon's parent's house for the night.

The Southern has a good article summarizing the storm. More storms to come...'tis the season!