We live in Oklahoma, so we are used to weather that can (and often does) experience rapid and pronounced changes in temperature and moisture content. Tornadic weather is expected from early Spring through early Fall. We don’t like it, but we accept that it is a reality of life here. The season for tornadoes seems to have expanded over recent years, with alerts being sounded way before Spring has begun to stir. Tuesday, the 10th, the clouds began to build and whipped themselves into an absolute fury around 2 pm.

Accustomed to seeing overcast skies and dark, billowy clouds, I was already at the local Blockbuster choosing videos when the heavens opened and unleashed a torrential downpour that included not only raindrops, but a sky full of descending ice-bombs. The hailstones came so rapidly that the ground was completely covered in icy, white hail within 60 seconds. And the sounds were deafening and frightening. Within 5-10 minutes the worst was over and the center of the storm had moved north and east where an actual funnel descended to wreak havoc on a local shopping center. With more ominous clouds moving into our area, I wised up and drove myself to my home and safety. Fortunately for us, the storms were over.

But, as the afternoon turned to evening an even more severe system moved into southern Oklahoma, where an F4 tornado resulted in the loss of lives and property. My heart and sympathy goes out to all those who lost loved ones in these storms, as well as to those who suffered property damage and personal injury.

If you are interested in such things, take a look at this video of the funnel that hit in our area. The clouds really were that dark at 2:30 in the afternoon. No wonder it’s all but impossible to see these things coming. I doubt that the people whose car headlights can be seen on the freeway in this video were able to tell that the funnel had descended. They are on the back side of the storm, and the dark, rain-swathed funnel would be hard to see.