Topic: Me!
Most people that know me well, know that I'm scared of tons of things: spiders, bugs in general, mice, thunder, the dark, UFOs :) I'm the biggest pansy. . .seriously. HOWEVER. . .I have a very deep fasincation with tornadoes.
You may have seen footage or pictures of the tornadoes that decided to develop west of Oklahoma City last night. I literally CRAVE tornado season. I sit in front of the television, often times BEGGING Bubba to let me go chase the storms. Every time he says no. But then there's the story of the June 13th tornado and I'm gonna share it with you, of course.
The date was June 13, 1998. Chris and I were not yet married, but had been hanging out at my mom and dad's house. Chris owned (well, still owns) a truck and it was his baby. Literally. He'd make me walk two miles so that his truck wouldn't be within throwing distance of another vehicle. When the threat of hail occurred, he'd rush it someplace safe. . .someone that had a garage that he could put it. . .a car wash. . .or our favorite, a dry cleaners. On the evening of June 13, hail threatened. When they said the word "hail" on tv, Chris jumped up and grabbed his keys. I was hesitant on leaving because after "hail," I heard "circulation" and that got me all kinds of excited. As we headed out the door, I told Chris that I wish I'd grabbed my mom and dad's video camera. He didn't understand why. . .it was just hail. No biggie. I knew better. We drove like mad to get to the huge awning of the dry cleaners just a few blocks away. . .just as the rain started. We were listening to the radio and Oklahoma's infamous Gary England stated that there were two cells merging and that they both had strong circulation. These storms were merging directly west of where we were sitting. . .directly west of my house. . .and they were headed due east.
The rain poured and then came the hail. Chris sighed a deep sigh of relief knowing that his precious truck was safe (and his truck sought safety with another truck belonging to a friend of ours from high school) and what did I do? I peaked around the side of the building to see what I could see.
THERE IT WAS. Low circulation. I'd never seen it in person before. I was stoked. I was hooked. Apparently, not thinking eXaCtLy straight, I walked straight out into the hail and rain to watch. I made two phone calls, one to a woman I worked with from South Carolina (she was definitely freaked out) and one to a friend that lived in the neighborhood across from where I was. He was outside too and he said it was incredible. He was standing DIRECTLY under it.
As it headed towards me, it moved south just a bit. I still stood totally awe struck underneath the swirling black clouds as the tornado started to rope down. This is when Chris lost it. He grabbed my arm and started yelling at me to get in the truck. I couldn't. I just stood there as it roped a bit more and swirled faster and faster. I never felt scared, but Bubba did and he laid into me about it later :)
I seriously watched this wall cloud spin and rope out and the last thing I remember before Bubba heaved me into his truck against my will. . .the rope of the tornado grazed the top of the Blockbuster Video sign directly to my south. This sucker was going to tornado and it hit me that it could come on down and hit my house.
Well, Bubba backed his truck up clear across the parking lot as we watched this rope go up and down into the wall cloud. Yes. . .it did eventually touch down, but it touched down on the east side of Lake Hefner. And the wild thing about this particular tornado is that once it touched down, it didn't head east or northeast like the majority do. Instead, it headed south. Rather a bizarre sight as far as tornadoes go.
There you have it. My closest encounter with a tornado as of this date. Chris calls me a budding meteorologist because of my fascination and amateur knowledge of the weather. Shoot. . .I'm proud to say that many of my weather pictures have been featured on Rick's Pix. He told me last night that he can see me out chasing storms in ten years. I'd hate to wait that long. I would love to do it NOW. :) But then we have the issues of not sleeping after the adrenaline wears off. . .but I still won't give it up. Strange goal to have huh?? :)