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Weather-how much attention do you pay to it?

Miss Shelf

Miss Shelf

New Member
I love weather! Not when I have to go out in it, but I am addicted to the National Weather Service website radar for my area and check it several times a day, and if there's nothing happening here I like to see if there's anything going on anywhere else in the US. I like to check the temperatures in Hawaii and Alaska. I also like to watch the Weather Channel-not just during hurricane season. I've learned a lot of things, like when you see feathery clouds in the sky that means the weather's changing.

I used to just check to see if I'd need to take an umbrella in the mornings, but I've become interested in weather patterns, because it seems to me that our weather is changing-I notice far fewer thunderstorms in the summers than when I was a kid, for instance.

How about you? do you pay more than casual attention to weather where you are?
 
I don't pay much attention to the weather I don't think. I don't watch much of the weather news. If I am going to go out for a walk then I will look outside at the weather ;)
 
I too like to pay attention to the weather. I wonder how many TBF'ers would be willing to post their zip code so we could check in on what's happening where other TBF'ers live? Or at least give a zip code of the closest city.

I use weather.com most of the time. If you want to know what's happening in my general area you could type in 19808 and see what's doin' today.....
 
I like to say that Kansans are all amateur meterologists. Around here, it's not just a matter of convienence, but life and death. I like to know what the weather forcast is for the day, but realize that even with the most sophisticated equipment in the world, weather is highly changeable and it's my responsiblity to know enough to "read" the sky and head for shelter. That's not to say that we haven't stood out in the yard and taken some awesome photos!
 
Here's the first 2 I downloaded. It was taken August 24, 2005. The wall cloudstretched from east to west, and the photo was taken from our yard from the south side. As this pic was being taken, my dh and I were driving toward it from the north, and had to pass right under it. The whole thing was a seething, rolling jumble of twisty mess that looked like numerous funnels could form from at any moment. Turned out not to be any tornadic activity, but we sure were paying close attention :eek:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/hisgirl3681/august241.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/hisgirl3681/august248.jpg
 
wow, that's scary! Great pics, too!! Have you experienced tornadoes before? There have been some close to where I live but thankfully we never had one come within 5 miles of us.
 
I've lived my whole life in Kansas and never actually saw a tornado until 14 years ago on April 26,1991. That one is still known around here as the Andover Tornado. We were living in south Wichita and were running next door while it took out the nursery three blocks north of us. I was 9 mos pregnant at the time, and had been having mild contractions all that day. When I got to the porch to run to the neighbors, I saw the tornado. It was a huge monster-almost exactly like the one on the Wizard of Oz. It was very very close and for a minute it looked like it would come down our street. So when my faster running family hollered at me to run, I did..
After getting the kids downstairs at the neighbor's, my husband said that it had passed by and if we wanted to see it, to come on back up.Then it looked like the white tornado from the Mr. Clean commercials. We could see white/silver debris twirling way up high. At first it looked like paper, but then we realized it was the trailer court across from the nursery.
About an hour later we started trying to get to my in-laws house to check on them and to drop off kids since I was having regular contractions. Our phone was out-sorta- we could receive calls bu could not call out. Due to power lines being down, we wound up beinng routed right through the worst-hit neighborhoods west of us. It looked like somebody had enraged the Jolly Green Giant and he'd gone through the area with a weed-wacker and stomped around smashing things.
This is the very-abbreviated version of this story-getting to my in-laws was wild, but so was the labor.. :rolleyes:

Since then, I've seen a few funnels and had a few close calls, but none like the '91 storm, thank God.
 
My gosh, what an adventure! Lucky the baby didn't decide to come till after things had quieted down a bit, and lucky the tornado didn't take out your house. That must be surreal, to see houses and trailers flying through the air.
 
what we saw was not reckognizable as houses and trailers, just bits of houses and trailers..I knew two families who had their homes destroyed while there were hiding in them. One family was in their basement, and the woman was talking on the phone telling her mom she loved her, in case they died..(they didn't but she suffered severe depression afterwards), and the others were in their bathroom, huddled together. They heard the freight train sounds, then their toilet flushed just seconds before all hell broke loose. Their youngest child had just started potty training, and she still had bowel problems the last time we saw them, which was 8 years ago. Less than a year after the storm, he was transfered to England, and they all benefitted from the tornado-free weather! But I have never forgotten what the mom told me about seeing barefooted kids wandering through the debris..so whenever it looks threatening, I make my kids wear their shoes-even if they have to wear them to bed..
 
Oh, my, what terrible timing for it to happen during potty training!

that's a good idea about wearing the shoes to bed, I believe "better safe than sorry". I just cannot imagine having one's home and everything in it just disappear right over your head.
 
The 10 day forecast for my region looks like fall...

The highest temperature in the next 10 days:
80 F = 27 C

The lowest temp. in the next 10 days:
46 F = 8 C

very little chance of rain, and the humidity is very low...
 
The forecast for liverpool is rain,rain and more rain!

Its really cold and windy here today!

As i live right by the beach you seem to feel it more!
 
Mark me down as one of those obsessed with weather. Like abecedarian, those of us in OK have learned to look up and figure out what's going on. it's not unusual for the tornado sirens to sound and the warnings to be issued just after a tornado has lifted back up off the ground and moved on.
When I was younger, I loved chasing storms. I can remember driving down the street as a teenager watching a tornado coming at me from the other direction and leaning out the window of my dorm room in college to watch one come up I-35. Since the May 3, 1999 tornado missed us by about a quarter of a mile, though, I've found myself a little more cautious. Still fascinated, just a little more respectful.
I spend a lot of time

Miss Shelf said:
and if there's nothing happening here I like to see if there's anything going on anywhere else in the US.
Click to expand...
Since our trip to China, I check the weather at the places where we went all of the time. Glad to see I'm not alone.
 
That May 3,1999 storm system was wild and wicked. At about the same time an F-4 or was it 5?(help on this curiouswonder), a tornado just as big and deadly was forming just 5 miles SE of my house. It tore through the little town of Haysville and devasted their oldest part of town. Then it tore through a trailerpark and killed at least three people, and still it kept going. Seems like it traveled at least 10 miles on the ground, and totally changed the affected areas. My dh was part of a clean up crew in Haysville. It was awful. But, as bad as it can be when tornadoes are dancing, I still think I prefer them to hurricanes. At least with a tornado, even if it comes within a quartermile of my house, my house most likely will be standing and dry when it passes..Hurricanes are a lot less selective.

BTW- I like to check the weather in other areas too.
 
abecedarian said:
That May 3,1999 storm system was wild and wicked. At about the same time an F-4 or was it 5?(help on this curiouswonder)
Click to expand...

If I remember right, there were around 100 tornadoes that fired off that afternoon and evening. The big one that rolled through here was an F5+ (there is no F6, but the wind speeds were actually higher than they thought possible so the scale was inadequate to measure it). I know that it was the biggest of the night (or ever recorded in the US), but it wasn't the only huge one to touch down during that storm. Once you get to F4 or 5 the only difference is how far the pieces of your house get blown.
 
I'm not big on the weather here, it's usually pretty normal and dull, but photos and stories of storms and unusual weather systems do fascinate me when I come across them.

Strange someone should mention they get less storms in the summer than they used to, I remember as a kid always getting big summer lightning storms to cool the air, but now it doesn't seem like we get many at all. We've started getting more snow in the last few years though.
 
I tend to keep track of the weather. Since moving to the USA I've been paying more attention than usual since I now have to worry about tornadoes and hurricanes. Not that it made too much difference having been without electricity and running water for the past 3.5 weeks due to Katrina. Not sure I'll want to 'batten down the hatches' for the next 'big one' - Let's hope there won't be a next 'big one'.

Whenever we get tornado watch/warnings I do prepare myself for the worst - get my parrots travelling box out and keep my shoes on in case I need to make a mad dash to the in-laws house as they have a 'safe' room.

Oh for the days when all I had to worry about was whether to wear a coat or take my brolly with me!
 
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