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Author
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Topic: Spring has sprung
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted April 16, 2011 05:32 PM
Well, Thursday night marked our first close call with severe weather for this year. This line of clouds passed right over the top of Abilene and As I watched it build in a matter of minutes literally, I ran into the house and set up what my wife calls "Weather Central" which consists of my scanner, two televisions, my desktop on one radar and my netbook running real time radar through this really great online program I found. The netbook won, as usual, when it was the first to reveal what is called a "hook echo" on the radar image where the circulation in the clouds pulls the storm clouds in a counter-clockwise direction creating a hook that pretty much encircles the top of the funnel. The hook echo was in the south end of this wall cloud, photographed right over the top of Abilene.
For those who have never enjoyed the experience, a wall cloud forms at the tail end of a mesocyclonic thunderstorm and lowers and is where tornadoes form.
Anyway, I was at the dining room table with most of this stuff in front of me and my wife looking over my shoulder. My daughter was in the living room on her netbook when the hook first appeared. I looked at her, said, "Oh shit" and yelled at my daughter to go to the basement with her mama,... NOW. Fifteen seconds later, no kidding, the TV weather man broke into whatever was on and the weather radio went off, both issuing a tornado warning for us. Even the wife said that I was getting good at that shit as she grabbed the dog and headed for the stairs.
Went outside and observed rotation overhead but never saw the small funnel that FD said dropped down momentarily.
Ya gotta love Spring.
[ April 16, 2011, 05:42 PM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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tlbradford
Rimfires are MAGIC on COYOTES! If you do your part
Member # 1232
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posted April 16, 2011 08:09 PM
Yeah, I'm not really feeling that I am missing out on anything by not experiencing a tornado. Hopefully, it didn't touch down and ruin anything.
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"Dan Carey ain't that special" - LB
Posts: 423 | From: Spokane Valley, WA | Registered: Mar 2007
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32below
Knows what it's all about
Member # 2075
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posted April 16, 2011 08:59 PM
And while you enjoyed that fine weather phenomena we had enjoyed 8 hours of 70 mph straight line winds. Makes you appreciate those 20 mph days. CrossJ woulda spent a lot of time duckin tumbleweeds.
Posts: 100 | From: SW Kansas | Registered: Nov 2007
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted April 16, 2011 09:17 PM
Yeah, forgot to mention that while central and eastern KS were dodging tornadoes, Lynn and company in western KS were looking at winter. NW KS had 8 inches of snow and blizzard conditions lasting for over a day. Had I-70 backed up as far as here due to closures. We fought 45-50 mph winds for two straight days with this. Makes me wonder about all that global warming. Anyone whose lived here knows it's the cold weather that gets backed up by a warm front or dry line that sets things to rockin' and rollin'. If it got warm snd stayed warm , life would be boring.
In all seriousness, tl, you really are missing out. To us, tornadoes are a spectator sport. As scary as hell that they might be, they do add some spice to things. Running for your life tends to do that. When my wife moved here from Montana, they crossed the state line from Colorado and had to stop 4 times to let tornadoes cross I-70. Helluva first impression of Kansas. LOL
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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