Rocky, you see any signs of storm where you are?? off topic
 

We've got a "tornado" going through SW Washington/Vancouver area. You mid-westerners would probably laugh, but it's a big deal here. Apparently no humans injured, but since the Natonal Weather Service issued an alert here, it's a big deal. Our weather is so mild that when anything happens, it's enough to get news people looking for as much overtime pay as they can milk out of it. The only effect on me is that I'm missing my soap opera. Stupid weather.

Tornados are big deals no matter where you live. If you have ever seen entire towns and neighborhood wiped out up close you will not take them very lightly. And in this state there have been many towns ran through and millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of people killed. That a big deal no matter where you live. At least it should be.

Peace

Well, you're right, but frankly I"m not sure this thing would qualify as a tornado by midwestern standards. In one hour of news casting they've basically shown pictures of every building that was damaged and that's inbetween the weather maps and the picture of a car that got picked up and set on top of a log somehow. THey've shown that pic about 27 times.

Anytime you have a tornado touch down and it is moving cars around, that is a big deal. Consider yourself blessed when no one is hurt or killed. Just because it is not torn through an entire town does not mean it is not serious. Consider yourselves really blessed if all it did was turn over a car or two.

Peace

Tornadoes in metro areas are, honestly rare. Jeff's right, it's a blessing no one was injured. Strong enough to pick up a car is pretty strong, IMO. May not be strong my tornado standards, but it's strong enough for my tastes.

I'm happy that where we live now, tornadoes just don't happen (due to the mountain terrain.)

Well I started this thread to see if rockyroad had been involved in any of the "action". They said on the news that several schools had been locked down. Some had lost power, some lost phones. This is the time of day when he's often on the board, and since he's NOT here right now, I"m assuming his school was infact in the path. But we'll see what happens.

If it's still hanging around, they're likely taking shelter.

bttt

OK, I'm here now...nothing happened at my school or my house so that's good. I had a game in Seattle this evening and left work early and ended up driving right past the freaking thing. I never actually saw the tornado itself, but drove through HEAVY rain which quickly turned into nickel sized hail and then my ears popped and I realized something was going on (i'm pretty quick that way). Looked up and saw that the clouds were rotating somewhat, so I drove really fast out of there. From what I understand, I drove through the very end of things and missed out on all the excitement - didn't even have to stop to change my underwear!

Does this mean you changed them while driving or that you waited until you got to your game before changing them? :)

Being from Oklahoma, I can agree with JRut that tornados are a big deal. I've seen plenty of devestation first hand, so I'm glad to hear that there were no fatalities and no major damage.

Seems like storms ripped through a good part of the country. Hope everyone came out ok.

Not big as tornadoes go (F1 on the Fujita scale) but still dangerous. The touchdown path was roughly 1/4 mile wide and 2 miles long - no reported injuries, but several houses significantly damaged, 200 or so trees downed and a bunch of racing sculls at the Vancouver Lake rowing club thoroughly trashed.

As Jeff said, any funnel cloud type cloud can be dangerous - even a large dust devil. I still vividly recall a summer afternoon in the late 80's when I was landing at the Carson City, NV airport - on short final when a 25 ft dia/75 ft high dust devil suddenly went dancing across the approach end of the runway right in front of me. Things got just a wee bit interesting for 10 or 15 seconds, but turned out OK - can't say the same for a couple of small planes that weren't tied down properly on the ramp, one of which was flipped completely over on it's back.

Skull racing is huge in Vancouver. Most of the rest of the country doesn't even try to compete, they just settle for scull racing. :D

(Nevada, this post won't be deleted or "censored" because it isn't didactic or harsh. It's just a little razzing of a friend of mine, and contributes to the discussion by providing a baseline of companionable banter.)

That's what I get for trying to multi-tasque ;)