Posted on 04/20/2005 6:43:27 AM PDT by Dallas59
Spectacular pictures.
I would love to live in OK since it's half way between both of our daughters, but this is a good reason not to live there.
I think the bark is worse than the bite.
Great pictures ... makes me want to move back to Oklahoma (but then, just about everything does ...)
I love watching that kind of weather but I usually can't. The great lakes really knocks the steam out of those storms.
Looks like somebody's going to get a quick trip to Oz. ;)
They get frequent flyer miles on the plains.
I dunno... when we lived in KS a tornado went across our back yard. Put our horse through the tin roof of our barn, mowed down all our corn and tore the roof off our garage.
It was around midnight, so we missed seeing all the cloud formations.
Absolutely spectacular.
I love all those greenish storm cloud pictures, as you know they're just FULL of large hail!
Do you know who the photographer is?
Naw...stay where you are. Okie ticks are as big as golf balls...and the mosquitoes are bigger than hummingbirds.
People get West Nile virus like the common cold. And the weather sucks...year round.
So....whatever you do, don't come here.
(vbg)
FRegards,
I have lived here since January 2nd, 1997 and love it! We had a wall cloud go over our house several weeks ago but no rotation. The warning system in Oklahoma is tremendous not to mention we have the Storms Prediction and National Weather Centers within a few miles of my house right here in Norman.
We were here when the F-5+ tornado struck Moore and other towns just a few miles from us -- we watched our local TV track the storm the whole way so people had plenty of warning just where the tornadoes were on the ground.
There is an old Indian legend that a buffalo wallow was down by the river to the west of Norman where they always went when the storms were bad. Norman, knock on wood, has never been hit by a major tornado. Maybe the Indians are right.
Tornadoes can hit almost anyplace in this Country for the most part that is not in the mountains. I lived in Fairborn, Ohio, when the big tornado hit Xenia. It is a matter of being prepared and getting plenty of warning that a wall cloud is beginning to show rotation and lowering with a hook echo on the screen. Until I moved to OK never heard of a rotating wall cloud or a hook echo.
We have storm chasers everywhere around here and that is where a lot of the pictures come from because they broadcast live from their vehicles.
I love Oklahoma which is my adopted state now and spring of the year may have tornadoes but it is a beautiful time of the year here! Norman is the best place I have ever lived and have lived in quite a few locations thanks to Air Force Materiel Command.
In California we had danger of earthquakes and forest fires including a fire in the Little San Gorgonio Mountains the day the movers packed the truck that had ash falling on the boxes from the wind blowing off the mountain into our yard. Not to mention the storm we went through that took out the Santa Monica pier and red tile off our roof and we were inland about 90 miles.
We went through a hurricane in NH, and two small earthquakes and tornadoes around us in Ohio, and a hurricane, flooding, and small tornadoes in Texas. One of the roads leading to our subdivision was flooded so bad you couldn't use it and at the high school they had a canoe going around the campus as water was so high.
Every place has its weather, fire, or earthquake problems so Oklahoma is not unique. We are fortunate to have to best warning system in America thanks to the Storms Prediction Center being here in Norman (thank you J.C.) and our TV and radio coverage that pinpoints the storms block by block.
Spectacular pictures.
During one spring I worked for Severe Storms Labs in Oklahoma. We had a little Jamesway tent and Rawin Site (weather balloon) site in Piedmont, Oklahoma. The main radar, the newest of its generation, was in Norman.
One night we had storms all over the state. Norman gave us a warning on the net radio that there was a TS (Thunderstorm) with a hook echo (possible tornado) over El Reno, a few miles to our west. The Rawin site radioed that they could see a funnel cloud when the lightning permitted. It was dark, because the clouds were so thick that no light was present.
The chief then asked for us, I replied that we were listening. He then said "You guys better watch out, that thing's headed right for you." My knees started shaking right away. We called the guy with the siren then went across the field to the school's storm shelter.
All the residents were out watching for the approaching boomer. We were all squinting into the driving rain and trying to make out features during the lightning strikes. Meanwhile the shelter beneath us was full of animals yapping and meowing; the pets were all in the shelter and all the humans were watching out for the tornado.
It passed just north of us.....a tornado at night is like an event from another world. You hear the sounds while the wind whips up and the rain accents the forces of nature around you. It was something I'll never forget.
Awesome pictures
Apr. 20 to May 5th is the most time when most tornadoes occur in Oklahoma. I love it here and would never leave.
I know all that ... we lived in Oklahoma for seven years, until June 2003. I still want to go back!
Can't describe it to anyone here in Georgia, they just don't understand.
That's a great idea -- Wizard of Oz. A lot of Twister was filmed here in the Norman area -- realized that after moving up here and driving across the bridge at Lake Thunderbird -- straight out of the scene with the cows flying around.
LOL!!! That was funny! I am touting Norman, Oklahoma, as the best place I have ever lived and you are telling people to stay away! Must admit I love the open spaces and lack of people -- a traffic jam here is something that happens on game days or a train! Nothing compared to a lot of places in the rest of the Country.
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