My First Tornado Warning

My Top 3

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of driving home as an emergency interruption comes across your radio.

There is a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning for the following areas… Naturally, Stigler was one of the threatened areas.

Let me just say for the record: tornadoes are scary. There’s a sense of dread and anticipation that you just don’t get from some other natural disasters, such as the much-hyped earthquakes of Southern California.

I was speeding home yesterday when I received the emergency notification, trying to get to cover. This was officially my first tornado warning and I did not want to be on the road for it.

When I went up to Tulsa a few weeks ago, I drove through the eye of a huge thunderstorm and had hail pelt my car so much to the point where I had to drive about 10 mph on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit. It was insane.

I thought I had experienced weather. I thought I knew what it was to be in some hard rain and brutal storms. I would always make fun of my LA friends, with my Northeastern winter months under my belt. But man, I had no clue what real weather was like before coming here.

There was a point a couple weeks ago where I said, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen it rain as hard as it’s raining right now. Three days later, in another storm, I had to update that statement. Oklahoma doesn’t mess around. And I don’t even live in the part that’s considered Tornado Alley. (Well, truthfully, I am pretty close. I might be just slightly west of it, but some other descriptions of it have Eastern Oklahoma a part of it.)

Yesterday, fortunately for me, the storm changed course and passed just south of Stigler. Apart from some rain and a lot of lightning, it wasn’t bad at all. My TV went a little static-y as the storm passed, but that was the extent of its inconvenience.

But as the tornado season looms, I will be ready. I got my flashlight ready last night and prepared to lay in my tub once things started crashing through my windows. Here’s to hoping that doesn’t ever happen…