The Severe Weather Season Has Arrived

What started out as a fairly "normal" evening at home, ended up with us spending a little over two hours in the storm shelter in our basement. Oh yes, the severe weather season has officially kicked off and it appears that we may be in for a repeat at some point during the day tomorrow.

We were just finishing up supper when I thought I heard the tornado sirens...nah, it's Wednesday...oh, but wait, it isn't the first Wednesday of the month and it isn't 1:00 p.m., the time when our test sirens normally sound. Huh?? It is perfectly nice outside, no rain, no wind, some sun...okay, false alarm?

Next, the phone rings and it is my brother (who lives about 45 minutes away) asking if I knew that a tornado warning was just issued for our area. Ah, yes, we were just starting to figure that out for ourselves...so we trekked downstairs and ended up spending the next 2+ hours taking shelter from the storms outside.

At one point there was heavy rotation and funnel cloud reports coming in from all around us -- one was even sighted, literally, right near our home. Thankful, we were protected by HIM and the storms passed with no known damage in our town.

Not so lucky, was a town south of us where my mother-in-law happens to live. Reports are just starting to come out on the news and it sounds like there is millions of dollars of damage. Luckily there have been no reported deaths at this point in time and only minor injuries. My mother-in-law is safe and sound.

Hopefully the weather patterns change and we will avoid a repeat of all of this tomorrow, but for now it sounds like we could be in for more of the same. We'll be ready and waiting next time around...

Here are some post-storm photos that I took; my camera didn't do the scene justice but I thought I would share anyway!