mythoughtsexactly's Blog

It started in 1991 (the first grade),  you know when they first start teaching you about weather, it was Thursday (yes I remember) and that was Tornado day.  I remember the teacher showing this video that was supposed to be purely educational, but instead it changed my life forever as it showed Tornadoes destroying homes and lives.  I excused myself and ran to the bathroom and waited for the movie to be over, and that was the start of a phobia that I just can't kick.

Over the years, I will become "obsessed" with the weather; Van Denton and the Weather Channel were (are still) my best friends. If severe weather is on the horizon I immediately ask what Van had to say.  This phobia of mine is so bad that I will watch a storm system "intensify" in Oklahoma and as it when through Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee carving a path of destruction. I would cry about it in anticipation of it arriving here even though it wasn't here yet.  In times of bad weather I knew I could count of Fox8 to give me the truth and let me know exactly what's going on with feisty severe cells.

Which brings me to this blog.  I am not sure whether or not to be proud of this, or sad that I could just say what something was or is.  But because I've been watching the weather for so long... I know when a cold snap is going to hit,  I can look at the sky and tell what direction a front is moving it, I can tell what clouds are threatening, smell rain and I can look at the radar and can tell the intensity of a storm without formal training.

On the night of the tornado, I was away at school, panicking as usual because the storm was coming, when it passed, I had spoken with my mother and she was telling me that cars and trucks had been turned on top of each other, and several trees were knocked down.  I thought about it for a second and I told my mother "it sounds like an EF-2, but I'd have to see the damage to be sure."  The next day I found out that it was in fact an EF-2.

Should I be happy that I knew it was an EF-2 or sad that years of being addicted or rather entirely terrified of severe weather... has conditioned me to be able to tell the difference and to know.  For now I guess i'll just be happy that I have the knowledge that I do, I probably should have went to school for meteorology and all of this would make more sense. nonetheless thanks for reading...