Heading to Tornado Alley

I'll be leaving soon, heading first to Florida to pick up my sister, who'll be storm chasing with me; and then to west Texas for the start of the chase.

Found this amusing:

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Oklahoma Storm Definitions

For those of you who aren't familiar with tornadoes and are hearing news
coverage of this, here is a short glossary to help you understand.

Fujita Scale: Scale used to measure wind speeds of a tornado and their
severity.

F1: Laughable little string of wind unless it comes through your house,
then enough to make your insurance company drop you like a brick. People
enjoy standing on their porches to watch this kind.

F2: Strong enough to blow your car into your house, unless of course you
drive an Expedition and live in a mobile home, then strong enough to
blow your house into your car.

F3: Will pick your house and your Expedition up and move you to the
other side of town.

F4: Usually ranging from 1/2 to a full mile wide, this tornado can turn
an Expedition into a Pinto, then gift wrap it in a semi truck.

F5: The Mother of all Tornadoes, you might as well stand on your front
porch and watch it, because it's probably going to be quite a last
sight.

Meteorologist: A rather soft-spoken, mild-mannered type of person until
severe weather strikes, and then they start yelling at you through the
TV, "GET TO YOUR BATHROOM OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

Storm Chaser: Meteorologist-rejects who are pretty much insane but get
us really cool pictures of tornadoes. We release them from the mental
institution every time it starts thundering, just to see what they'll
do. [[Note from Fred: Oh-oh.]]

Tranquilizer: What you have to give any dog or cat who lived through the
May 3rd, 1999 tornado every time it storms or they tear your whole house
up freaking out of their minds.

Moore, Oklahoma: A favorite gathering place for tornadoes. They like to
meet here and do a little partying before stretching out across the rest
of the Midwest.

Bathtub: Best place to seek shelter in the middle of a tornado, mostly
because after you're covered with debris, you can quickly wash off and
come out looking great.

Severe Weather Radio: A handy device that sends out messages from the
National Weather Service during a storm, though quite disconcerting
because the high pitched, shrill noise just as an alarm sounds
suspiciously just like a tornado. Plus the guy reading the report just
sounds creepy.

Tornado Siren: A system the city spent millions to install, which is
really useful, unless there's a storm or a tornado, because then of
course you can't hear them.

Storm Cellar: A great place to go during a tornado, as it is almost 100%
safe, though you should weigh your options carefully, as most are not
cared for and are homes to rats and snakes.

May-June: Tourist season in Oklahoma, when people who are tired of
bungee jumping and diving out of airplanes decide it might be fun to
chase a tornado. These people usually end up on Fear Factor. [[Note 2 from Fred: Oh-oh.]]

Barometric Pressure: Nobody really knows what this is, but when it
drops, a lot of pregnant women go into labor. This makes for exciting
moments as their husbands are trying to drive them to the hospital and
dodge tornadoes at the same time.

Cars: The worst place to be during a tornado (next to a mobile home).
Yes, you can outrun a tornado in your car...unless everybody on the road
decides to do the same thing, and then you're in gridlock.

A Ditch: Supposedly where you're supposed to go if you find yourself
without shelter or in your car during a tornado. Theoretically, the
tornado is supposed to pass right over you, but since it can lift a
20-ton truck and uproot a three hundred-year-old tree, I'd bet my life
on out-running it in a car.

Mobile Home: Most people are convinced mobile homes send off some
strange signal that triggers tornadoes, because if there's one mobile
home park in a hundred mile radius, the tornado will find it.

Earthquake: What any Californian would rather go through on any scale of
severity than face a tornado.

Tornado: What any Oklahoman would rather go through on any scale of
severity than face an earthquake.

Twister: Slang for "tornado" and also the title to a movie starring
Helen Hunt, which, incidentally, everyone thought was corny and unrealis
tic until May 3rd, 1999.

Power Flash: One of the most reliable ways to track a tornado at night.
It's the term used when the tornado hits a power line and a bright light
flashes. It's also the emotion experienced by meteorologists when they
get to make the call to interrupt prime-time must-see TV and a million
dollars worth of advertising to track a storm for viewers.

Here are some phrases you might want to learn and be familiar with
"We'll have your electricity restored in 24 hours," which means it'll be
a week.

"We're going to be out for a week, so buy a lot of supplies and an
expensive generator," means it's going to be on in twelve hours,
probably as soon as you return from Wal-Mart.

"It's a little muggy today." Get outta town. It's getting ready to
storm.

"There's just a slight chance of severe weather today, so go ahead and
make your outdoor plans." Ha! Ha ha ha ha.

And the BIG TIP of the day...

When your electricity goes out, and you go to bed at night, be sure to
turn off everything that was on before it went out. When power is
unexpectedly restored in the middle of the night, every light, every
computer, your dishwasher, your blow dryer, your washing machine, your
microwave, and your fans will all come on all at once. This will result
in one of two things:

1) You'll just about have a heart attack when they all come on at the
same time, waking you from a dead sleep.

or 2) Your breakers will blow, leaving you in the dark once again.


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And, BTW, those references to May 3rd, 1999? See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Tornado_Outbreak

and this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trr5HG6swKg