Max had been wanting to take the dogs to a park so I decided that this would be a good day before it rained. We had just all piled into the car and stopped at the library to drop some books off when I noticed there was a funny looking cloud in the sky. Not a tornado, but a strange lump that was hanging from the bottom of a cloud. I didn't think much of it and we proceeded to go to the park.
Not even five seconds later, I happened to look in the review mirror and I couldn't believe my eyes--there was a tornado streaking down in rapid speed towards the ground! It was like something that I have seen so many times on National Geographic and weather channels, and yet, here it was, right in front of me (well, technically, in back of us.) I began to say, "Oh God, oh God, oh God!"
Now I never say God's Name so the kids knew something was up. Odd that they didn't call me on saying His Name (Max especially), instead they all began to ask what was wrong. I choked out, "There's a tornado right behind us."
I am terrified of tornados. I have the same two bad dreams over and over--one of me being in a bad car accident and the other trying to outrun a tornado. And here I was, living one of my worst nightmares.
The kids looked behind us and began to cry. I feel bad about that--I am not calm in these situations, though I try with all my might to be calm. I encouraged them to pray and we all began to pray little snippets of the Our Father and Hail Mary's, asking for God's intervention. In the meantime, you can bet I turned the car in the opposite direction of the tornado and headed out of there!
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I kept looking in the review mirror as we drove down the highway in the opposite direction, expecting the tornado to come bearing down on us any second. Even though I could still clearly see it, I was relieved to see that it was getting smaller in the distance. Just when I began to breath a sigh of relief, I saw another form and head to the ground! TWO tornados!
No lie, this is just like my nightmare, except that I'm at home. Everything will be calm and sunny and then I happen to look out the window and there are tornadoes everywhere, streaking down from the sky.
I shouldn't have said anything but I couldn't help it. "Now there are TWO tornados!" I said out loud, and the kids looked and began to cry harder. "Drive faster!" Max said, sounding scared, who normally loves storms and tornadoes.
"What happened to wishing you could see a tornado?" taunted Luke. Even then, I couldn't believe how Luke chose his moments for teasing.
I drove as fast as I dared. Apparently, the people ahead of us had absolutely no fear of tornadoes or didn't know that there were two on our tail. But as I drove and kept checking my mirror, I could see that the second tornado, which was pretty wimpy, had already disintegrated and that the first one looked like it was heading back up to the clouds. I kept driving anyway, I didn't want to be in a storm where tornadoes were forming. I had no desire to be in that situation again.
I called Dennis as I drove, who of course, had a hard time believing the story. The sirens had never gone off, which I thought was weird (and I still do) and so he thought that perhaps it was just a dust funnel or something. You know what they call dust funnels?? Tornadoes!!
Ok, anyway, he was convinced that I had seen something that looked to be like tornadoes but could see nothing on the weather radar. I looked too (I pulled over, don't worry), and saw absolutely nothing about severe weather or tornado warnings. I began to feel really stupid, wondering if what I had saw were tornadoes?
Thankfully, my pride was saved when Dennis forwarded me the pictures (seen on the blog) from other viewers both from Glencoe and Norwood. Thank goodness I wasn't the only one! Later, it was confirmed by KARE 11:
I looked up "landspout" and it's still identified as a type of tornado, but very weak:
A landspout, on the other hand, does not have all the same ingredients that a supercell tornado does. A landspout begins by horizontal tubes of air that get tilted upright by an updraft of a thunderstorm. Usually there are no wall clouds that are associated with landspouts. The look of the funnel is usually narrow and hard to identify until it starts picking up debris.
Landspouts typically are short lived and weak. However, some landspouts have been given the rating of EF-2.
By the way, this was definitely an EF-2
So that was our adventure for the day. Good grief, I don't know how God thinks I can handle all this excitement.
We are home now and the sun is shining. So now I can laugh and also agree with my Facebook friend, that yes, this Sunday is a beautiful one--but in no way ordinary!
Post Script:
I should add before I am scolded for outrunning a tornado (I already have been), that I could tell that the tornado was in the next town. Even though it was close enough to see that it was coming towards us, I also knew that it was probably about 10 miles away or so, and I had a good distance from it. Normally I would never put the kids in danger by trying to outrun a tornado if it truly was close by!
Also, I can't help but question that this truly was a landspout. I'm not meteorologist, but I saw the tornado forming when it was just a strange lump in the sky, and then forming from a downward spiral. It's said that landspouts usually start from the ground and go upward, while this started from the clouds and went downward.
I guess we will never know...(but I will always call it a tornado!)
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