Wigging out about Thunderstorms

Whispers65 · Post by **Whispers65** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:32 pm

Steph, I live in an apartment so I'm thinking closest interior would be bathroom but right up above the sink is the air conditioner unit and I'm sure the bathtub up above my bathtub. Can you tell I think about this way too much?

Officially we are under a tornado watch for another 30 minutes but it has been pretty quiet for several hours.

I felt comfortable enough that I even did my indoor walking dvd. Usually exercising is the last thing I want to do when I'm stressing.

stephyannette · Post by **stephyannette** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:40 pm

Whispers, well you can always go to a neighbors house if anything! Some people are understanding and will let ya join them. There is always a place to go.

Tornado watch is better than warning, so that is good. Watch just means the conditions are favorable for a tornado, whereas a warning means that a tornado has been sighted or is imminent. So there is the chance nothing will even come about.

That is good that you did your walking dvd. Sometimes getting some exercise helps calm people down.

David** · Post by David** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:16 pm

Hi, I'm a tornado chaser and work as weather specialist for emergency management here locally. I've done this for over 22 years now and in the beginning I was petrified of a thunderstorm, but now, it's a piece of beauty while being dangerous at the same time.

Right now we are watching the same radar systems that the national weather service uses and are focused on the squall lines in southwestern Indiana and southern IL. I live 35 miles west of Cincinnati Ohio and a large part of the Ohio Valley Tornado Alley is right here. We see on the average 3 or 4 tornado's locally a year. Will we go out tonight? If the lines stay together as they are right now yes and we will turn the weather information that we collect directly into the NWS at either Indianapolis IN, Louisville KY or Wilmington Oh.

What we teach to people who are scared of tornado's is this. An actual tornado touchdown most of the time only covers a very small area of the country. I've seen mile wide strikes that stretch up to 20 miles long but the 'normal' tornado only does a couple hundred yards wide and for a mile maybe. Remember this earth is huge and a tornado actually come down near your house is a random chance.

Ok what do I do?

1. Listen to the weather service which covers your area be it on tv or radio and abide by what they say.

2. If a funnel cloud (tornado's that have not touched down are called funnel clouds) or tornado (a funnel cloud on the ground = tornado) is sighted in your area, go to the lowest point in your house and get under a heavy table or bench if you have one. If not try a closet in the lowest point of your house.

No basement? Go to the room with the least number of windows, normally this is your bathroom. Take a blanket with you and if you hear a loud rushing sound or a sound that sounds like a train or jet approaching, get in your bathtub, lay down, and put the blanket over you.

Not in your house? Get to a building as quick as you can if one is available (in towns and cities). If a building isn't available and you see it moving towards you, get out of the car, go to the nearby ditch or culvert and lay flat. Cover your head with your hands. <font color="red">Never</font> go to an underpass on an interstate, state highway, or county road. The wind speeds inside an underpass can be double the actual strenght of a tornado because the underpass acts as a wind tunnel and can double the effect.

Always remain as calm as possible, I know, trust me I know what anxiety and thunderstorms can do with anxiety but don't become 'glued' to the tv until the storm system gets within 40 miles of your location. Turn the tv to another channel and watch something else then every 10 minutes or so flip back to the weather and see where it is on radar, listen to the weather guy and follow his instructions to the letter T.

One suggestion we tell everyone we know, spend 30 or 40 dollars and buy a NOAA weather alert radio. These are what save more lives than tv or radio stations because the nws will send out an alert for a watch and another one for a warning then give EXACT details of where the storm is, how fast it is moving and the counties or localities that will be affected.

I carried anxiety for 35 years, I have comepleted this program 2 years ago and I've gotten rid of everything but my normal anxiety which every human being has. As for thunderstorms? They don't bother me at all and haven't for close to 20 years now. See how I got over my fear of them was to drive straight into a supercell thunderstorm one night with another storm chaser...it got rid of the fear for me but I do NOT reccomend that for anyone unless you've had hours of training. I carry over 5000 hours of training and years of experience, and as a chaser, our number one priority is our own safety first.

Back to watching the radar to see if we go out tonight or not. If a squall line like what I'm watching right now didn't do any damage to anyone anywhere it would be a fun thing to chase, but this ones not...so we go do our jobs and hope for the best for the people in any area that this storm system passes through.

David

Whispers65 · Post by **Whispers65** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:08 am

Thanks David for the reality check. Usually on TV though you only hear about the big ones. But it got me to thinking. With all of the tornado warnings that there are, which there are a lot, you hardly hear anything more about them.

Another thing, could you explain the diffences between slight risk, moderate risk, and high risk? Does it go by a percentage of potential severe weather?

David** · Post by David** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:38 am

Hi Whisper,

A slight risk for severe weather means that the conditions in and near the risk area haven't quite come together to create a higher category. Usually an area of the country under a slight risk will range from 5 to 25% chance that it might happen and with the worst area being closet to the center of the risk area.

A moderate risk for severe weather means that the temperature, dew points, humidity, and winds are moderately favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms. The percentage of a moderate risk ranges from 25 to 75% area coverage in and near the moderate risk areas. We watch specifically for Moderate risk because with this type of pattern the severe weather ingredients are coming together faster than a slight risk area and this same area has the potential to move into a high risk area without much more change in the current atmospheric conditions.

A high risk area (75 - 100% chance of severe weather within a specified region) means all the ingredients to produce thunderstorm cells and super cells is already in place and can turn into tornadic storms at any time or place. Usually this area will sit inside the moderate risk area and looks like a bullseye on a weather map. On a high risk area we already have our gear loaded, our jump bags in the cars, trucks & suv's, and are waiting to take off once a meso scale thunderstorm pops up. Meso scales are super cell thunderstorms with tremendous power and are the cells that produce the tornado's.

There is one other classification that is used by the Storm Prediction Center in Norman OK. This is a PDS area. PDS stands for Potentially Dangerous Situation. If you see a PDS area on a weather station and it's on or near your location be prepared to take immediate action if your local weather office, tv or radio station says so. A PDS system may cover 100's of square miles. These are the bad boys of the severe storms. They can and do produce hail the size of softballs, multiple tornados and what we call Twin Sisters which is one tornado with a smaller tornado coming out of the same cloud as the larger one.

Here are 2 sites that we use non stop when we track severe weather. They are for public use so there is no copyright or trademark violations in posting them:

Storm Prediction Center - Norman OK

<A HREF="http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/</A>

And literally my weather site which receives over 1,000,000 visitors and users per month. It's free and anyone here may bookmark it if you'd like. This is not an advertisement for my weather site either...this site is totally free of any advertising and I do not accept advertising to keep it running.

<A HREF="http://www.fallsky.com" TARGET=_blank>http://www.fallsky.com</A>

Any other questions? I'm happy to help anyone with storm fears. One note, if you've seen the movie Twister? Believe about 10% of what that movie shows. It's a movie for the box office not much for the science or real live tornado chasers.

David

Whispers65 · Post by **Whispers65** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:24 pm

Hey David, thanks for all of the information. I really appreciate. To me knowledge is king, sometimes though it's still scary as heck. But I wanted to know the difference. Last year was had a high risk day. Those don't happen very often for us. That was the day when a big oak tree was snapped in half where I was. Wind gusts were up to 100mph in our area according to the weather people. Very memorable. Lots of tree damage around and electricity was out for days in some parts.

I did see the movie twister. didn't help my fears lol.

David** · Post by David** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:10 am

LOL I laughed through the movie Twister whisper because it was so far off base it wasn't funny. I mean how many people really believe that any chaser in their right mind would get within 100 feet of the base of a tornado? In the first place it is physically impossible to do that because the suction of a tornado extends outward far more than 100 feet.

I'm happy I could help answer your questions, if you have more, post them here or PM me and I'll get the answers back to you asap.

David

Whispers65 · Post by **Whispers65** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:03 pm

Well I'm on the session about assertive behavior but I swear after today I need to be on the anticipatory anxiety session which is next. I've been obsessing about the possibility of bad weather tomorrow. I'm on a diet yet have only ate half of what I should be eating. I did just see the weather forecast and it was a little more positive then I have been making it out to be so that's a good thing. If I could just get a hold on this and a few other things, life could be so much fun. I've already seen so many changes. I just wish this one would change. Like now!

I don't think I could laugh at Twister well maybe the flying cow seen, that was pretty funny.

Whispers65 · Post by **Whispers65** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:07 pm

Well tonight is another chance for very stormy weather. Already there is a tornado warning to the west of us. Hopefully and prayerfully it won't get that bad tonight.

Since last time though I did go out and buy a weather radio. I haven't been as stressed days in advance like last time so that's a good thing.

Also, I need to clean my apartment so I'm going to get busy and do some distracting stuff also while keeping an eye on the weather.

dragonfly7518 · Post by **dragonfly7518** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:06 pm

hi whisper -
how did you do last night? we were awakened by the high winds and rain at about 3am, but it ended up not being too bad here...

i hope the radio helped - i know listening to my fiance's radio last night helped me feel better