Oklahoma Tornadoes, Present and Past

Called to check on Mom this afternoon, even though I knew she was fine.

She's been in Oklahoma just about all of her 92 years (except some of WW2 in Kansas City, IIRC).

She says it's a bad sign that we should have tornadoes this early. I defer to her experiental wisdom.

That tornado forming live on KFOR-TV was amazing. It was a great example of how you can have a cyclone cloud forming overhead, and multiple twister tails on the ground, and not actually be able to see the whirling winds connecting them. (The weatherman really got excited, understandably.)

June of 1974 was the first time Tulsa got hit by tornadoes. I was living on 35th Place, a few blocks from the river. One of the twisters ripped right down 36th Place, two blocks South, which was close enough my yard got trashed as well. One day, I bicycled through the neighborhood, admiring the pleasant old 1930s homes with many tall trees and neatly-kept yards. Two days later, I was bicycling around fallen tree branches, looking up though 2nd floor windows at sky. One house had the whole West side of it gone, but everything inside pretty much fine; looked like a doll's house.

Ah, I could go on and on about that night! You know how they say it sounds like a locomotive going overhead? A very loud locomotive. Tornadoes always had my respect, but after that one, most assuredly!