May 30, 2012

Ooooo-klahoma...where the wind comes sweeping down the plain

We had a very exciting evening last night. It started when the tornado sirens went off just as we were starting dinner. The news wasn't showing anything but we pulled up the weather radar and there was a nasty storm on it's way with rotation. Because we live in a rural area, our local meteorologists don't always interrupt the broadcast to tell us exactly what's going on but living in Oklahoma, you have a pretty good idea of what to look out for when the sirens go off. So, while we waited for Gary England (our local go-to weather guy) to explain the situation, we threw a collar on the dog, packed up the laptops, my camera, some diapers and put shoes on everyone all within about five minutes and all while still eating dinner. There's a sense of pride in the ability to get everything that matters most together and ready to run into the storm shelter in a matter of minutes that comes with living in this area of the country.

Thankfully we never ended up needing to go to our trusty "safe place" but there was some really beautiful rotation and some down right crazy hail. 

Crazy strong rotation that never fully developed.

After the first wave...baseball to softball sized hail.

The boy and all the kids in the neighborhood made the rounds to gather the biggest pieces. This wasn't the largest (and it had melted a bit before I got a pic) but it was his favorite.

Even the boy was getting into the "cool clouds" and it provided a great teaching opportunity. So today, we're going to the Science Museum to learn more about tornadoes and all things weather before more storms break out this afternoon.





3 comments:

hmb said...

Oh my gosh! The hail is huge!! Glad you're all ok :)

Michelle Clark (AKA Miss Banana Pants) said...

glad you're okay! The hail here wasn't nearly that big but we lost power. I tried to text, but not sure if you got it. Stay safe tonight!

JG said...

Wow! I'm glad you are all okay, I've heard lots of stories about people who got bad damage last night. And those are fantastic pictures! (I'm *that* friend.)