Wild Weather

I am a weather nerd. 

When I was in elementary school, on library day, I always checked out the same book on tornadoes. I can still picture the cover to this day, and if I walked into that library, I could go right to the exact shelf it rested on. It showed the typical photos of twisters small and wide, and the devastation they leave behind. One photo that I remember vividly was of a tree with a piece of wood going right through it. Being a book for children, it didn't get too far into the science of the weather, but I would learn much about that later in life. In high school I did a large project on the tornado that devastated Edmonton in 1987. I don't remember what grade I got on the project, but I remember being fascinated about it, and enjoying my homework for a change!

Another storm memory that stays in my mind happened on May 31, 1985, the day that the city of Barrie was  devastated by tornadoes. The anniversary of this day was just the other day, and was this memory that triggered the idea to write this, along with the heartbreaking devastation that Oklahoma has gone through in the last two weeks. More on that later.

I remember the storms of May 31 well, as even in this area we had some pretty wild weather. My parents and I were visiting friends, and stayed in the basement, partly because that was where they had their living room, and partly because of the weather. I remember staring wild-eyed out the window watching the trees swirling around as the lightning and thunder persisted on throughout the late afternoon. There was no significant damage in my area, luckily. I can remember us kids would call a particularly harsh thunderstorm "catching the tail end of a tornado". I have no idea where the saying came from, maybe country kids that came before us, who knows... 

I have always had a love/hate relationship with storms. When I was a wee one, I always wanted to become a TV weathergirl because I wanted advance notice of when the thunderstorms were coming!! I can remember intently trying to catch the weather forecast before I went to bed during spring and summer, and if the forecast said anything other than 'clear skies' I definitely didn't sleep well. I grew up in the country, when its dark, it's SUPER dark. So when the lighting lights up the sky, it was extra startling to me. I slept on the top floor of our house, and my parents slept on the main floor. I was already a timid kid that was afraid of the dark, so when the storms rolled in during the night, I was extra terrified. I would creep down the stairs with my heart pounding, gripping my way along the walls, because my eyes were squeezed shut to keep out the flashes. I felt much safer even sleeping on the same floor as them, so I headed for the couch. Almost always, I got busted, and sent back up to my room. 

Even now, as an adult, when a storm rolls in after dark, my heart pounds, blinking is rare, and sleep- fuggetaboutit! The scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life was a storm in July 2006. It was a derecho that blew into town just after 11pm. I had no idea it was on the way, as I had likely been preoccupied chatting on MSN messenger instead of checking the weather LOL! the winds blew up, so I ran around the house closing the windows, then the power went out. EEK! As I closed the window at the top of the stairs, I looked out to see my neighbour's tree fall over, then I knew it was a serious situation. I had to get my cats, and head for the basement. I thought that was going to be a challenge, trying to round up two black cats in a pitch black 2 storey house, but as luck would have it, they both ran scared into my bedroom as I was charging about the house. Leashes went on them, and to the basement we went. I sat in the basement under the stairs waiting for my house to crash down on me, and it was the most scared I have ever been in my whole life, to this day. I was so terrified, my mouth went dry. I don't remember crying, which is strange for me, I'm usually pretty emotional. I sat on a milk crate beside the dryer, wishing I was skinny enough to hide in the dryer!! When the storm subsided after about half an hour (but felt like half a day), I felt brave enough to go back upstairs, I even had enough courage to go outside to my neighbour's house where they were checking out the tree that fell. Luckily, it just took out the gutters on their back porch. No damage in my yard, which I was grateful for, as there were several large trees around. I spent the rest of that night with my cats on their leashes tied to my leg in case we had to make another run for the basement. I remember going to the window about a million times, looking up at the sky hoping to see some stars, because I knew I would never relax until I did. It was a pretty long night, I ended up waiting until the sun came up before I would go to bed and relax enough to sleep. It was definitely not an experience I wanted to repeat, and yet, 3 weeks later, there was another line of storms headed our way! This time, I knew it was coming, and there was no way I was going to be home alone during another storm! The last one was still too fresh in my mind, and those feelings of terror were still pretty raw. I grabbed my cats, hailed a cab, and hightailed it to my grandma's apartment building to ride it out. It was a pretty crazy storm, but nowhere near the severity of the last. Thank goodness!  

On the other side of the coin, if a storm approaches during the day, it doesn't terrify me to the point of dry mouth...it just makes me a little uneasy, especially if the storm is of the severe variety. If I'm at home, I can be found online, checking the radar, plotting it's arrival, and dashing back and forth to the window to watch for developments. I live on the 4th floor, so the view of the skies isn't too bad, although there are a lot of buildings and trees around. My camera is always at the ready, in case anything interesting happens.

One thing I can't get enough of, is watching footage of storms, or any other natural disaster, for that matter. Shows on TV like Wonders Of Weather, and countless documentaries from National Geographic and Discovery Channel fascinate me, and I watch every second of these types of shows I can get my hands on. I have DVDs and even VHS compilations of storm footage. And not surprisingly, my favourite movie is Twister! (corny as it is...) Then, Discovery Channel in the US started airing a reality-type show called Storm Chasers, following different teams of storm chasers through Tornado Alley in the US. The teams had different goals and reasons for the chases they did, some for filming a movie, some for the science of learning more about the storms to help save lives, some to make a living selling their footage to the TV networks, and all for the thrill of the chase. Unfortunately it's since been cancelled, but thanks to Netflix, I'm still watching re-runs. As a person who generally loathes reality TV, I made an exception for this one. I always wanted more tornadoes on the screen instead of bickering storm chasers, but thus is the world of reality TV, so I stuck it out.

This is where I discovered Reed Timmer. He's a pretty intense storm chaser, sometimes to the point of being irritating, but some of that is played up in the series, being that it's a reality show. I was given a copy of his book, read it cover to cover, then went right back to page 1 and read it again. He describes a lot about the world of meteorologists, and a lot about tornadoes, very interesting stuff. I also began following him on Facebook and Twitter, and his website, www.tvnweather.com where I stumbled on a whole new world of storm chasing for me- live streaming!! 

Now, thanks to the internet and social media, I have become a hard-core couch storm chaser. I get weather updates during tornado season from Reed and many other storm chasers, so I know when to go to the site for some live streaming. I've seen many tornadoes live, I've seen a chase team have a car wreck from inside the vehicle, and even learned a lot about the geography of Oklahoma and other states in the area of Tornado Alley. Unfortunately I have also witnessed a lot of heartbreaking devastation, such as the storms that went through Oklahoma these past couple of weeks, which I watched for about 9 hours live streaming one day. Yikes to that internet bill next month...

My days of wanting to be a weathergirl have passed, but my fascination with storms has not dwindled, despite the night-time ones driving me to bed with earplugs in and a pillow over my head! It's a sad thing to be interested in sometimes, but with each storm that passes, the meteorologists learn more and more about how to predict them sooner, and to build structures that can better withstand them. And from my couch, I'll be right there along with them, gaping at the storms on my computer screen.