Spring Thunderstorms

I like thunderstorms. Okay I said it. It is not the politically correct thing to say these days.

Radar Education
Television stations spend thousands of dollars to convince us thunderstorms are dangerous. We have 4 network affiliates in Tulsa. Each one of them have doppler radar that has a name just for them. Double Doppler and Doppler 8000 are two names. Are we to believe doppler makes a specific model for every station? One station has WARN radar (Wide Area Radar Network). Just the name places fear into the hearts of the weather wary such as Debbie. These same stations have tornado trackers, weather watchers, 24 hour coverage of precipitation and temperatures along with weekend area festivals schedules (for something to do on slow weather days). Before Doppler people predicted weather by the cows, flies, and aching bones. My brother-in-law, Pat, can predict the weather by the pain in his knee from an old motorcycle crash injury. I trust him more than doppler radar. I just need to get him to move from Broken Arrow to Skiatook for greater accuracy.

Storm Preparation
If it is daytime when Spring storms roll across the pond I take pictures and sit on the porch to feel the breeze and smell the rain. Meanwhile Debbie and Maverick are packing important papers, snacks, pillows, radios and flashlights and heading to the "safe room." The safe room is a walk-in closet in Maverick's room with concrete walls and a steel door. Boxes must be removed before we can all get into the closet and one hopes that before we climb in all have time to use mouthwash.

When storms roll in at night I like to listen to the thunder and rain. Did I mention sleep? I like to sleep too. Last night storms came through. The thunder had wakened Maverick so I climbed into bed with him. I had just dozed off to the rhythm of the rain when I felt something being laid on my leg. It was Debbie emptying the safe room floor of its contents. She seemed perturbed that I could sleep through the thunder and rain. I did not have time to worry about it and drifted right back to sleep.

Thunderstorm Season
It is going to be a bad season for storms and I don't need a doppler radar to figure that out. I know it by watching Debbie. She has emptied the safe room twice already this year and it is only March 18th.