

As residents of “tornado alley,” we all hear the same truncated slang, “Are we getting any weather tonight?”
Obviously, there is weather everywhere on earth at all times, but this question is very Oklahomacentric. It asks if the forecast calls for severe weather – thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes.
Last night we had our first round of “weather,” and it was exciting without being tragic. We had tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings, and a tornado warning right here in our county.

Abby and I were surprised and annoyed that our cable television service was taken over by the Weather Service, interrupting the coverage of the weather to give us a text message of the warning. Our phones also sent us noisy messages. None of that mattered – we were already listening to all the right public safety frequencies and were hearing their reports in real time.
I didn’t see or photography any tornados, though a coworker did. My attempts to photograph lightning fell flat – it’s never easy, and last night the sky wasn’t cooperating.

We “had weather” on Saturday. Sudden hail found Mr. Hammill and I racing out the front door with giant sheets of core-plast to drape over the new vehicle. It worked, but man, it was like taking the “ice bucket challenge” over and over again.
I am reminded of Michaelangelo clouds.