As some of you may know who have followed this column over the years I am an avid follower of severe weather events, both because of my tornado phobia as well as my public service as a storm spotter. I became a storm spotter to combat my phobia, knowing about the scientific reasons that cause severe weather as well as some of the things to watch out for has helped, although it has not been a full ‘cure.’
However, beyond the data and the science of it all, through these events I have noticed a disturbing trend that affects everyone in any place a severe weather event can occur. We take the watches and warnings for granted, especially in areas prone to severe weather.
I am writing this column one day after a large wedge shaped tornado caused a good deal of damage to life and property some eighty miles north of my location near Chicago. This tornado was most likely an EF-4, high on the tornado damage scale and one that can and will take lives.
The twister did indeed take the lives of two people that day, injuring twenty-two others and leaving residents of towns like Rochelle and Fairdale, Illinois scrambling to put their lives back together after so much loss.
The disturbing thing about these and other storms of medium/major severe potential is how many people take various aspects of these events for granted, including weather safety. During this monster sized wedge tornado, local resident Sam Smith filmed the ‘twister’ from underneath a highway overpass, the only place Smith could think to go for safety.
Thing is, that is a really bad idea, as the winds could whip straight through the underpass and cause life threatening damage.
As much as I’d like to say this kind of mistake is an isolated incident, other even more fatal weather events like the Joplin, Missouri tornado in May of 2011 in which hundreds of lives were lost also have been effected by a lack of severe weather safety knowledge. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), many in Joplin ignored the first warnings of the threat:
“The majority of surveyed Joplin residents did not immediately go to shelter upon hearing the initial warning.”
Most in the area went outside to try and confirm they were ‘under the gun,’ mostly because the residents have heard so many tornado warnings in that general area that they almost seem commonplace in the Spring and Summer months, not like a frighting severe weather event that could change your life forever.
This is not isolated to Illinois or the tornado belt either. While living in Port Lavaca in 2012 the NOAA were tracking a hurricane and Port Lavaca was directly named as one of it’s probable targets when and if it hit land.
Never having experienced this kind of weather event, I showed concern but my neighbors told me to not even worry about it, over the next couple days the track would change. And it did.
However, as much as the population of ‘tornado alley’ might have become nonchalant about tornado watches and warnings, and the people of the gulf may have become used to the threat of a possible hurricane or high end tropical storm coming their way each summer into fall, we should not take these events so lightly.
Not because I myself find them a bit mysterious and a bit scary, but because in doing research into severe weather events I have started to see a pattern where being too passive towards the information given out by the weather services could mean the difference between life and death.
So please take the time to educate yourself and your friends and family about the dangers of severe Spring and Summer weather and make sure you are here to enjoy the days that are full of sunshine rather then clouds.
Here is an excellent place to start your education and be safe!
