Oklahoma Weather

Yes, LarryD, we’re fine. Oklahoma City got pretty roughed up by the weather yesterday afternoon, but the tornadoes went on either side of us. It’s a bit early for this kind of excitement around here, but it has become a regular part of my Spring.

What amuses me about Okies is that everyone is an amateur meteorologist. Not in the annoying way of thinking they know things they don’t, but they actually get what’s going on around here. I got a good chuckle last night at the video of a teenager who works at Chuck E. Cheese as she talked about the tornado hitting the restaurant. She stood on camera and accurately described the kind of clouds she had seen from the parking lot, and the wall cloud that approached. She told of lowering and rotation and how she went inside and told the manager that the sky “looked bad.” She was so calm and nonchalant. Not in a cool, affected teenager way, but the calm voice of experience that has seen enough to not get worked up by these things.

My own children watched the weather radar feeds for hours and accurately told us what all of the colors on the map meant, i.e black for hail, blue for rain, etc. They saw the storm hook and the inflow and said “I bet that’s the next tornado” and then went to get something to drink. People here are used to it. The weather is a part of our daily lives. Although it can make us nervous, it is also common enough that my children went into our tornado shelter talking about which book to bring to read. #2 made the little ones kneel and pray after we closed the door, but they then settled down as he read Little House on the Prairie. They came out when they sirens ended and went back in when they blew again and picked up the story where they had left off.

We are okay and this is normal for us. The wind and rain, the hail and tornadoes are all a part of living in this place we call home. Okies, as a lot, are not the most exciting people. I guess God knew that and gives us a bit of weather every now and then to spice things up.