In all honesty, the storms over the last week fired and went severe far faster than any I can recall and I've lived here my whole life less about 2.5 years. The timing of last nights storms was just as bad as it gets. Friday at 5:00? There's your disaster right there.
And I agree all three local stations are just about the best in the country you will find period. I was kind of angry at Gary England last week when he was calling streets wrong, and found out later that Damon Lane had them all just trounced on accuracy. But my point is they are all excellent and doing what we need them to do. I grew up watching Gary and he was for years and years the premier meteorologist in quite probably the world. I will always think well of him. But quite honestly who here doesn't flip between them all while it's happening?
And I agree all three local stations are just about the best in the country you will find period. I was kind of angry at Gary England last week when he was calling streets wrong, and found out later that Damon Lane had them all just trounced on accuracy. But my point is they are all excellent and doing what we need them to do. I grew up watching Gary and he was for years and years the premier meteorologist in quite probably the world. I will always think well of him. But quite honestly who here doesn't flip between them all while it's happening?
You guys need a little Travis. He is the only one I can stand to watch. Very calm and collected.
My family was one of those on the road, along with my dad from Del City, my mom from Moore and my brother in law, and parent inlaws from Moore. We headed towards norman and then they said it was coming there, I'm telling my wife there are only two places to cross the river (I35 or I44) while thinking to myself that I would rather be sitting in the bathtub as we are sitting in buttloads of traffic backups. We ended up heading back home to face whatever was coming at us. Needless to say that the first/last time we will run from a tornado. We live at SW 134th & Western (Westmoore high school).
I was in NW OKC, Morgan and Memorial at my daughter's house. The first alert warning showed the tornado to be heading straight toward us. We had like a 45 minute warning. My granddaughter had a dance recital at Rose State, so we decided to go on down, based on what the warning said. Once we were on Hefner they said the tornado was moving straight east on 40, (still way out by El Reno) so we continued to 40 and headed east. Since Rose State is on 40, now this wasn't a good place to be going. So we turned south on 35. Then they said it was moving SE and would cross 35 around Moore or Norman. We flipflopped and started back toward Rose State. Guess what? Back to straight east on 40. At that point we decided to go back to 35 and go north. Ended up at Edmond and worked our way back to daughter's house.
Normally, I'm fairly decent at reading clouds. But Friday PM there was nothing to read. The whole sky was green and featureless. Without KOMA and whatever my son-in-law was watching on his iPhone, we wouldn't have had a clue which way to go.
I reckon my whole point in this diatribe is; with enough advance warning leaving the area is not a bad idea. Personally, I'm thankful for the information we got from TV, radio and internet.
Normally, I'm fairly decent at reading clouds. But Friday PM there was nothing to read. The whole sky was green and featureless. Without KOMA and whatever my son-in-law was watching on his iPhone, we wouldn't have had a clue which way to go.
I reckon my whole point in this diatribe is; with enough advance warning leaving the area is not a bad idea. Personally, I'm thankful for the information we got from TV, radio and internet.
Wife and I do not have a choice, we live in a mobile without a shelter. Shelter is on the list but not in the budget yet. Only thing we can do is grab the dog and try to go someplace Where the tornado isn't.
I feel the same about our weather men here in Tulsa as you guys feel about your guys in OKC, most of the time they just interrupt good TV shows when it's just raining but they do save lives.
I feel the same about our weather men here in Tulsa as you guys feel about your guys in OKC, most of the time they just interrupt good TV shows when it's just raining but they do save lives.
I'll never stick around and wait out a tornado. Not a chance....Not without a shelter at house anyway. With the kind of advanced warnings we have now, we are packed and ready to go. We just make an evening out of it. If you leave early, listen to the broadcasts and are smart about it, you're normally gonna be fine. We ran into a little drama this time because the storms moved in an odd direction, but we were already so far ahead of it all that we could continue to stay ahead.. We did get to see some of the crazyness.
I'll admit though, it seems the masses running from a bad situation is an exercise in Darwinism IMO, Most people leave way to late and then stay on main roads, quickly jamming them up and getting themselves nowhere fast. That's good for us because that kept the back roads free for us and a few other people who had smooth sailing south.
To each their own I guess. I'm getting a fraidy hole before next tornado season so I'll never have to risk finding myself stuck out in that situation again.
Oh and my wife and I have The Weather Channel app which is pretty cool. It shows a live radar and has GPS tracking and shows streets. It shows you as a blue dot on the map so you can see where you are in relation to the storms. As long as your cell service is good, it's an awesome tool.
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I swear I heard Mike say something about getting underground or to drive away from it. That night was just the bad night to try to get away from it. You had a bad mix of construction and rush hour traffic going on. As soon as I saw it take a SE turn like it did we grabbed up our stuff and went to my work. Luckily it means I go west on I-240 which no one was going. It is hard for them to do what they do, and it is easy to armchair them the next day. I do say Mike tends to be more dramatic, and agree with whoever said it...seems like he does report stuff a little bit faster. I think sometimes it's because he'll go by just what he sees on his radar and make the call that there is a tornado there vs having a spotter tell him....again good and bad. I've always listened to Gary and he knows what he's doing. May 3rd, I think his dramatic "You have to be underground or you will die" type phrases really saved some people because as Okies we do get complacent and that kind of drama makes a lot of us think twice. Take for example May 20th I heard the sirens go off as I got home from the Warren, thinking of just the normal hail we would get, I went ahead and took my wife's parking spot in the garage (she was down at the Moore Medical center at my daughter's DR. appointment) and sat down in a chair in the garage watching the clouds. Wasn't until I saw the neighbors across the street come out and jump in the car and run that I thought, "I better go see what the news is saying" Sure enough reporting a damn wedge tornado coming up to 19th/I-35 in Moore. I started calling my wife and ended up making the decision based on how excited they were and seeing the damn thing on the t.v. to run as it was only 3-4 miles away. My wife and kid were fine, we lost a car...but it can be replaced, lots of respect to the people at the medical center for being calm and saving lives.
On a lighter note, I do crack up listening to Mike and Emily talking. I think the 19th they sounded like they were domesticating on the air a couple times and now anytime I hear them talking to each other I hear an old bitter married couple, no matter how cordial they are being. And Emily herself cracks me up, couldn't stop laughing when she called a cloud "energetic and crispy"
On a lighter note, I do crack up listening to Mike and Emily talking. I think the 19th they sounded like they were domesticating on the air a couple times and now anytime I hear them talking to each other I hear an old bitter married couple, no matter how cordial they are being. And Emily herself cracks me up, couldn't stop laughing when she called a cloud "energetic and crispy"
I like Morgan. He stays calm. He tells you where the storm is, and where it's going.
With England, I can never tell where the storm is. Its just him yelling at scattered chasers while they talk over each other. Plus he gets a little too giddy when its a bad one.
The new guy on 5 has potential.
With England, I can never tell where the storm is. Its just him yelling at scattered chasers while they talk over each other. Plus he gets a little too giddy when its a bad one.
The new guy on 5 has potential.
In Mike's defense, our weather casters have been telling folks who don't have adequate shelter to drive out of the area for quite some time now.
However, like we are discussing in another thread, you have to have a plan and understand what the weather is doing and decide early. If you are sitting on your couch in boxer shorts eating cheetos when Mike says "Get in your car and drive south!" and you do, with no idea of where you are going or what the storms are doing, it might not turn out good.
However, like we are discussing in another thread, you have to have a plan and understand what the weather is doing and decide early. If you are sitting on your couch in boxer shorts eating cheetos when Mike says "Get in your car and drive south!" and you do, with no idea of where you are going or what the storms are doing, it might not turn out good.
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