It's that time of year again! Tornado season in Oklahoma. April and May are great months to get out and do a little tornado chasing when things are getting a little slow around the house.

Last night our little town of Enid took a minor hit from a tornado or two. The major part of town was unaffected but North Enid had dozens of homes damaged and our large Expo Center had much of it's roof blown off.

Tornado sirens went off several times during the evening and our girls became little magnets not wanting to let us out of their sight. The television warnings told us to get into a basement or the smallest room in the house. We felt fairly safe where we were since we could see exactly on radar where the tornado was headed. Normally I would have been out chasing the tornado but due to darkness I decided to sit this one out.

When you live in Oklahoma you deal with tornadoes every year. I remember as a kid seeing the warnings on TV. Back in my day there was not as much sophisticated equipment, so each time a tornado was near, my mom, sister and I would climb into a small closet or bathroom and sit it out for awhile. We were never hit by one but it sure made things exciting.

Fast forward to adulthood and I am now out chasing as often as I can. My Hot Wife and I actually followed the May 3, 1999 tornado in OKC. We had been watching it on TV for over an hour that day when I finally decided that if it wasn't going to go away I was going to go see it.

As it got closer to Del City we were quickly driving towards it from Edmond, Oklahoma. I had the radio on and could hear the meteorologist reporting on the exact location of the storm. As we got closer to the storm we noticed that almost all of the traffic had disappeared from the highways. We even passed Sheriff cars that were hiding under an overpass.

We arrived in Midwest City within a few minutes of it hitting town and lifting for a short period of time. Debris was just starting to drift back to the ground and everything was covered in a solid coating of insulation, trees and muck. Luckily we were in a Honda Prelude and were able to drive under the power poles that were leaning over the roads.

That was the strongest tornado on record and it really leveled many areas around OKC. Just to let every know I do keep tabs on the tornado location and never put myself in the path of one. If I can dig up the photos of the May 3 damage I will post them.

That's about it for now! I better get off because it looks like the storms are firing up again. Who knows, it might be time to go chasing!

Labels: Fun Events, Memories, Tornado