Well that was fun! My first tornado watch!

[binny]

holy crow. It was about 20 minutes before my girls got out of school so I went in to get them. The kids were all under a tornado lockdown. Everyone in the middle ofthe school and well taken care of. My youngest has severe anxiety so I checked them out and ran to the car.

Massive hailstorm, and she started freaking out when the lightening started. We were soaked by the time we got to the car which was right out front.

Glad I got them when I did though! My friend is at the school now and she said it is mass chaos!

Pretty scary seeing that black black cloud come in!

 

[AshleyW]

holy crow. It was about 20 minutes before my girls got out of school so I went in to get them. The kids were all under a tornado lockdown. Everyone in the middle ofthe school and well taken care of. My youngest has severe anxiety so I checked them out and ran to the car.

Massive hailstorm, and she started freaking out when the lightening started. We were soaked by the time we got to the car which was right out front.

Glad I got them when I did though! My friend is at the school now and she said it is mass chaos!

Pretty scary seeing that black black cloud come in!

Tornado watch or warning? A warning is when they actually sound the sirens and you're supposed to take cover. I think we probably do it 10-ish times a year. I think it's just as scary every time though.

I was living in the dorms at the University of Iowa when we had a tornado come through Iowa City. It was awful and horrifying to think of all the damage that they can do in such a short amount of time.

Stay safe!

 

[karibritt01]

FYI... taking your child and getting in your car is the WORST thing you can do in a tornado. Next time you need to stay in the building, in the safe area, and comfort your child there. In the meantime, you need to look up what you should be doing in the event of severe weather, since you haven't had to deal with it before. We have maybe 5-7 tornado warnings each year. My kids are well versed in sitting in the bathroom with books and a flashlight until the danger passes.

 

[MnMomtoboys]

binny next time go into the school and wait with the girls. You will be so much safer.

 

[SaraJayne]

binny next time go into the school and wait with the girls. You will be so much safer.

This.

 

[binny]

We werent in it yet thankfully or I wouldn't have taken them. It was a watch at that point then turned to a warning.

It was scary though. I asked the princi[al what she would do (shes a native) and she said she thought it was fine at that point to go but not to wait.

 

[hercamore]

As pp stated' you are much safer in a building than in a car.

Herc

 

[ccgirl]

Things can change so quickly though. Would they have let you stay in the bldg with them? That would be the better plan next time. Glad you are safe now.

 

[ZachnElli]

Binny, when we lived in Boise, there was a tornado watch with thunderstorm warning. DH comes home and I'm putting all the outdoor furniture up and tying it down and he was like "what are you doing?! A thunderstorm here is nothing like at home!" He was right! I can see why you would be freaked out after living through the "thunderstorms" of Boise for 10 years!

 

[EclecticWAHM]

holy crow. It was about 20 minutes before my girls got out of school so I went in to get them. The kids were all under a tornado lockdown. Everyone in the middle ofthe school and well taken care of. My youngest has severe anxiety so I checked them out and ran to the car.

Massive hailstorm, and she started freaking out when the lightening started. We were soaked by the time we got to the car which was right out front.

Glad I got them when I did though! My friend is at the school now and she said it is mass chaos!

Pretty scary seeing that black black cloud come in!

Are you here in Denver? I got an email from the school saying they went into tornado lockdown at some of the Littleton schools. My kids were with me today, so they didn't have to deal with it. It was pretty dark clouds. My sister is further east and posted some amazing pics of the clouds over her house. Gotta love Denver weather! Luckily the tornados mostly happen further east of the city.

 

[C.Ann]

Things can change so quickly though. Would they have let you stay in the bldg with them? That would be the better plan next time. Glad you are safe now.

A watch can turn into a warning in less than 5 minutes and the last place you want to be (other than a mobile home) is in a car.. Glad it turned out well for you though.. If you've never dealt with it before, I can only imagine how scared you must have been..

 

[Micca]

OK, DO NOT do anything I'm relating here, I'm just sayin..

I lived many years of my life in Kansas where tornadoes are abundant (reference: Wizard of Oz). For natives, a tornado watch/warning is pretty much an invitation to go out on your porch and watch the storm(I SAID DO NOT DO THIS)

I have found that the media/warnings were way over reactive, but they are erring on the safe side. The thing with tornadoes is that they can wipe out the house next door to you, but leave your petunias swaying in the breeze.

So while you should take precautions during a warning/watch, don't let it ruin your day,

 

[PUZZLDY5]

You poor thing. I remember my first tornado watch/warning. Scared me to death! You'll learn quick what to do and what not to do. I do agree that next time stay at school with you kids. Don't try to drive anywhere.

 

[EclecticWAHM]

OK, DO NOT do anything I'm relating here, I'm just sayin..

I lived many years of my life in Kansas where tornadoes are abundant (reference: Wizard of Oz). For natives, a tornado watch/warning is pretty much an invitation to go out on your porch and watch the storm(I SAID DO NOT DO THIS)

I have found that the media/warnings were way over reactive, but they are erring on the safe side. The thing with tornadoes is that they can wipe out the house next door to you, but leave your petunias swaying in the breeze.

So while you should take precautions during a warning/watch, don't let it ruin your day,

It's pretty cool to watch the storm clouds! I'm so used to the weather here now - it's pretty easy to tell when it's really time to head to the basement.

 

[Karibeth19]

OK, DO NOT do anything I'm relating here, I'm just sayin..

I lived many years of my life in Kansas where tornadoes are abundant (reference: Wizard of Oz). For natives, a tornado watch/warning is pretty much an invitation to go out on your porch and watch the storm(I SAID DO NOT DO THIS)

I have found that the media/warnings were way over reactive, but they are erring on the safe side. The thing with tornadoes is that they can wipe out the house next door to you, but leave your petunias swaying in the breeze.

So while you should take precautions during a warning/watch, don't let it ruin your day,

That's pretty much the attitude here in Oklahoma, too! Of course, most of the time they issue watches hours ahead of a storm system, so it doesn't make much sense to take cover when the sky is still blue and cloudless.

 

[luvmy3]

Thats sounds scary, I'm glad it all turned out Okay and you only experienced your first warning and not an actual tornado.

 

[Buckeye Princess]

When I was in college there was a tornado warning in the middle of the night and all the dorms were woken up and everyone sent to the basements. Somehow my floor's alarm did not go off and no one knew. I slept right through it. I didn't know anything until everyone was talking about it the next morning at my first class. Scary to think what could've happened.

 

[Becky2005]

binny next time go into the school and wait with the girls. You will be so much safer.

I agree. I live in an area where we are used to the tornado watches & warnings. Only once was I stuck when one decided to hit the first day of school right at dismissal time -- when there was no clue there was a storm coming & you WALKED to the school -- luckily the Principal warned me and said "you need to hustle home" -- I don't think we were in a watch even at that point but it was showing up that something was brewing -- got nearly home when the sirens started going off & then lost electricity. THAT was a memorable 1st day of school for everyone!

A little freaked out since I had no clue where my middle schooler was at the time (the e-mails telling us that they pulled the busses back & were not releasing any of the students from middle school & high school didn't get relayed since no computer without electricity). Of course, she HAD a cell phone and do you think she thought to call me once she was on the bus to tell me what was going on? Nope.

Luckily, they don't sound the sirens too often so when they do, we pay attention (except the first Tuesday of the month at 10:00 AM -- I'm not quite sure what is going to happen if there is ever a need for the sirens to REALLY go off at that time! I'm sure we would all ignore it).

Watches on the other hand...don't get too worked up about those, just more on the OK, we may have to move to the basement.

Of course, not having lived with it all your life it would be hard to understand it. I wouldn't have a clue what to do in a hurricane area not having lived in one, so I would be freaked during one myself. It's all what you are used to.

 

[karibritt01]

Of course, not having lived with it all your life it would be hard to understand it. I wouldn't have a clue what to do in a hurricane area not having lived in one, so I would be freaked during one myself. It's all what you are used to.

Not that much different during the storm itself, except that you are in it for hours on end. You get plenty of batteries, water, and shelf stable food, and then hunker down when the storm starts rolling in. We sit and watch TV until the power goes out, then read or whatever. Being in Raleigh, we hardly ever get the main part of those storms, but the last one that rolled right through here did $120K damage to our house, and we were without power or water for 10 days. Main difference in damage from tornado to hurricane is that tornado damage is only in the path of the storm, where hurricane is widespread damage and flooding. I hope to never see either again in my lifetime!

 

[Planogirl]

We have watches so often that we just go on as normal but we do pay attention. Warnings are different of course.

There's a lot of very bad weather crossing the plains right now. Everyone, be careful!