WichitaFallsComplete.com
Storm Spotting Is Not For Weenies Like Me!
I've been in barfights and gunfights, stepped off a motorcycle at 70 MPH (not intentionally, of course) and I've had a parachute fail to open for me. I can stand in the door of an airplane at 12,000 feet and leap without fear, but a tornado is something I'll never knowingly get near again.
In 1979 I was as close to an F-4 tornado that you can get and still have control over what direction you will go next, barely.
I can still feel the car being sucked back as we were trying to gain a little distance. Scratch that; we were trying to gain a lot of distance. I can still see the front of the car swaying left to right, sort of like it was caught in a space movie "tractor beam". And yes, it did sound like a freight train! Billboards, signs, tree limbs and roofs were swirling all around us.
We managed to get away without injury. When we were sure it had passed, we backtracked only to find dead people along the path we had traveled.
Fast-forward to 1983. I had recently obtained my Amateur Radio license and was invited out on a storm spotting activity one night. We took up our position out in the middle of nowhere and waited. It soon became dark and the rain was pouring. I couldn't see a thing, even during the lightning flashes. I hadn't received any weather watch training so I didn't really know what I was looking for.
It was bad enough running from a tornado during the day. I couldn't imagine trying to outrun one in the middle of farmland-central when it was pitch black outside.
I decided to leave the weather watch activities to the strong and the brave. If you are a storm spotter, my hat is off to you!
Maynard