Sirens in the Night

Yesterday, there was concern about nasty weather coming our way and the weather service had issued some kind of risk level for potential tornadoes and strong storms. There is a guy on YouTube who live streams bad weather events so I was watching early in the evening when all the bad weather was well northwest of us. He kept saying that the “fun” wouldn’t start in our area until the overnight hours and, right before I went to bed, we got put under a tornado watch.

Really didn’t think too much of it because we were at the far northern end of the watch area and the greatest risk still appeared to be to our south.

Then, the sirens went off around 2 in the morning. They tell you that if you hear the sirens, you should get to shelter right away. For sure, that is the safest option since you really don’t know what is going on. But having lived in tornado country for as long as I have, the odds are that there isn’t a tornado right outside your door so you can take a little time to assess the situation.

I mean they blow the sirens for a severe thunderstorm in a tornado watch because the storm could create a tornado. Again, the cautious approach would be to seek shelter just in case. But a potential tornado is not a real tornado and our shelter area would be in the unfinished section of the basement and trudging down there in the middle of the night is reserved for real emergencies.

Plus, even if there is a tornado, it could be in a different part of the county and not headed our way. So there are a few reasons to just see what the heck is going on before running to the basement. And, when I got up, the storm hadn’t even started yet so there was still plenty of time.

When there is bad weather, the local weather people often stay at the station so they can come on and tell us where the bad stuff is happening. I guess they also decided that there wasn’t much to worry about because the local stations were playing whatever they do at 2 in the morning. So no information there. Fortunately, the guy on You Tube was still on and we were the biggest storm in the area so his focus was on us. Turns out we were just due for a strong storm but little possibility of a tornado.

Of course, I’m not going back to bed. The tornado siren is a little jarring and does produce a little anxiety and I wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep before the storm hit so I might as well just ride it out while watching the You Tube feed just in case. We got some brief heavy rain, a little hail and a bit of wind but then it passed through so I could go back to bed.

With the storms passing, the temperature has dropped. Yesterday, I didn’t need a jacket. Today it is hovering right around freezing which is more normal for the end of February. It seems like it is a bit early for this type of weather but maybe spring is trying to launch a little earlier this year. Last night, winter decided to fight back a bit.

So this may not be the last time this year that the sirens disturb my sleep.