Sirens don't always go off when a tornado is forming. The sirens weren't on when the deadly EF5 entered Joplin, Missouri a few years ago. My advice would be don't ever put your faith into the sirens. They don't always go off when they should. Someone has to turn them on, and if that person is taking a nap or something then they won't get flipped on. Or the power could be out, or maintenance, there's a lot of reasons. I would have liked to have seen those clouds too! I love photographing them.
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Once the tornado touched down, the sirens in Joplin did start going off. But my friends, who lived two blocks from the touchdown, had no warning.
It's funny, I've been thinking so much lately about the tornado here, then I start your account of your tornado. I did a post a couple weeks ago about the butterfly sculptures all over Joplin that were inspired by the tornado.
Glad you made it out of that, Man. My sister's a storm chaser, and it terrifies me. After reading your story, I'll probably worry more when she goes out. With storm season just around the corner, BE CAREFUL!!!
Wait, you live in Joplin? I couldn't imagine what that day was like. I would not have wanted to be in town during that storm. It's too bad so many people died in that one.
Back in 2005 I was awoken by my brother in law at 2 AM.... He told me a tornado was coming our way. Him saying that, combined with the intense lightning outside really scared me. The lightning was so intense that there were no gaps between flashes, just a steady electric blue color illuminating the inside of the house here. I HATE nocturnal severe storms to this day. The tornado dissipated 15 miles away, but not before killing 23 people in 3 different towns. They said the peak winds got up to 200 mph, an F3 in those days. Nowadays 200 mph is considered EF5.
I don't know what to say about your sister, I hope she's good at what she does. I hope she stays safe out there too!
Yeah. Thank God we were about 10 blocks outside of the major distruction zone. We just had trees down and some missing shingles and siding. My husband was outside looking for our dog when the sirens started going off. He found her and made it down to the basement without getting hurt, thankfully. There had been watches all day and warnings that it was going to get b a d. Even when the sirens were going off, a lot of people didn’t pay too much attention until they saw it coming. I call it siren fatigue. In the spring and early summer, it’s not uncommon for the sirens to go off every day for a week at a time, and eventually they’re just the Boy That Cried Wolf.
The vast majority of our storms are at night. All through storm season we have jackets and shoes by the door so we can just grab them on the way out the door. (My father in law lines across the street and we use his basement. There have been so many 2 a.m. trips over there, I can’t even count them anymore.