Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Weather

How was your day?
Autumn leaves a fallin,
Lightening flashes at night,
Hail stones hitting the skylight,
Snow on the car,
All in a day on the Northcoast!

Just a little ditty on today.
There's a group of people who write 55 word stories on Friday's.
Here's half a 55 on Wednesday. hehehe

Sorry I haven't written in so long...
Been sick for a while, slows me down with fatigue and then there's also the blog war drama that steals too much time.

As exciting as our weather can be on the Northcoast at least we're not in Tornado Alley.
There is a TV show called StormChasers where they drive around looking for Tornadoes with a DOW (Doppler Radar on Wheels) and then try to predict the path of a tornado and send the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) into its path. The Dow has an 8 foot radar dish on the back and several computers inside monitored by a specialist. The TIV is a souped up truck rebuilt like a tank with 8000 pounds of additional metal plate and bullet proof windows, with a driver and an IMAX film photographer who sits in a turret that can rotate to any angle. As the builder of the TIV describes it, it is a mobile tripod that can take a direct hit from a Tornado so he can get the 20 seconds of footage no one has ever got from inside an active tornado.

We do get occasional tornadoes, since I've lived here (15 years now) I've seen the damage from two that passed within a half mile from my house. The tell tale signs are easy to spot, when you see a neighbor's tree top that is twisted off like a corkscrew and tossed several houses down or drive by a development that has finished homes missing one side and half a roof, you know a tornado has been by.