Preparing for the Worst/Hoping for the Best

Second Post of the Day

Last Thursday was a wild ride for Indiana, weather wise. Terrible damage to the northern part of the state and the National Weather Service is still out in the field assessing just how many tornados tore through Indiana.

 At this point, the count is 21, the 8th largest tornado outbreak in the state's history, and the NWS is not done yet.

We'd been given a heads up that more storms were to come through yesterday and they did. While they were severe, no sirens blew.

They began with very heavy rains, and then when those slowed a bit, pea sized hail pelted us for a while.  No biggie; all was fine

Today's weather forecast has everyone around here sobered and concerned. For almost a week, forecasters from local to the NWS have been forecasting that significantly intense tornados will strike in the Midwest, and Lafayette is in the bullseye.

Memes like this one began to be posted by various weather services.

This was posted Monday, two days ago. Enough to alert me, but I also know that forecasts can change as we get closer to the event. But they have continued to show that we are going to have bad weather this afternoon and evening.

Several things have rattled me about the this particular forecast.

1) Our son Cole loves weather and has since he was a child. He monitors the weather forecasts and sent this to our family GroupMe last night.

We get several tornado warnings a year, but I can't remember another time when Cole made sure we knew what might be coming. That made me pause. (Ryan Hall is a forecaster in Illinois who is known to be highly accurate in his forecasts.)

2) Our local forecaster, Chad Evans, made a statement that I have never heard him make last night. He called today's forecast "troubling."

Chad is also a highly accurate forecaster and has been in our community for years. For him to say that was a first, and a big one at that.

Coupled with Cole's warning, I began reconsidering just how safe our laundry room is. The tornado closet under the stairs is accessed through a door in the laundry room, but we usually just put chairs in the laundry room and sit while we wait for the sirens to stop instead of actually going into the closet.

3) The forecasters have been warning us about today's storms for nearly a week. The language they use about potential damage is far stronger than usual. Maybe even strident - the warnings to be prepared keep coming.

4) I was awakened at 5:30 this morning by a terrible migraine. I stumbled out of bed and took some meds, then took the dogs out. I was extremely nauseated as I went back to bed and sick, sick, sick. Five hours later I am better, but still headachy and nibbling on crackers. 

Changes in air pressure can trigger headaches as well as be harbingers of storms. My guess is that that was what caused me to suddenly get so ill - the air pressure changed as the storm system approaches us. I wonder now if it is an indicator that something big truly is heading our way.

I am going to take all of this seriously. Phones fully charged, flashlights with fresh batteries. Tornado closet open and clear so we can grab the dogs and hunker down in there. Candles and candle lighters easily accessible. Move things in the garage over to the side so we can get one car inside. Drag the patio furniture up close to the house so it doesn't go flying again. Alert a few people who might be unaware that there may be wild weather coming in. And more.

I have already written tomorrow's blog post and scheduled it to post. It's a Dogs of Our Lives - they are still a little hard to write since Mama's passing but I found a story in some recent pictures of the dogs and I hope it will make you smile. (It did me.)

Finally, I will do my best to post ASAP about our post-storm status so that you know we rode it out and are okay. I am hoping that will be the case, but Cole's warning and Chad's "troubling" remark, have me on high alert.

In the meantime, the memes are continuing on our family GroupMe. Gotta love my kids. (Thanks for the smile,  Lis!)

I suspect this is gonna be a first, middle, and last name day around here, but I hope I am wrong.

Stay 'tooned.