Pretending not to panic
I’ve been in this part of the world for something like 35 years, which apparently is not quite enough time to become entirely jaded about the weather: I’ll no doubt be burned in effigy by some greener-than-thou types for saying so, but Mother Gaia — well, let’s put it this way: I’d rather deal with Kyle’s mom.
So about 4:20 I noticed some serious stormage up towards Guthrie, headed, I was told, southeast. This would miss Surlywood entirely, but 42nd and Treadmill was in the crosshairs. At 4:30 I split, just to make sure I wasn’t around for it.
And about 4:39, barely onto I-44, it hit. Hard and fast. Speeds dropped from 70 to 60, to 50, to 40, to “How do I get off this goddamn road?” And, lucky me, I had a semi beside me. That poor joe was enjoying the 50-mph-plus wind even less than I was. I got around him and basically flew to the right, exiting at Lincoln right when the hail started.
Now my biggest fear at times like this is not so much that I’m going to be pelted with some of the world’s hardest water, or that I can’t see more than ten feet in front of me: it’s that I might do something sufficiently stupid to kill myself or someone else. So I spent most of the next few minutes trying to minimize exposure to other traffic, not an easy trick on a major road like Lincoln. It took 40 minutes to get home, twice the usual. And I had been right about one thing: not much happened at my house. Couple of broken limbs — only one qualified for more than “twig” — but otherwise nothing happening, and in fact the sun came out shortly after I did my inspection of the premises.
At which point I let out an extremely loud sigh and fell into my chair.
The Weather Guys said the hail was the size of quarters; I’d say I got somewhere around $23.75 worth. But this is what happens in a place where it’s been 100 degrees plus for seven days straight and then a cold front drops out of nowhere, or from Canada, whichever is closer. And the east side got it worse, anyway; Tinker AFB’s weather gear turned in a report of 72-mph wind, which is as close as you’re going to get to a hurricane this far from the beach.
fillyjonk »
16 July 2009 · 5:50 pm
Yipes. Had something similar happen last week. I was teaching a field lab, my TA (who had a web-enabled cell phone) comes running up, saying “There are big storms going through Bromide and they’re headed here!”
I admit I was less concerned than she; there have been too many rain false-alarms here. So we finished up, got in the vans.
A darkness fell. Advanced darkness, as SpongeBob would say.
I drove as fast as was safe (and wouldn’t get me pulled over) but then the wind hit us.
It is not fun driving a 20 year old 15 passenger van in 30+ mph winds that are perpendicular to its longest axis. (And I had to yell at the chatterer riding shotgun to shut up so I could focus on keeping us on the road). And then the pelting rain. Luckily, like you, we got home safely. But I’d really rather not do that again.
I suppose some of that heavy weather may be heading here. Well, I don’t have anywhere I have to be tonight, and my car is already garaged.
Closet Atheist »
16 July 2009 · 6:22 pm
As per usual, we were watching the Thunderstorm Show, but when all but 5 and 52 went off the air, we drove to our usual fireworks-watching place and watched the storm roll by.
We just had rain here, 0.4 inches. I was trying to kill off my grass so I wouldn’t have to mow again this year. Now it’s green again. DAMN!
Donna B. »
16 July 2009 · 6:35 pm
Since our 24 year old AC unit died yesterday, I’m looking forward to that cold front getting here.
McGehee »
16 July 2009 · 7:07 pm
There’ve been a couple of times since moving to The South that I had to look for a place to pull off and wait for the
turbo wash cyclerain to subside. I can’t imagine trying to drive in stuff like that.Then again, there was the time I actually went chasing a storm and, to my chagrin, caught it. You remember that Road Runner cartoon where the coyote finally caught the feathered speed demon? I can relate.
CGHill »
16 July 2009 · 7:18 pm
Bless you, Donna. (Dare I hope that the Surlywood A/C, installed in early 1997, will survive until 2021?)
Donna B. »
16 July 2009 · 10:27 pm
haha! Dare I hope that whatever new unit we buy in the near future will last until 2021?
CGHill »
17 July 2009 · 8:15 am
Last time I was in Florida, I got rained off the road a couple of times, one of them on I-75 at what had been a crisp 82 mph or so. (There was a later incident on US 17, where there was a lot less traffic but also a lot less wiggle room.)