Take Shelter

What to do on a Tuesday night?  See if your family of 5 can fit in a 3x3 closest.  Not your idea of fun?  Well, not mine either.  But nonetheless that is what we got to do last night.  It is tornado season.  Of course they say that tornadoes can happen anytime of the year, but we see the mass majority of tornadoes during the spring time.

Did you know?

• Each year, about a thousand tornadoes touch down in the United States, far more than any other country.
• Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over a body of water.
• Knives and forks have been found embedded in tree trunks flung from a tornado.
• Usually a tornado starts off as a white or gray cloud but if it stays around for a while, the dirt and debris it sucks up eventually turns it into black one.
• Tornado winds are the fastest winds on Earth.
• A Tornado in Oklahoma once destroyed a whole motel. People later found the motel’s sign in Arkansas.
• In 1928, a tornado in Kansas plucked the feathers right off some chickens.
• Some tornadoes make a considerable amount of noise while others make very little. It depends on the objects a tornado might hit or carry. A tornado moving along an open plain may make very little noise.
• The meteorological factors that drive tornadoes make them more likely at some times than at others. They occur more often in late afternoon, when thunderstorms are common, and are more prevalent in spring and summer. 

Safety Tips

• Prepare for tornadoes by gathering emergency supplies including food, water, medications, batteries, flashlights, important documents, road maps, and a full tank of gasoline.

• When a tornado approaches, anyone in its path should take shelter indoors—preferably in a basement or an interior first-floor room or hallway.

• Avoid windows and seek additional protection by getting underneath large, solid pieces of furniture.

• Avoid automobiles and mobile homes, which provide almost no protection from tornadoes.

• Those caught outside should lie flat in a depression or on other low ground and wait for the storm to pass.

Long story short. Get the heck out of the way of a tornado and get in your 3x3 closet!   

Have a happy tornado season.  

~ Selena