As with the cold front that swept through the area last Sunday, there was another one forecast for Wednesday late in the day. It will be interesting to see how this ends up once the storm has made its way off the east coast, but the storm last night was one of the worst we have ever experienced.
As we travelled East on our way here a week ago we noticed with increasing regularity the number of tornado shelter signs put out by businesses and municipalities alike. We have never had to take shelter in one before and didn’t know if we would ever need to do so. We typically plan our travel days to avoid any kind of bad weather, and other than staying overnight at a destination prone to tornadoes, would not likely come across the need to access a shelter.
Last night was different. I am always amazed at how quickly cold fronts can produce heavy storms with gusty winds and lots of rain. The forecast for yesterday was for there to be bad weather starting around six last night and lasting until eleven. I mentioned before I use the app Windy for information on the location of high winds and bad weather. Throughout the day yesterday I looked at the radar layer they have and nothing was showing up. Then all of a sudden discrete cells started showing up on the radar down as far as the gulf coast. These look almost like popcorn going off at first ahead of the cold fronts. Within an hour the rest of the line formed and became visible as it stretched all the way north into Canada.
As it turns out the most severe outbreak looks like it was down in Arkansas, but I suspect this series of storms will be in a class of their own by the time it is done. As I write this on Thursday morning the line is still moving east and has begun to slope back in to central Texas for possibly more storms down that way.
Last night, everyone in the campground seemed to be watching various news feeds showing the progress of the storm as it moved east and keeping an eye out for the tornado watches and warnings. We got our first watch just before dinner and by the time dinner was done the line had progressed with a possible tornado about twenty miles from here. Newmar has a customer package provided when you come here for service and it contains a list of all the storm shelters in town. Top of the list is their own facility. So it was reassuring if anything came of it we could just access the facility for shelter.
Just before eight the storm siren went off in town and we decided it best to head to the Service Center. We arrived at the same time as another customer who decided to go, and we ended up with about fifteen other customers who made the same decision. To say whatever went by was intense was an understatement. I don’t know what it was but it was incredible. From the Service Center you can see across the street to the campground and for some time the rain was so heavy you could not see the RV’s across the road. The winds, rain and lightening did not last long after that initial fifteen minutes or so, but it continued storming and raining until about ten.
I can only imagine what it must be like to be in a home or shelter and have an actual tornado go over you. For those that have lived through one it must be terrifying, and I can appreciate how important the shelters are.
Now that this cold front has gone through, the temperatures will go back down to near freezing for a couple of days before slowly making their way up again.
Thank you for reading.