Here We Go Again

Dave Hoskins

Member
Messages
5,252
Location
Parker County, Texas
Definitely the time of year for pop up storms here. Coming this way right now, just to the west of me is hail and possible twisters. This was not in the initial forecast. Came up late this afternoon.
 
Those pop ups can be scary. Do you have a storm shelter?? My daughter in OK has one and we've had to use it a couple of times when visiting. It's nice to have a cover to protect vehicles from hail too. Great fun watching the wx men and storm chasers do their thing. We do shots every time the weatherman says Chickasha (pronounced chick a shay), the Choctaw word for Chickasaw.
 
We had a "root cellar" out in west Texas as a kid... didn't care much for going down there... we often had snakes taking refuge from the heat (or storms)...
My mom found one in her canning jars one spring.... she closed the lid on the box, told my dad if he wanted anything canned that year, he better get that out of the cellar and find the other one or she would just nail the door shut. He found the snakes, but he made me take them across the field to the wind row.
(I was 10 and not fond of snakes either -- still not)
 
Many, many years ago I had to collect some samples at retail in Dallas and drive them to Ft. Smith, Arkansas which was about a 5 hour drive. I don't recall the route I took but I do remember seeing all the homes with "fraidy holes" in their side yards. Fraidy holes are what them Texicans called tornado shelters.

Another time I was driving from Ft. Smith to Tulsa at dusk and saw two tornados crossing the flat land near Muskogee, OK. We spent the night at a motel near the airport because we had an early flight Two tornados hit Tulsa that night a few miles from where we were. The weather was so rough I went looking for a fraidy hole myself.

P.S. We had an old saw mill on our property. What was left of it including mounds of rotted sawdust was down in the woods next to where we grew a garden growing up. Garden was a relative term because my father planted rows over a hundred feet long and we would have two or three rows of corn, a couple rows of tomatoes, beans, squash, okra... Let's just say we had a big garden and I wore out more than one hoe chopping weeds in the red clay that provided the soil in our garden.

The reason that the the old saw mill is important to this story is because it served as a nesting area for copperhead snakes. Me and my uncles who were just a few years older than me discovered that fact when Grandma sent us down to the rotted sawdust piles to get wheelbarrow loads of sawdust that she would put in her flower beds. We unearthed a bed of copperhead babies while digging up the sawdust.

Those snakes liked to live in our garden particularly under the tomato plants. Tomatoes in those days were primarily vine tomatoes that sprawled all over the ground and the snakes would crawl in the tomato patch to get out of the sun. Pop, my grandfather was bitten on the little finger while he was picking tomatoes. My Uncle Steve had a copperhead strike at him and hit the tomato he had in his hand. My mother would pick tomatoes in an old 5 gallon enameled bucket which had some rusted out holes in the bottom. One day she bought home a bucket of tomatoes for canning and put it on the kitchen counter. Next thing I knew she was screaming and calling for me. Yep, she had brought home a little copperhead that had crawled out of the tomato patch into her bucket. I used a worn out hoe to provide some discipline for that snake. He never crawled in Mama's bucket again. I guarantee that!
 
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A couple of hours ago a buddy of mine in Round Rock posted a short video on Facebook of a twister that touched down near his house. Having lived in SoCal for 20 years, I think I'd rather deal with earthquakes than tornadoes.
 
We had no damage this time around. Unfortunately, no storm shelter. I have had snakes in my tomatoes before, and they were welcome there. They were all rat snakes. I have a lot of them around as well as road runners. Copperheads and rattlers don't stand too much of a chance around here. That's why all my lizard buddies stay in the shop.
 
Well, as I tell a lot of folks, only 3% of all the snakes in the world are poisonous. A lot of those are highly toxic and others only mildly. Now I am not saying that if you ran into a 25-30' anaconda that it can't hurt ya. But the hug it would give you might just be a bit of a problem. :rofl:
 
Having grown up and lived in central Texas (Waco), I was very familiar with the kind of weather happening there now. Until January, 1998 (at age 54), I never lived any farther than 165 miles from Waco. So, I dealt with whatever hand I got.

Living in Florida for 8.5 years was a refreshing change from Texas weather - yes, even with the hurricane issue.

Now that we're living in south GA, weather patterns have been interesting, to say the least. The normal storm track comes across TX & MS. begins to veer northeast in AL, and takes the worst of most systems north of us by a comfortable margin. (Fingers crossed!!!!)
 
Well, the old saying goes "It's Always Bigger in Texas". During my world travels, of course, I learned that was not necessarily so. But, I do remember seeing in the news in 1980 about the F5 twister that went through Wichita Falls leaving a mile wide swath for it's path. I said it went through, I should have said ripped through. ARRGGG!!!
 
Don't remember the 1980 tornado in Wichita Falls... but I had just moved back to Texas in 1980 and probably was concentrating on getting set up or it may have been before I moved... I moved in April or May to Dallas, then on to Houston in June.... I do remember the one that went through Waco about 1953.... we were living east of Mexia at the time and remember Mom and Dad being worried for two of Dad's sisters that lived in Waco. Fortunately neither was in the path.
 
I was a weatherman when in the Air Force. When stationed in Washington state I worked shifts in the control tower. This gave me a view of many miles over the flat land. I would watch storms as they developed and moved around. Frequently, they had funnels and tornados. It was fascinating to watch. When in training we were taught that tornados are the most unpredictable and most destructive forces in nature. They are not to be taken lightly or ignored. If in your area take cover.
 
. When in training we were taught that tornados are the most unpredictable and most destructive forces in nature. They are not to be taken lightly or ignored. If in your area take cover.
They can be really erratic....I've heard some stories about tornadoes ... I do remember one in my home county back before I got out of high school.... it came down in a field across the road from a house that had a separate garage some 10-20 feet from the house... the tornado wiped out a plum thicket as it crossed the field, jumped the road and went between the house and garage... no damage to the house, tore the corner off the roof of the garage.

We had one come through Monroe county here in Tellico Plains about 4 or 5 years back... it took a trailerhouse out, threw all the appliances into the front yard, twisted the frame into a pretzel and tossed it across the road, that was about 1 or 2 miles out of town, it then dropped into town and took out the KOA campground and a house that sat above the camp (the house had just been finished and wasn't occupied yet),
Another came across the river dropped near a house about 1/2 mile from me, went around the house and took out a tree in the back yard, didn't touch the house....
don't know if these were all the same tornadoes or 3 different ones, but all happened on same day.... the one near my house is 6 miles out of town, and in opposite direction of the one that went through the KOA camp.
 
About 20 years ago a tornado came through our area. I didn't bother my property but totaly wiped out a large metal building used as a repair garage that was about four miles from my house. The next morning there was nothing left of that building. Nothing as in nothing. About a month later I walked to the back of my property, which I seldom did, and lo and behold, there was that garage. All neatly stacked in a pile.
 
F4's and F-5's have a nasty tendency to relocate all kinds of things. Best to get out of their way if at all possible. Years ago an uncle of mine was talking about starting up fishing again after he retired. He was contemplating what kind of boat he wanted. A twister came around and put one on top of his garage. Now ain't that something?
 
Many many years ago I took a job as a regional manager with a company out of Cleveland and while back at the factory I was sitting at a desk going over some files when at large storm came through, I could see out the windows that the rain was going sideways. After work one of the department heads was taking me back to my hotel to get ready to go out to dinner he told me that a twister had gone through and we drove around looking at the damage. It was amazing to so where it had gone though neighborhoods and totally removed houses but left one on either side it left alone. One house looked fine until you looked at the back of it which was gone.
 
...Years ago an uncle of mine was talking about starting up fishing again after he retired. He was contemplating what kind of boat he wanted. A twister came around and put one on top of his garage. Now ain't that something?
I can just picture the conversation at the local lumber yard...

"Quite a storm last night, huh George?"
"A-yep...sure was, Fred. I came in today to pick up some supplies."
"Sure thing. Didja get much damage at your place?"
"Yeah, lost a couple trees in the front yard, the kitchen window, and few shingles on the garage. But hey...free boat!"
 
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