(no subject)

That was exciting, not in a good way. My Thundercall weather warning service (http://www.thundercall.com/) telephoned me this morning at 8:10 am telling me a severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for my area. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the dog so she could go outside before the storm actually got here. Shortly after we came inside it got really dark. Then I heard a noise unlike normal high wind sounds associated with thunderstorms, yes, it actually sounds like a freight train. I looked out the window and the wind kept switching directions. So, I grabbed my dog and my laptop and went into my laundry room. Not the best shelter, but it has at least one reinforced wall. I think I'm going to clean out a closet and try and use it instead. I actually have one that's on an interior wall. It's the closest I have to an interior room in my house and of course, I don't have a basement. I have been planning on taking out my deck and rose trellis in the next couple of months. Today gave me a jumpstart on that project, the trellis is down (the frame remains). I had a couple of fairly large branches slap down onto my roof... I've heard KU was hit pretty hard and there seem to be a number of places with roof and siding damage, LOTS of trees down. What amazes me is that power didn't even go out at my house. Power is out all over town, but it just flickered here... Shortly after the storm I was outside surveying the damage around my house and a bike rider came through.. he'd been trapped outside during the storm. It blew in so suddenly the sirens didn't go off until well AFTER the winds began. They don't know if it was a tornado or a microburst, but they think the winds were around 100 MPH. This was completely unexpected, the meteorologists were not expecting storms like this given the current atmospheric conditions... The storm wasn't tornadic before it got here, there was no indication of rotation when it got to lawrence, if it was a tornado, it developed over Lawrence. It is producing tornados in Missouri now... this was a quick one, just goes to show, we don't know as much as we think we do. Bummer, as I was posting this message power went out to my neighborhood. Some tree must have finally fallen on the line somewhere. Yay! Power's back!