From 5pm ON - Heat Built Up and The Tornadoes Started Popping Up~~~

A Rope Tornado outside Scott, KS this afternoon


And then this one picked up and became 2
vortices and rolled into Dodge City, dropping
down intermittently



Our week ahead: >
 
 

I'm already doing water seepage duty for my basement 
...DANG IT!

Tuesday evening -  tornadoes galore to the east and south of me and loads of rain.
Wednesday evening - some rain south of me, huge outbreaks of tornadoes and monsoon rains blowing through north of me; my mothers home town looks to be in the path of this tornado on the ground ½ mile wide in places and still moving on the ground destroying anything/everything in it's path.
Heat set in and the humidity ramped up into the 90%, so I finally turned my A/C on this morning - just can't sleep when it's this hot & sticky and no cool air to move. UGH

Ink dots on a mileage map provided by Highway Patrol Officer on duty last
night during the tornado - the path that the tornado took and stayed on the ground over 24.8 miles!



This is the point of origin - outside of Solomon, KS 
yesterday afternoon



So many people uploading images but not putting their exact or
estimated locations from last evening storms ...



What was left of a garage and a vehicle that wasn't theirs,
but it was blown into their property from down the road.
One auto was found out in the field quite a distance from
this demolished building.


A hole in this home - after a tractor tire blew threw the wall > > >


Another home 90% destroyed right outside of Abilene later and farther down the road to the East. > > >


Nearly 25 homes and farm building destroyed or damaged in some way and no one seriously injured; just a few cuts/scrapes and bruises and some livestock missing.

There were 2 elderly ladies watching the storm from their comfy seats in their living rooms; birds eye view of the Tornado {this huge one moving away from their rural farm house} ...they did not know about the other one that dropped out of the sky behind their farm house and out of their view! 
One lady was 90+ years old and not ambulatory and her helper/cousin who was in her 70+ years old...they both had to be dug out of the remains of their home and were taken to the hospital; by the grace of god and the rest of their 8 lives they survived to tell about this event. 

What people just don't often 'GET' --- when the sirens go off - the weather people say to get into a shelter/lowest part of your home - it's not always what you're able to see coming at you ...it's often the debris or those extra funnel clouds that spawn out of those huge storm system! 

Yes, my cousin Thelma's oldest son's place was totally destroyed in last nights
tornado - dropped out of the sky over by Solomon, KS - stayed on the ground
24.8 miles and hit her son's home just as they were trying to get home from
work in Abilene, KS.  They lost their pets: 2 cats - 2 dogs

Their first image when they were able to get home >










The photo's that Channel KCTV 5 had on their web sight from their storm spotter:

The one about the tractor tire blowing into the side of a home >



and this other one taken by a storm spotter for the news station.



They did NOT have a storm shelter - this house was built on a poured - slab {no basement}...
Thankfully they weren't home or they'd been gone too.  Hopefully they'll get a storm shelter 'NOW'!

Update on my distant cousin: one muddied - bruised/battered dog was found by friends helping pick up clothing & other family items.  And one cat crawled out of a pile of debris after hearing their voices...so not all of the pets were a total loss. From that direct hit. 
I lost track of the number of tornado sightings yesterday as the count went past 10 before I fell asleep - but the water seeping into my basement is still a 'work in progress'; we are officially in a FLOOD WATCH now.
Sadly this was from last evening horrible number of lightening strikes: taken by the Moody County Sheriff's Office >



Loads of comments about the 21 head of cattle at this metal feeder when they should have been out on pasture grass - feeding; instead of a muddied corral ...so there's an interesting 'back story' here!
Such a huge loss of cattle and rather a ignorant insane thing to expose so many head to while we have our spring thunderstorms!

So glad they found the animals. Fingers crossed for you, I honestly don't know how you cope!

Oh! Only just noticed this 4ever. How on earth do you all cope?

The pic of the tornado is amazing though!

Good lord! I hope everyone's OK.

We're having wave after wave of thunderstorms down here with no end in sight

sassy wrote:So glad they found the animals.  Fingers crossed for you, I honestly don't know how you cope!

Great to see your avatar/name pop up on here this morning, makes me 'SMILE'

Lordy, we've topped over 10" of rain in just the past 3 days; I no longer fear DROUGHT now it's more like the floods that made my home resemble a house surrounded by a moat from the 2009 flood.
All of these photo's were taken by my BFF that just recently past away; while she was on her front porch watching all of my landscape mulch and newly planted small bushes and flowers wash out onto the flood waters. 
This is my north property boundary - my feed lot neighbor >


This is my back driveway - veggie garden to the left - shed where my
chickens are housed at the end of that driveway - my dog yard >
depth of water was 4'5" you can see the dark line across BFF's front lawn
where my landscape mulch had washed up when the flood water was
at it's highest 6'  -


That's 'ME' yelling obscenities at my BFF about the F'n rain and the moat and
the number of snakes and crap being washed up into my yard and hers > > >



She LOL'd until I told her about the 'SNAKES' looking for safer ground and a warm sanctuary --- she retreated back into her house; opened her living room window so
we could continue our discussion about the crappy weather!  
She's probably laughing her chubby butt off about this flood event weekend too; up there where she's at now!

Hahahahaha great pics! Glad you can still see the humour.

eddie wrote:Hahahahaha great pics! Glad you can still see the humour.

It's because I'm just a mindless - walking ZOMBIE right now; one too many trips up & down those basement steps dealing with the storm water - trying to get through to my BFF's widowed hubby ...who now seems to have messed up his cell phone & her cell phone and he won't answer the landline {home phone} during a thunderstorm because his fear of lightening getting him ...so I'm hoping his basement is not knee deep in water by now

You asked 'how I/we manage to do this'; it's just what people do when you are raised in 'Tornado Alley'  ...it would be very similar to Quill feeling those often small earthquakes out in California - they'd freak me out totally but he's probably become very accustomed to those small rattle & shakes.  
It does get 'OLD' quickly and this recent monsoon spring is supposed to last right into next week - through to Thursday! 

Hope your friends ex-hubby is ok.

We have terrible flooding here in the UK too. Not where I live but in certain parts of the U.K. people have lost their homes and everything that they own.

4EVER2 wrote:

There were 2 elderly ladies watching the storm from their comfy seats in their living rooms; birds eye view of the Tornado {this huge one moving away from their rural farm house} ...they did not know about the other one that dropped out of the sky behind their farm house and out of their view! 
One lady was 90+ years old and not ambulatory and her helper/cousin who was in her 70+ years old...they both had to be dug out of the remains of their home and were taken to the hospital; by the grace of god and the rest of their 8 lives they survived to tell about this event. 

What people just don't often 'GET' --- when the sirens go off - the weather people say to get into a shelter/lowest part of your home - it's not always what you're able to see coming at you ...it's often the debris or those extra funnel clouds that spawn out of those huge storm system! 

Wow, just look at that. I know it's dangerous but I love storms.

Woke to ZERO rain, the came out around 10am and has decide to stay.  I waited until the grass was dry enough to mow, got my rider out - gassed up and went over to mow an elderly ladies back yard first; her little Yorkie dogs were getting lost in the tall grass. Came back got mine all done & my dog yard too, found a nice huge water puddle {lake 5th street} pulled my rider into it and rived it up through the engage blade on and power washed my mowing deck up.  The price of city water has gone up and that water puddle was put to good use, now there are several neighbors using it as well. 
But it's 70º and such a nice - nice day
and NO RAIN and my basement is DRY too.

4evr2, something that has always puzzled me when people talk about Tornado's, i notice most houses are made mostly of wood judging by the amount of it lying around smashed after the Tornado has passed. Would it not be better to build in brick?

nicko wrote:4evr2,     something that has always puzzled me when people talk about Tornado's,    i notice most houses are made mostly of wood judging by the amount of it lying around smashed after the Tornado has passed. Would it not be better to build in brick?

or something light enough not to crush you when it falls (that why Japan had the light bamboo and paper housing traditionally)
they seem to be solid enough to crush you but not solid enough to withstand a lot.

good old


(4eva wanted a USA smilie since i gave you flag waving brits one )

nicko wrote:4evr2,     something that has always puzzled me when people talk about Tornado's,    i notice most houses are made mostly of wood judging by the amount of it lying around smashed after the Tornado has passed. Would it not be better to build in brick?

Certainly it would, Nicko; but that is so very cost prohibitive and the structure {stud walls/interior} would still need to be built of something similar like wood framing.
But even a concrete structure stands little chance with a direct hit by a tornado  
F-3 = winds 150mph / F-4 = 180mph / F-5 = 200mph or greater, unlike hurricane that has a huge circumference {land mass} to spread out over, a tornado is moving rapidly and tightly compacted. 
Except that some are small - rope like and hop & skip around - and some can reach a ½ mile wide and stay on the ground for miles and just scrap the earth bare of everything. Those monster tornadoes leave nothing and have been known to pull up more than a foot or two of top soil in that path.

veya_victaous wrote:

nicko wrote:4evr2,     something that has always puzzled me when people talk about Tornado's,    i notice most houses are made mostly of wood judging by the amount of it lying around smashed after the Tornado has passed. Would it not be better to build in brick?

or something light enough not to crush you when it falls (that why Japan had the light bamboo and paper housing traditionally)
they seem to be solid enough to crush you but not solid enough to withstand a lot.

good old


(4eva wanted a USA smilie    since i gave you flag waving brits one )

Silly DUDE, those paper thin structures are due to the numerous earthquakes over there ...here we have straight line winds that can reach a gust of 80mph.
It's bad enough I have to chase my laundry that gets blown off of the clothes line - I hate to think how often my shanty would be blown over from these little KS gales that spring up.

Then this image ...I wouldn't know what it is. 
I've heard stories about the weird & bizarre things that will get up-rooted while
something else so tiny and fragile gets left sitting in place undisturbed but to
drive a piece of tree into a thickest section of a tractor tire is beyond belief - IMO

My other cousins grandson's farmstead over by Solomon, KS where the tornado dropped out of the clouds that awful night.

This is a Toyota Highlander that only had 5000 miles on it >

I'm soooooooooooo glad we don't have your weather, have not idea how you cope!