Oklahoma here.. Lived here my whole 47 years.. Seen countless tornadoes and been through 3 of them (meaning close enough to take damage).. and many close calls (where it missed by a mile or so..)..
Here is my story from 5 or 6 years ago on this tornado... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dBa-TM11A .. Not really expecting bad weather, just a small chance. Me and the wife are in the living room and its windy as he'll outside and I hear a little crash outside, looked out the window and my flower pots were being moved around. I didn't want them to break so I went out there to move them out of the wind. I moved 3 of them and then heard that sound you don't forget... So many people say that it sounds like a train, but it seems most people don't think of the right sound. So some people reading this will learn something here.. They think of the train sound as being the horn.. NOPE.. That's NOT the sound of a tornado.. Its the rumbling it makes as it goes by on the tracks.
Anyways I heard that noise and looked beyond my trees and saw the telltale blue of power flashes. No siren.. No warning. I ran inside and told my wife to get in the safe room while I grabbed the cat. I never actually took shelter because I could see on my own radar program that it was headed just a bit south of us. By the time the sirens went off, it was 5 miles away.
So it really depends on the storm how much notice you get. These storms can fire up and get severe in minutes.. Others they will talk about for days and so we are all ready.. We have armies of storm chasers out there and during the day we don't get too many surprises.. But night is a different story.
And the stereotype is true.. When an Oklahoman man hears a tornado siren, we mostly go outside to see if we need to duck and cover or not.
Penguin_shit15 t1_jdmpqf8 wrote
Reply to comment by katarina-stratford in Tornado hits western Mississippi as storms knock out power for thousands. A town is 'gone,' resident says | CNN by A179E49GFZ68722R23
Oklahoma here.. Lived here my whole 47 years.. Seen countless tornadoes and been through 3 of them (meaning close enough to take damage).. and many close calls (where it missed by a mile or so..)..
Here is my story from 5 or 6 years ago on this tornado... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dBa-TM11A .. Not really expecting bad weather, just a small chance. Me and the wife are in the living room and its windy as he'll outside and I hear a little crash outside, looked out the window and my flower pots were being moved around. I didn't want them to break so I went out there to move them out of the wind. I moved 3 of them and then heard that sound you don't forget... So many people say that it sounds like a train, but it seems most people don't think of the right sound. So some people reading this will learn something here.. They think of the train sound as being the horn.. NOPE.. That's NOT the sound of a tornado.. Its the rumbling it makes as it goes by on the tracks.
Anyways I heard that noise and looked beyond my trees and saw the telltale blue of power flashes. No siren.. No warning. I ran inside and told my wife to get in the safe room while I grabbed the cat. I never actually took shelter because I could see on my own radar program that it was headed just a bit south of us. By the time the sirens went off, it was 5 miles away.
So it really depends on the storm how much notice you get. These storms can fire up and get severe in minutes.. Others they will talk about for days and so we are all ready.. We have armies of storm chasers out there and during the day we don't get too many surprises.. But night is a different story.
And the stereotype is true.. When an Oklahoman man hears a tornado siren, we mostly go outside to see if we need to duck and cover or not.