Tornados
 

I thought the only thing we had to worry about in Florida was hurricanes, but we have had at least 2 or 3 tornado warnings every year. A couple years ago a tornado damaged the roof of the Suncoast building on 41 in Murdock. That is only about 10 miles from my house, and got our attention.

Actually it appears that tornadoes are fairly common in Florida. When I was a kid, my mom and dad brought myself and my brothers down to the Tampa area because my dad was looking for a service station to buy in the area. While my dad an mom were at some meetings, us kids were left at the motel. Come to find out that a double tornado had touched down that day and went right around our motel.

I guess those cold fronts coming down and going over top of the normally warm air coming from the Gulf of Mexico over top of Florida is a prime tornado breeding ground.

Actually the reason I got interested in photography was because when I was much younger I was on the beach in Englewood and saw a water spout (tornado over water) out at a distance and found it fascinating. I wanted to be able to capture that kind of memory, so decided to buy a camera. Of course, haven't really had much luck seeing a water spout since then. I did see one that ALMOST touched down on the water, and then when I was taking some video of a sunset, it *looked* like two water spouts WAY off in the distance between myself and the sun. Nothing to write home about, though.

Anyway, every hurricane that makes landfall has a real good chance of spawning tornadoes from those storm bands coming onto land. That gives quite a bit of unpredictability for where major damage will take place surrounding a land falling hurricane. So even though the landfall center may be "over there", a tornado can touch down in your own back yard "right here".

We had one or more tornadoes REAL close by during that recent line of severe storms that passed through. Just a mile or two away, from what I have been able to gather. I didn't hear anything, however, that sounded like what I have heard people describe the sound of a nearby tornado.

Tornadoes are both fascinating and terrifying. My husband and I both grew up in the mid west. Oklahoma and Missouri. Now we reside in WA. Now we have earthquakes and volcanoes to worry about. Tornadoes are rare here. I would much rather deal with tornadoes and hurricanes than what we have. At least you can plan ahead. Ours are really just an Oh Sh!t its happened disaster.

Is that volcano over in Hawaii still erupting? I was following it for a while, but seems I can only watch so much lava footage before it starts seemlng like just more of the same thing I watched yesterday. Yeah, easy thing for a spectator to say, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to have an active volcano any where near me. One little tiny pyroclastic flow in your direction could just totally ruin your day.