Planes, Tornadoes and Floods
Bull Shoals Dam with all Flood Gates Open 2008
I’ll sum up my trip by saying New York City was great, as always, but there is no place like home!
This has been a terrible spring weather-wise and not just for us at Our Little House.
On Wednesday, I encountered the storm that ended up producing those deadly tornadoes in the south.
We flew through them when they were still just severe thunderstorms while on my connection out of Atlanta. It made for a very bumpy ride and more than frazzled my nerves for over a day.
I do hope that none of our LL community suffered losses there and I am keeping everyone impacted by the storms in my thoughts.
Here at Our Little House and beyond, it feels like 2008 again with all of the rain and flooding. We had 15 inches of rain in the three days before I left for my trip and Dale said it rained constantly while I was gone, even after the weatherman said we were in for a change last week.
As of this writing, it is still dumping what is now damaging rain. Again, the weatherman promises a change to dryer weather this week.
Table Rock Lake, on our Corps system to our north, has been emptying record amounts of water through the dam, which will eventually find its way to our area and beyond.
It’s also been so cold that I haven’t yet gotten out our summer clothes. Last night, Dale and I covered up with the heavy comforter usually reserved for winter. Maybe I should have left those flannel sheets on!
Let’s hope that the weather patterns do change for the better for all of us soon.
Tell the Living Large community about the unique weather patterns in your part of the country!
I was going to say something similar to what Alexandra said. These far out weather systems are surely tied to a global climate change cycle, don’t you think? When will people begin to see that our lifestyles are impacting the entire earth?
I totally agree, Kris. I do believe we are harming the planet and it is fighting back. One has to look no further than the fracking controversy here in Arkansas. Big natural gas companies still say their wells didn’t cause the record number of earthquakes here. Funny they diminished when they were ordered to quit fracking!
After practically no snow all winter, this “spring” we’ve gotten a little bit of snow every night for like 3 weeks. It’s supposed to get up to almost 70 this week, so we are thrilled.
Yay for 70 degrees! We might even see 80 this weekend – and no rain!
Spring seems to have lost its way to our little corner of the world as well – although we never get much of a spring here anyway. We really only get winter, summer and autumn. It’s been very wet here, too, and I still have the woodstove on most days. We have even had the odd bit of snow. It’s milder today but the cold north wind makes it feel cold anyway. I have to bundle up when I go outdoors.
Still – even with our seemingly endless winters (“Canada is 10 months of winter and 2 months of poor skiing”), I will take winter any day over tornadoes – those have to be the scariest things. We do get the hurricanes and wild Nor’easters that roar up the eastern seabord and I am hoping that we are not in for a bad season this year but at least they give more warning than a tornado.
Oh, Olivia, I feel for you. We had a fire in the woodstove the other night too. At least in the near future, we’ll be getting some warm weather. I hope it finds its way north!
Although our weather has been dreary and wet, it’s not reached the destructive stage so we are all greatful for that. But I feel so bad for what happened to the people in Alabama last week. Although you can try and prepare for a natural disaster, there’s not much you can do about the kind of tornado they experienced.
You’re right, Heather. I’ve lived in tornado alley all of my life and aside from preparing to save your life by having a storm shelter, there is just no preparing for the destruction a tornado brings. I covered a Kansas town once and the morning after literally looked like Apocalypse. The amazing thing though, is after what is destroyed is rebuilt.
I agree, the weather has been crazy. It’s amazing and so sad to see how it has the capacity for so much destruction. Hope your neck of the woods warms up and dries out soon!
Thank you, Sheryl. The sun is shining this morning. We need it to stay for a 2-3 week stretch.
I hope sunshine finds its way to you soon, Kerri. We’ve had gorgeous weather so far this week and my garden is very happy. We did have a rainy spell that I thought would never end, but it did and now plants are shooting up and birds are singing. I know you and Dale will soon be enjoying pleasant afternoons on your deck. Until then- stay dry and warm!
The sun is shining now, Kathy, and unless they’re lying again, it should throughout the rest of the week. However, at this point, our whole region needs about 2-3 weeks of rain free sunny skies. The ground just squishes like a sponge when we walk on it and the water is up so far, there is no hearing the water draining from the mountain into the creek that empties into Bull Shoals. Hundreds, if not thousands have lost homes up on Taneycomo thus far. 🙁
Oh that’s terrible. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get a solid week of sunshine! In the meantime, at least enjoy today’s rain-free skies! 🙂
Thanks, Kathy!
Drought….think we have had 5 inches of rain since October ..hit almost 100 the other day and low of 47 this morning.
Oh my, Susan, Really wish we could share some of our rain with you. 🙁
Me too….all we got yesterday was a sneeze from the rains here in Texas and a little sneeze last week.
The tornado winds, or rather the wind that had generated the tornadoes, blew across the Cape. The wind felt charged with unusual energy. I wonder when it is going to occur to those in control of the country that this bizarre weather is perhaps caused by global warming, that the earth is protesting? What do you think?
I don’t know if they will ever “get it,” Alexandra. It seems like humans are destined to do whatever doesn’t make sense.