OT: Very OT - Are any of you guys watching the Weather Channel?

It's global warming! Or global cooling! Or natural variations in weather patterns! EVERYBODY PANIC! RAISE THE PRICE OF GASOLINE! OMFGWTFLMAO!

The SciFi diasater movies don't have enough tornadoes in one day to match what's been happening today.

John

I don't buy into all of that crap. It's just frightening...and fascinating!

RonB

I don't buy into all of that crap.

But this is downright frightening.....and fascinating.

RonB

The sirens went off here about 8:15. Apparently a tornado hit about 15mi NW of us and was headed East towards I-85. Lightning is still all around.

RonB wrote the following:

As of this time (9:30 AM EDT), the death toll is up to 202.

The originator of the Weather Channel (John Coleman) is PISSED at what his old company has turned into. Luckily, they still have Joe Bastardi. Unfortunately, they have that hokey "What If..." crap, too. Luckily, the only thing I've seen of that channel in the past 4+ years is the occasional Western forecast video. But I see the other crappy video topics and just shake my head.

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

Haven't heard from buddy in NE AL; presume they're at least still w/o power...

How did get so many--didn't folks heed warnings or was there some one large facility that got hit? Haven't found/heard any details at all out here...

Checked on the connections in E TN; heavy t-storms but no tornadoes or severe damage in Clinton/Oak Ridge/Knoxville area apparently...NWS county map looked like had died down considerably in that direction...

Yup, With all this global warming... ooops I mean global climate shift we are going to all be under 100 feet of water when the north pole melts... ooops I guess ice takes up more space than when melted... ooops I meant 20 feet of water... ooops I mean 3 feet of water now.... ooops I guess the global climate has cooled since 1987... ooops I mean CO2 increases after the warmer weather not because of... ooops I mean...

OK... It is a wet spring here. Worst March -April I have ever seen, here. Some have the opposite. The Easter Bunny was hard to catch being all wet.

RonB

Agreed. I'll keep my -40 for a week a year. No earthquakes, tsunami's, tropical diseases, hurricanes, etc. Just good old natural floods, thunderstorms and "you'll freeze your willy if you to write your name in the snow at THESE temperatures!", thank you very much...

Looking at some of the video of the funnel, it looked to be at least 1/4 mile across at the ground. I guess they expected one of those 100 foot across funnels that gets your next door neighbor's house and not yours.

I always liked the rumor( I am trying to revive It) John was breeding meteorologists with all of the women folk of the Weather Channel.

Mark

willshak wrote the following:

As of this time (6:30 PM EDT), the death toll is up to 281.

The worst one, one that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham (also well into GA) was up to a mile wide and was on the ground constantly for 150 miles. That's a

I think Basilisk might be in this area, too.

On 4/28/2011 6:52 PM, snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: ...

Could be...that's size of the one that took out the town of Greensburg out here 3 years ago -- they're nasty buggers, indeed. That one rolled/carried a JD 9700 Bullet Rotor combine seven miles from the dealership where it started. The static weight is roughly 30,000 lb iirc. Rolled and tossed it like a ball; all it was was a green blob when done...

--

I hope he's alright! I live about 100mi Southeast of Birmingham. The sirens went off for a tornado (different one from the one that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham) in the Lake Martin and Dadeville area (about 15mi away). There was a second tornado that didn't rate its own siren (I don't see the "rules" for these posted anywhere) but did cause at least one fatality.

There are stories of multiple "body parts" being found in the Anniston AL (about 60mi East of Birmingham) area. They're expecting the death toll to climb again once that's all sorted out.

(Just now found a working network)

Me and mine are fine, the community I live in was hit pretty hard with 2 deaths and lots of damage.

One of the deaths was a volunteer fireman that had went to the station to wait for calls, unfortunately the firehouse was one of the first things hit.

I am about 16 miles southeast of Tuscaloosa and it has been devastated, everbody else probably knows more about the details than I do as the only info I have gotten has come off talk radio and anecdotal snippets from those that have been to T-town. Authorities are restricting entrance into town to try and control looting and sightseeing.

My son was on I-359 in Tuscaloosa when it hit and saw part the tornado first hand, he was uninjured and his car was not damaged, but it took him a couple of hours to get through the rubble and back home.

At one point Druid City Hospitals, the operator of the medical complex for Tuscaloosa and surrounding areas, said that if your injuries were not severe/life threatning you would be turned away, this may have eased off a bit by now.

We have no power, water, landline phone and just sporadic cell service, all that is trivial compared to the damage and suffering many are going through.

basilisk

I know what you guys are going through. The one that went through Okla. City in '99 missed me by >< that much. My heart goes out to all the families with losses.

Glad you're alright, Bas. The previous neighbor's daughter drives truck with her boyfriend and they were on the border of TN and VA when the warnings came. They parked in the back of the truck stop lot with another truck, next to a brick building and decided that it might be safer in the cab than the building. They were right. The entire front row of trucks in the truck stop were picked up and tossed like toys. Her cab was lifted but dropped back down, and all the windows were blown out by debris. All 8 people in the building they decided against going into were dead. It took the third truck and flipped it upside down, but the driver survived. Her boyfriend's truck was sandblasted like hers by debris.

I hope you had your BOB (bug-out bag) filled with the necessities so you have food, water, flashlights, tent, a set of dry clothes, etc.

It's lucky that it's warmer now. Storms doing that much damage to property in the middle of winter would have been even worse.

Sending good wishes to all.

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman