I think that the last semester of getting a degree in meteorology should include experiencing an ice storm, a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, and a wildfire. The Weather Channel employs people who have evidently never experienced an ice storm. If you listen to them, there is this very moment an ice storm closing down Saint Louis. This has been widely reported, even in this AP news story.
I'd heard about the ice storm Saturday night as I was headed out to Friend #2's Moving Party. (An aside: Mr. #2 is not at all pleased that I made fun of Sting. "Hey, you, this is for Sting!" he said as he flipped me off. Mental note: Target Sting.)
Sister-in-law Karen called us to warn us not to go outside because the roads were getting really slick. I realized Karen had not set foot outside her house to see how the roads really were. They were fine. I tuned in to the Weather Channel and saw the roads were Extremely Hazardous in the Midwest! I looked outside again. I drove off to the party, where my car was parked outside all night and the windows didn't even frost up.
Right now the Weather Channel meteorologists are speaking hopefully that we might get an inch of ice overnight, but I don't buy it. If we do, we'll all just take an extra hour to get to work and the ice will melt by mid-day.
I started thinking about this last weekend when I watched the Tornado episode of Desperate Housewives. I am sure others across the Midwest also howled with laughter when they saw Katherine putting tape on her windows, and Susan packing a bag and putting blankets and water and canned goods in her basement. You know, because those tornadoes can sometimes hover over your house for almost a minute sometimes.
I was greatly comforted by the tornado that hit about three miles from our house. The Charter television company saw I was sitting on my couch with my dog on my head, eating chips, looking out the window to see if the sky was green (tornado indicator #1) and listening for the freight train (tornado indicator #2). Charter Cable kindly shut off what ever program I was watching and put a crawl across a black screen that said "A TORNADO HAS BEEN SIGHTED IN YOUR AREA TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY."
I think that's the only time I've gone in the basement due to weather. Supposedly the really big ice storm is to begin at 3 am tonight. We shall see.
UPDATE:
First, they called off the ice storm. The National Weather Service rescinded the ice storm warning for my area.
Second, Gary sent this in an email:
"Water, clothes and food are put in the basement because if your neighborhood is destroyed by the tornado, you could be trapped in your basement for days waiting for someone to dig you out of the wreckage. TV always shows people climbing out of their basement to find their entire house gone but that is not what happens. Usually, your basement is buried in concrete, wood and cars. The neighborhood looks flat in the films but there are tons of debris blocking exit from the basement."
Well, keep us posted. Um, dog on your head?
Posted by: Melissa | December 09, 2007 at 09:48 PM
The ice storm does have my trees a little bendy, and I did stay home all day, but the two are not related. I could not possibly have caught up on laundry, gathered two bags of clothes to go to Goodwill, hung curtains, wrapped Christmas presents, re-assembled my dining room, and read half a book had I gone out today. Nor could I have accomplished much of that had the ice storm been bad enough to cut off electricity.
The Desperate Housewives tornado was hilarious. I'm sure that wasn't what they were going for. Good cliffhanger, though.
Posted by: Caroline | December 09, 2007 at 09:48 PM
Melissa, Mac loves to sit on heads. He's been on mine several times. Thank God he's tiny.
Posted by: Caroline | December 09, 2007 at 09:49 PM
The TV weather guys here (Hudson Valley, NY) get weird over tornados. They get all excited even thinking about them. They hop around and pant. Any strong wind becomes a tornado until the feds say otherwise. One night the weatherman's excitement reached a climax (almost literally, I swear) when he said a TORNADO!!!! had been captured ON TAPE!!! in Schenctady. There followed a video of a small dust devil in a parking lot. It actually threw a sheet of paper six feet.
Posted by: ~~Silk | December 09, 2007 at 10:20 PM
Apparently the iceman cometh here later in the am too. Me glad me work 2nd shift and not have to skate to work.
Posted by: Zayrina | December 09, 2007 at 11:02 PM
PS: Stop sending your crappy weather this way.
Posted by: Zayrina | December 09, 2007 at 11:04 PM
It is 11:16 pm and we just returned from a bash at Jazz at the Bistro...there were frozen droplets on the car and that's it...the streets are clear at this point and there is now precipitation, even the fog has cleared. When we left the house we were under the impression this was supposed to last until 9:00. I guess we'll just have to see what the morning brings.
Posted by: stljoie | December 09, 2007 at 11:19 PM
opps...that's NO precipitation...sorry.
Posted by: stljoie | December 09, 2007 at 11:21 PM
I admit I avoided going out in the mess this weekend, mostly to avoid all the other crazies that think its just another normal day and why the hell should they slow down just because its kind of slippery? We may have gotten more here in KC than you guys, we did have a sure enough 1-2 inches of ice layered on the driveway. I let the dog play outside yesterday and he had icicles formed on his eyebrows, his face, and hanging from his ears.
Posted by: jenny` | December 10, 2007 at 09:52 AM
My "mother" (I'm humoring her) watched me slide off the front step today, even when she KNEW the step was icy. The lady downstairs with that big blonde retriever TOLD "Mom" about the ice. I'm old, blind, with a heart murmur, and arthritis, and the bitch sends me out anyway. You're right, Aunt Ellen: she's a heartless cow.
Posted by: Friend #3 (as dictated to by Ricky) | December 10, 2007 at 08:55 PM
Melissa - Caroline is right. Dog particularly likes to sit on heads when it's inclement.
Caroline - Enh. I've read the spoilers. Enh.
~Silk - That still makes me laugh, and I've read it six times.
Zayrina - Hey, like Jesus, I don't control the weather!
stljoie - Yep, morning brought nothing. "Freezing drizzle?" What is that?
jenny - Our ice just stayed in the trees. Nothing on the roads, thankfully. The only four-wheel drive people I know drive at 25 mph in the snow.
Friend #3 (as dictated to by Ricky) - Pee on Mommy in her sleep tonight.
Posted by: TheQueen | December 11, 2007 at 12:03 AM
OMG the comment by Friend #3 as dictated to by Ricky was really funny. I don't have an old dog anymore, but when I did I think he thought going outside for bathroom breaks was my cruel joke. Every time he gave me a dirty look I told him, "Hey, then learn to use the commode!"
Posted by: Amy in StL | December 12, 2007 at 02:38 PM
Amy - Ricky is quite an articulate dog. He emailed his Mom when she was on an extended trip and he stayed with Auntie Ellen.
Posted by: TheQueen | December 12, 2007 at 09:46 PM