Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for April 08, 2024

Many of us have dealt with these problems all our lives. Watches are the bottom rung. Conditions are right for severe weather to develop, weather that could include tornadoes. Janis, it doesn’t help to get crazy, simply pay attention.

Is a tornado watch anything like a Mickey Mouse watch?

For half a second, i thought Arlo was looking at the eclipse without the proper glasses and got his eyes fried.

You’re doing it wrong. You set a chair up in the open garage so you can look out and not get wet. Pro tip.

We used to get them all the time when I was young. One went right over our elementary school. One afternoon, we saw a group of three passing over the fields nearby.

We survived the Oak Lawn tornado back in ’67. It was still the deadliest tornado in Illinois history, if I remember correctly. It hit the high school next to us, and I guess hopped over our subdivision…

The weather does seem to becoming more and more frightful.

There was a tornado watch when I was about 4 years old and I helped my father looking for the red cloud. I got tornado and tomato connected for some reason and expected it to rain tomatoes or something.

Arlo’s veering into Darwin Award territory here.

It is not a good tornado watch if you’re not on the roof with binoculars and a camera. Watch for a shelf cloud. You can lay the ladder down and come in when the hail starts.

I remember standing and watching a tornado go by the house, straight through the corn field, thinking: “Well there goes harvest”.My son married a German girl and when she came from Germany, all she wanted to see was a tornado. Every thunderstorm she sat by the window, hoping it would turn into a tornado. Then she saw one. She never wanted to see another. From then on, even a small thunderstorm found her in the basement. After a couple of years, she left my son and went back to Germany. My son found a nice mid-west girl and settled down.

One of my dad’s favorite dad jokes: I have a device on my wrist that flashes a light when it detects a funnel cloud. It’s my tornado watch.

Tornados have been within 10 miles of me in my 30 years in TX. But was on the north edge of hurricane Andrew when I lived in FL. Too close for comfort.

That is me on tornado watching, since I’m mostly deaf I can’t rely on hearing the noise happening outdoors. One eye on the weather radio light and one eye peeking outdoors.

Do these people have jobs?

Do your tornado watching from the basement. If your house gets hit you will see the tornado as it takes the house away.

The night before my family left Illinois there were a number of tornadoes in the area. Larry, Tom and I were camped out in Tom’s backyard, but we decamped to the basement. There was a tree on top of the tent in the morning.

Thank God Arlo! I thought you were staring at the eclipse and you had fried your eyeballs by the third panel!

I read this interesting news story about “the most dangerous natural event in cities around the country.” San Francisco — earthquakes; Miami — hurricanes, etc. What did they say about Santa Fe — tornadoes. But, there’s never been a tornado in Santa Fe, it is in the mountains. Total BS.

Oh, I should mention the story was in a NM magazine titled “One of our 50 is missing.” The magazine features stories about people’s misconceptions about our Land of Enchantment. Most of the stories are about people being told they need a passport to come here, or extra postage on their letters, etc. The actual most dangerous thing here is that we share a border with Texas.

Arlo needs to man up already…………….

I still remember the twisters inside of Andrew, like one train after another, all storms require a large amount of respect

watch Ludwig. Our cat would let us know before a warning was announce and the all clear. She would take her position in the central bathroom, Smart little gal.

Of all people, I’m surprised that Arlo isn’t talking about the eclipse today…

There’s an eclipse watch on right now

Have lived along tornado alley (texas panhandle, enid ok,norman ok where the ntl severe storms lab is, and Tulsa).Seen rwo dozen, prarie storm preceded by clouds the dark green of old time coke bottle. Perspective is always off, drove under one (December in Tulsa of all things), saw shingles circling by the hundreds in the clear air outside the funnel…until I drove past closer (trying to outrun it on the highway) then said no that’s plywood. Closer, no it was entire roofs with trusses dangling beneath!! Moved to the gulf coast for 32 years, more warning with hurricanes, but in each storm the damage was done by dozens of tornados embedded in the wall of the hurricane. Got too old to pack up and run, and moved back inland, too tornadoes again.

At my hospital the code word for tornado used to be “Dr. Black.” Being interested in military history I always chuckled at “Dr. Black Watch” – the Black Watch is a famous Scottish regiment.

A Tornado Watch has a built-in severe weather alert radio.

Okay, so, tornadoes are not funny, per se. However, this is… when I was in technical training, in the Air Force, in 1976, there was a prank constantly being pulled on new arrivals, called “Tornado Watch…” that meant the newest selection was told he had to put on his dress blues, and stand on the roof of the barracks, watching for any approaching tornadoes. I remember one airman falling for it, but, nobody else, at that point.

Dixie Ally here. Do not miss one.

Never been through a tornado. Did go through a bad earthquake while in Mexico with a girl friend. Luckily the version of the tour we had taken had left Mexico City the day before where the worst of it was. We were in Acapulco by the time it hit. Those on our tour who came down the next day from Mexico City were telling us that the hotel split between the two beds in their room. (Also many other lesser earthquakes at home.)