Severe Weather

Even though I have lived in the so-called Tornado Alley all my life, I have never seen one (I won't count the nanosecond view of one I once had from my grade school window before the teacher intervened).  I thought that was going to change last night.  We had an especially hot humid day for April 3rd.  The record high was 82 and we hit 91 around 2:30 in the afternoon.  Winds were strong all day.  A strong cold front was coming, so the set up was great for severe weather. 

Around 7:00 PM I did what I always do when severe weather is close - I stand on my front porch and watch it.  I hadn't been watching to long before I spotted a strange cloud formation that had my attention.  From radar I knew that a super cell thunderstorm was nearby.  I was able to see the upward building of the core and thought it looked to be passing just to my northwest.

As I continued to watch, I noticed a building sound of high winds.  It started very low, but was increasing in volume.  Soon I was convinced that a tornado was near.  Did I take cover?  No, instead I stepped out into the yard to see if I could spot the funnel.  I saw nothing, and soon the noise began to abate.  It was then that I decided to head to the basement, not for shelter but to see if -T has heard it also.  She had, and commented on how it had rattled the windows and doors.

Shortly after, Lyndy called and we tried to have a conversation, but could not due to the hysterical screaming of our grand kids over the phone.  Lyndy was calling to tell us there was some wind damage in her neighborhood and their power was knocked out.  They had arrived home just as the wind that I had heard hit their neighborhood.  So instead of inviting them over to ride out the power outage, -T and I climbed in the car and went over to see the damage.

Lyndy had some blown down sections of fence and lost a little siding from their house, but nothing too serious. Many of their neighbors fared much worse.  We saw snapped trees, broken or blown out windows, and several out building that were severely damaged or completely destroyed.  Lyndy's yard was littered with much of the debris.

I suspect what I heard was a microburst.  The noise sounded quite near, however the force of the wind at my house was minimal.  Just 200-300 feet from us, the damage began.  I suspect it formed immediately overhead with the force limited to a narrow path a few hundred feet wide that extended from my back property line at least a quarter mile to the east.  While I have never seen a tornado, this is the fourth microburst I have witnessed, the second since moving to Basehor.  Maybe I have lived in Micro-burst Alley all along?