Okay, despite the dumb title here, this is actually kind of cool. We got hit with some tornadoes here in Ohio, unsurprisingly, and during our oft-practiced ritual of late night basement shelter-seeking I checked the weather radar. And here’s the screenshot I saved.
With the approaching storm came some very noticeable backwards “C”s. I, uh, admittedly already knew what they were and represented because I spend many of my insomnia sessions reading internet articles about whatever happens to be on my mind at the time. And one night I had read about Doppler radar image signals. Yes – I am a nerd. But this was cool because I had never seen these so pronounced. And they are not, as you may have guessed, harbingers of happiness and inner peace. They are bow echos, and they’re indicative of rotation in a squall line storm front. And rotation is what produces tornadoes. And jet streams and the planet’s rotation send weather from west to east in this part of the world. And here we were sitting directly east of the storm’s path, with 3 bow hooks approaching.
But we won the meteorological lottery once again, and the storm passed us without incident. 4 tornadoes were recorded in Ohio that night, and they missed us. How long will our luck hold, I wonder?
But for now, I’ll avoid thinking how this could have gone and instead focus the novelty of having never seen 3 of these at once in such close proximity. Things that could kill me but don’t get to remain in the realm of coolness. For now.
–Simon
