I usually know some weather is coming by getting a headache (since a car accident 35 years ago). One of my dogs knows before me though. Both of them are afraid of storms, so it’s usually just dealing with them. I do have flashlights around the house. I also make sure I am dressed, even if it is in the middle of the night. Not perfectly, but I am not going to be the one on the news wearing a nightgown.

I mostly go about my business, except when it is REALLY storming while we are under a tornado warning.

Presently we are under a tornado watch, and I have nothing ready... meaning helmet, phone, flashlight and shoes.

Moni

I lost my weather cat last year. Whenever there was bad weather she would sit on the top of the basement stairs. Today I think she would have been down the stairs.

I have my flashlight ready and candles handy. In central Illinois and are currently under heavy T-storm warning until midnight. I go out on the porch every half hour or so to check out the weather. If it starts blowing too bad Hubby and I will head for the basement. Our town is on a hill with no rivers etc close so no chance of flooding here thankfully.

If we get an alarm on our phones we get the animals and go to an interior room. We have a standby generator so I don’t get flashlights out. I do have a Rubbermaid bin with important papers and pictures to grab if there’s flooding or a hurricane. I also have a corded plug in phone if cell towers are down.

Nothing special other then to go inside, tornado are very rare here. To far inland for a hurricane by the time they get to us they just dump rain.

I can feel the Santa Ana winds coming in my sinuses. I don't know if it is the lack of moisture or different pollens/pollutants, but I can just tell when the winds shift. It is not a good feeling.

Get my oil lamps out, have one large and two miniature. Plus flashlight by bed and a battery run fan.

I sit on the front porch and admire storms. If there's a danger (sirens) we move to our mechanical room in the center of our ranch house.

I've got a 5'x12' tornado shelter under my front porch that is concrete on all sides with a steel door. I've got a tote in there with some emergency supplies. It doubles as my root cellar. I'm 20 miles southeast of the KC metro and last night's tornadoes stayed west and north of the city so I just watched the helicopter footage on TV. The damage they are showing this morning looks pretty bad.

I have to be ready. I have my 97 year old mother to take care of and 2 dogs and 3 birds. I have a place under the stairs in the basement with dog kennel, and emergency supplies, shoes, sweat pants and coats. We spent an hour under there last nite. Tornado about 30 minutes away. Lots of houses gone.

When there’s lightening close by we unplug our tv & electronics and make sure our phones are charged. If a really big storm is expected, we make sure we have gas for the generator

Ladypat, I can’t imagine how scary the tornados must be for everyone. We aren’t prone to them here, but have had a couple in recent years. Small ones and nothing even remotely close to what the alley is experiencing. I hope everyone will be ok.

This last winter we lost electricity for 4 hours. We have radiant heat flooring, everywhere. We have very little in the refrigerator. Not much to go bad. We have a LOT of canned tomatoes, black beans, that sort of thing. The well is run by electricity. We have 7 gallons of water stored in the garage. NOW we have a gas powered generator. It has to be hooked up, it's not automatically switched on during an outage. The next problem is you have to have gas. Gas doesn't store well, it breaks down.

A lot of homes have gone up for sale. The chance to make a profit and move to a warmer, lower elevation is popular. It snowed here yesterday.

Storms here are really a non-issue. We can get some serious windstorms now and again, usually in fall, but they are nothng compared to the storms many of you experience regularly. No hurricanes, no dumping of multiple inches of rainfall in a few hours and very rare tornadoes/microbursts.

But the windstorms can be bad enough. In a heavily wooded area - like my neighborhood - trees or parts of them fall and take out power lines and block roads. Power outages are very common. A 4 hour outage is nothing!! Last week after a heavy rain, we lost power overnight....went off around 8:45pm and didn't come back on until somewhere around 4am! And that is considered a short outage. This winter I was without power for 52 hours and a couple of years ago after a heavy snowstorm took down lines, it was 4 days before power was restored.

Many here have generators. I am fortunate to have a dedicated backup generator with my rental unit. It kicks on automatically after 30 seconds or so. Doesn't power the entire house but all the essentials - main living area lights, heat, hot water tank, refrigerator, etc. They really are a lifesaver!!

I watch our local news to keep updated on what's going on. My family has weather apps on their phones, but I like to watch the news instead. We've had a lot of rain here, so it's a matter of making sure windows are closed when it's raining, the sump-pump is working, and so on.

My dog does not do well in storms. She paces and pants and tries to sit on my DH. Trying to keep her calm is a lot of our storm preparations.

We are experiencing more frequent wind storms in our rural area for like the past 10yrs. of so. One tornado about a mile way one year, but it was bright and sunny on my road (weird). I see more downed trees after heavy rain storms too, nothing like I've seen before. These seem to be healthy trees too, but a limb will split off and you see where it had been hollow at the base or cleft. I worry about mine now.

Unless I see what I think to be a tornado, I generally stay inside the house upstairs, not the cellar. I just keep watching the weather news on TV or go out onto the front or back porch to observe. I do turn off the computer, but not other electronics. I have a standby generator that offers peace of mind as long as the house doesn't blow away.

Weather is dh's hobby. We brought the kid's downstairs during the alerts during Harvey. There were small tornadoes popping down around us. I took a picture of one of the wall clouds that was west of us. Not much else we do other than get down if it were needed. Most cell phones have a flashlight. I keep candles around that can be lit in case of power outage.

I keep "weather aware" by paying attention to what's going on outside, and tuning in to a local weather forecast. Serious storms are rare enough here (thank goodness) that I don't have any particular preparations, although I do have ideas of what I'd do, where I'd get self and family, if necessary.

Our older dog alerts us to thunderstorms -- poor thing does not like thunder at all.

I fill the bathtub with fresh water. If the power goes out, the well won't pump. We have a portable generator, always ready and nearby...

I just bring out the candles and flashlights. Fill up water jugs. Watch the weather channel.

I always make sure my purse is next to me so I can grab it if I have to head to the basement.

cherryfizz, worry about that too plus the check book. Also all the family history I've done and old photos aren't in one place, a folder here, a folder there. I need to put it all in a trunk or something so I can grab it and drag it down the steps and around to the cellar! I know, life is more important but it would be a heartache to lose those. (cellar is not currently a good dry place to keep files full time)

Like Gardengal it is wind storms for us with trees falling on things. Power outages are part of life and we are typically the last area to get our power back-not enough of us and the end of a system. This past winter not only was the power out for days the phone was out for seventeen days and our cell service is spotty.

So when we built this house we put in a wood stove, have hydronic heat in the basement run by propane and a tiny electric motor, have a generator that plugs into a generator transfer panel that will run things like the well pump, run the hydronic heat, fridges and freezer and even lights and tv. We cant use some appliances and so forth but oh well. We could get a bigger generator if that was important but they use more gas. We have plenty of treated gas on hand. When storms are predicted I grind coffee, make sure I have some fresh water stored,(so we don't have to go out in the storm to start the generator)look for stuff that would blow away and hunker down. The Cats move into the downstairs bathroom( we have a daylight basement and it shows good sense on their part-back of the house up against the foundation. We have trees that could hit the house. Hope for the best....

I lived with earthquakes growing up, had to evacuate from the California fires, had 7 feet of water from a hurricane in our home and took it all pretty much as it came just fine, but that one cloud would probably have me looking for another place to live. I hope there is no life lost with all these tornados and you are all able to stay safe.

Phogie -- That photo is frame-worthy!

Our climate is changing, but in my lifetime living close to the western side of Lake Michigan has meant storms tend to dissipate before they reach us. The lake originally extended another 10 miles west, and we live inside that 'basin'. (I don't know if that's 'science'; just my theory.) Our worst storms are in the winter, but we haven't had a power outage that was more than a *blip* in almost 20 years -- after widespread complaint to our utility company.

Until I saw photos of widespread tornado damage I hadn't known how many 'trailer' homes there are in parts of America. Sometimes I see TV coverage showing older homes still standing in the midst of the debris where these are scattered like toys. Aren't there building codes requiring homes to be secured to the earth? I know there are protections against hurricanes that are required in the south -- nothing similar in 'tornado country'?

I am also amazed at the number of trailers there are in some parts of the country. Expecially in parts where because of the elements I surly wouldn't want to live in one. Anchored or not I don't think a metal box would have a chance against a hurricane or a tornado.

Phogie's photo is all over the news. The helicopter weather guy about came unglued when he saw it. We were in basement listening to radio, and knew it had to be bad. It looks like the Mother Ship is landing. NO one killed!!!!

Is that a picture of the tornado that hit Linwood, KS? They now are categorizing it as an EF4 with 170 MPH winds!

It is a miracle that no one was killed. Linwood is a fairly prosperous town on the outskirts of the KC area. The tornado sure did a number on a very large greehouse operation in Linwood as shown in this video. I'm not sure how they will recover.

chisue I had to laugh at your comment about houses being secured to the earth. Sorry you are not aware of how tornados work but let me explain why your comment struck me as funny. Tornados work like unscrewing a jar lid. The rotation of the funnel twists and lifts. Then there is the difference in atmospheric pressure between the air inside a structure and that on the outside. The pressure difference can make a house explode. Tornados can be as small as a foot or two in diameter or like the one in Kansas and Missouri a mile or more wide. The reason I wrote "one in Kansas and Missouri" is that it was probably one tornado given the path it was on that dissipated then reformed about 8 miles to the northwest. Thankfully it dissipated before it reached my house as if you drew a line from where it lifted in Kansas the touched down in Missouri the North side of my house was on that line.

function I have to agree with the not living in a trailer but even houses as they are currently built are not much better constructed.

phoggie I do not think that was a picture of the tornado in Kansas as I have seen that same picture being described as a super cell in Australia. Good picture but not of this storm.

We don't have tornadoes or hurricanes to deal with where we live. We do get snow storms that dump 2 - 4 feet of snow overnight, so we are prepared for those. When a big snow is in the forecast, we make sure we have plenty of firewood on the deck so that we don't have to attempt trips to the wood shed.

We have a generator that runs most of the house; they really are lifesavers. The generator is powered by a 500 gallon propane tank, so running out of fuel isn't a concern for us. The generator runs the pump for the well, so we don't have to worry about drinking water, showers or not being able to flush the toilet.

Cell towers often go out when this kind of weather hits; many have given up their landlines as cell phones have become mainstream, but we have kept our landline for those times when the towers go down. The landline always works.

We also have enough food on hand to last a couple of weeks. Besides what is in the freezer, which is kept going by the generator, we have things like dried beans, pasta, rice and canned foods.

Here's the link to the tornado in KS/MO. https://kmbz.radio.com/articles/powerful-wedge-tornado-levels-homes-injures-least-12-people

The video was taken just after the tornado was reported on the ground, I watch that station because they do not get hyper about the storms. The column was a wall of water that had the tornado inside of it rather than the column being the tornado.

This photo was taken by a police officer in Bonner Springs, Kansas! It originated close to where I live and hop-scotched to several places but worst was in Linwood, Kansas!

There is nothing that would hold down anything in a tornado but mobile homes do not have a chance!

It always amazes me that, although our area is having more than our share, there aren’t very many deaths compared to the vast destruction ...thankful for good meteorologists and warning systems !

Right now, our little town has a lot of flooding...sad because no one ever expected this since we have a huge dam for flood control, but when it gets so full from upstream that it laps over the gates, they had to open them some causing flooding, but no one has flood insurance due to extreme cost of the premium. So far, I am fine and doing my best to take bottled water to the workers and provide meals to those who are having to live in motels ... it has been heart-warming to see everyone pitch in to fill sandbags and take care of less fortunate .

I don't think I could live where there are tornadoes.......although I have never experienced one in person, the whole concept terrifies me. The idea of flying cows, exploding houses or my dog and I winding up on a yellow brick road in some far off section of the galaxy does not appeal much.

Nor where every tree is leveled. We had a small tornado here years ago - what they call here a 'microburst' - and I can recall driving by where it touched down and every tree in a wide swath had been flattened like some giant knocked them over. All in the same direction.

Folks that have to live with the possibility of these things, sometimes on a daily basis, have my admiration. I couldn't do it.

I've spent much of my life living in Missouri, Kansas and now Kentucky, ie "tornado alley". When the sirens go off, I grab the dogs and put them in a large Kari-Kennel crate in my basement. Then I go upstairs and grab all my prescription meds and my good jewelry. That all comes with me back to the basement. My handbag, car keeps, cell phone & charger are already there as I have a basement garage. I no longer bother with multiple flashlights, as I have a natural gas powered, whole house generator. If the natural gas goes out and that generator blows away, I will probably be dead and it won't matter!

Microbursts are not the same as tornados but like tornados they happen all over the world and cause as much damage as a tornado. If you see damage where all the debris are lying in a straight from a point that is probably a microburst. Tornados tend to twist things. The people at the local NWS when things are slow will explain things like this. One of their factoids from last winter.

"Microbursts are not the same as tornados but like tornados they happen all over the world"

It may be better to say they happen in many places around the world rather than "all over the world" - because there are many places where such events are very, very rare, if they even happen at all.

When my mother was a child my grandmother would have all 7 kids sit under the dining room table until it past. That was just for thunder and lightening!

My mom did not want us to be afraid of storms, so when there was one she would open the drapes, line up 4 chairs and we would watch the storms. Now when I am asleep, and I hear thunder, I just smile and roll over and go back to sleep.

Thank God we don't live in tornado alley. Really feel bad for those who do.

Thankfully the tornados are not too wide in its swath...and usually goes in a path from southwest to northeast...so if it is daylight, it isn’t as worrisome but at night it gets more frightful. I just have a weather radio for my county and with the weather radar, the predictions are pretty accurate. It is important to take cover below ground...and if not available, go to an interior room without windows and get under a heavy piece of furniture or in bathtub and cover up with a mattress if possible. I just heard on the news that tornados are the worst this year in tornado alley since 1950.

My fear would live where there are so many terrible forest fires...they take such a wide area. Everywhere has some weather drawbacks!

There are lots of places people live phoggie that don't have life threatening risks from either forest fires or extreme weather.

Eh, if I know severe weather is likely, I just make sure I'm at home in case I have to ride it out.

It seems like that's what a lot of people do in this area.

"Hey, there's a really nasty storm moving into this area from the West, based on tracking, it's likely to be here within an hour."

Most everyone runs home. If you happen to be out in public, at a store or restaurant, you will see it is fairly empty aside from workers.

People who live in this area know these West Texas thunderstorms happen and they would rather be at home with their car in the garage than stuck somewhere else and have the potential of hail destroying their car.

Phoggie, yes I agree everywhere has some weather drawbacks.
Maybe not extreme life threatening weather, but of course you didn't say that.

Oh Elmer, I knew you would have a condescending reply! You seem to enjoy injecting your snide remarks into other’s posts ...so rude and crude!..of course as usual, you will have a comeback! Don’t waste your time!

When the sirens go off, we and the dogs (cats too if we can grab them) all pile into the laundry room to wait it out. This past Wednesday we had a 'waterspout' that sure looked like a tornado. Less damage, just a few downed trees. This was taken about 1.5 miles from our home.