Carol, I am glad you are home close to your storm shelter. I cannot imagine being in the RV during severe weather. The photos and video we saw of the demolished trailer park last night was sobering. It reminded me very much of Lone Grove after the EF-4 tornado hit it a few years back. I am appreciative of all the technology too. The storm spotters sure had these storms figured out even before they really started developing and were in place to provide incredible video and lots of warning for folks who were watching and listening to them. Some of them were closer to storms than I've ever seen them before. Once Reed's family had to seek shelter, Tim, Chris and I did nothing but track the storms via media and chaser reports, each using some tech device. The TV was on The Weather Channel, which used lots of KFOR's live reports, we were in constant communication with friends affected by the storm via smartphones, and all three of us had our laptops or tablets tuned in to various weather websites too. It is incredible what we can see live and in real time. The NWS warned us for days that this was coming and I believe all the warning saved many lives. Wbonesteel, maybe today you can post more photos before the next storm hits. They could provide inspiration and encouragement, especially for anyone with a damaged or destroyed garden who is going to have to start over from scratch. Also, this was such a stressful event, even for those of us watching it unfold from the safety of our homes far away from the damage. Looking at garden photos is a great form of stress relief!!!! Hey James, I haven't seen you here much lately. I am sorry the weather is making it so tough for you to garden this year. Some years it is just so hard to get the planting done in the spring. I think you are absolutely correct in believing your excess rainfall has affected the sweetness of your strawberries. That happens with lots of other veggies and fruit too, including melons and tomatoes. At least y'all are out of drought there. My county is still in extreme drought with a tiny portion "only" in severe drought and it is ridiculously dry. It is hard to have a good garden in these conditions. I sure am dreading the summer months. I have had to water more in May than I've ever watered in May since moving here. Despite watering, even the ground in the garden is cracked, which is rare. Usually it is only the ground outside the garden that cracks. We likely will get some rain here in Love County today or later this week and we surely will appreciate every drop. Dawn

Hi Moni, My gut feeling is that 2009's weather patterns will be similar to 2008's all over the state, with the following caveat: I think winter 08-09 will be colder than usual. So, that means colder than average and drier than average for the southernmost and panhandle counties and colder than average and wetter than average for everyone else. That's what I've been expecting for a couple of months now, but the lessening of rainfall in central OK kinda surprised me. And, you know, I could be 100% wrong. My "gut feeling" comes from watching the weather patterns across the US week in and week out, and from reading what I can about La Nina and El Nino and understanding how they affect us here. Since La Nina tends to bring southern OK drier than average weather, I was hoping for a return to strong El Nino patterns, which brings southern OK more rainfall, but instead, we have a neutral La Nina. Sunspot activity is also greatly diminished--almost nonexistent this year, and that factors into what the weather does too--if you believe the folks who publish the Old Farmer's Almanac. I've been waiting for Steve LaNore, the met at our local CBS affiliate to give us his prediction for southern OK's winter weather and he finally posted it on his blog either last week or the week before. I'll link it below and y'all can read his reasoning and predictions if you want to. For what it is worth, he pretty much agrees with me about what to expect here in southern OK....although his reasoning is built on science and probabilities and mine is mostly a gut feeling based on what little I know and understand about the weather. I cannot begin to explain how dry it is here. I have been watering, and have the highest water bills I've ever had in the cooler months to prove it, but everything is still bone dry. Every day I make water puddles for the wildlife and they come to drink at them morning, noon and night including deer, rabbits, racoons, possums, coyotes, bobcats, field mice, voles, etc. Our dogs and cats are so used to all the wild critters being around that they pretty much ignore them. Well, the bobcats, racoons and coyotes mostly come after dark, and all my animals are in either the house, chicken or guinea coop, or barn/garage by then. I feed the wild birds, and have more than ever before, including woodpeckers and flickers, blue jays, carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, etc. The crows, whom I've never been especially fond of, have become very territorial and have their own spot where I scatter grain for them. In return, they chase off every hawk, kite and kestrel that tries to lurk in the skies over our property. That's a good thing, because the predator birds will attack our poultry if given the chance. And, for what it is worth, my daffs are still chilling in the extra refrigerator in the garage. It isn't that I have forgotten them or that I don't care.....it is just so dry. (sigh) The area where I am going to plant them is very sandy, and I need to till it up, rototill in some organic material and get them planted soon. If I stand there in that spot and pour a glass of water onto the ground, it beads up and runs off....the ground is so dry, it cannot soak in. So, I clearly need to water that area well for a few days before I plant the daffs. One year I didn't plant until Jan. and still had blooms in March. Steve's blog entry with the forecast for colder/drier weather here in southern OK is linked below and I found it to be fascinating reading. It just amazes me how he looks at and analyzes everything that is going on and climbs out on a limb and makes a forecast. I need to read his later blog entries, but I am almost afraid to. I can see from the title he's talking about a Russian Bear and, somehow, I bet it means bad news for us. LOL Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: A Professional's Forecast for Colder/Drier

Rather than one person/household getting one generator on their own, it seems to me to make sense for half a dozen near neighbours to get a somewhat larger one together ... which would mean that it would be probable that at least one of the six would have a place to store it. Usually when there's a prolonged power outage, at least some of the people concerned would not be going to work and could haul it around from house to house to plug in for some power - four hours or so of the 24 (or, if four owners, six hours per household). If someone moves away or does not wish to continue to participate, either the others of the crew have a waiting list, or go looking for a replacement at the time ... or kick in enough cash each to buy out the departing person's share. A number of local farmers bought a generator that they drive from the tractor, and have a switch-over at their service pole, so that they can disengage the power from the line and plug it in to the generator hook-up. That would make sense, for when I went from house to house generating in a power outage in this area (ice storm() over 30 years ago, many wanted me to hook into the furnace ... but I dared not do that, for most are hooked directly into the main service box, and if we disengaged the furnace switch, then put clamps on the line to the furnace ... and for some reason the switch back to the line got engaged ... there's no way that I want to send power back out into a line that hydro service guys understand to be dead! People get killed, that way! But if the householders could disconnect from the line, and hook easily into the generator, they could use furnace, etc. as well ... and the larger generator that several could buy when working together would allow this (not blow out a smaller generator when they tried to overload it). More rain last evening - to cause more trouble for my already blighted tomatoes! ole joyful

I was working in Arlington, VA where the Pentagon is located. We are basically across the highway from the Pentagon. We were having a regular work day. I think Glenda was the one that posted something here. I tried looking up CNN and all the other news websites but nothing was there yet. The only TV in our office was in the conference room which was being used. Finally after more commotion, we broke into the meeting to grab the tv and huddled into one office. We all watched in disbelief. We also thought an accident at first. There were so many rumors flying it was hard to know what was real. All day we thought the USA today (newspaper) headquarters was bombed down the road. We heard of car bombs at the Capitol and State Dept. After all the shocking things I had seen, I wasn't surprised by anything. We went outside where people were gathered around car radio's updating everyone. Weather-wise it was a gorgeous blue sky, but it was literally snowing ash from the Penatgon explosion. We could see the smoke plume from the Pentagon and it was black as night. Like pammyfay, I ALWAYS look at the spot where the Pentagon was hit. I can't imagine the people who happen to be driving by at the exact moment the plane hit. I'm shocked there wasn't a massive accident or pile-up? I remember being glued to the TV for 2-3 days and then I couldn't take it anymore. The sadness was overwhelming. I woke up each day and prayed it had been some kind of horrible nightmare. Thankfully I didn't personally know anyone who was killed, but there were lots of weird stories of "I should have been there" "changed my appt at the last minute" etc. and friends of friends, or cousin's cousin. A man from our office building, the floor below, was killed in the Pentagon. They put up a plaque in his honor that I used to see everyday and think about all the people who died that day. But with all the tragedy, I do remember how nice people were to each other. Everyone seemed to come together in common grief and pride in America. I can't believe it's been 11 years now.