weather

Locally there is a storm shelter available that is just that. It is a concrete room that can hold maybe six people, has a solid door, and I am not sure what else. I went in one set up for display at the state fair one year. They had brought it in, and done nice landscaping around the top. I know it is less expensive than a basement.

I'm all for basements for safety but here in Michigan we still have what are called "Michigan Ceilers" - it's a dark damp basement normally with a dirt floor. I have a horrible phobia for those along with any 'closed space'. When we moved last summer my rooms were in the loft of the house which was/is beauitful with a tremendous view but believe me when tornatoe warning came up I was headed for the basement. Now I've actually moved to the basement but it's nice, all finished off carpet and hardwood floors and it's a walk out so on one side there are big windows with nice view at ground level. - it also has a 'furnice room' which is concrete on 3 sides and no window so is the safest place in the house. I think those storm chasers are very brave or very stupid - I'm not sure which but you are right they have done wonderful work in helping with the warning systems but when it comes to tornatoes warnings are great but you still have no promise that they are going to do what you 'think' they are going to do.

That's probably the way we'll go when we build. When you add a basement, according to what hubby was told, it can add several thousands of dollars to the cost of the house, with all the changes you have to make in the foundation.

It sounds neat in a way pictures of a tornado are really neat. I am just not sure about doing it myself is all.

We had two in the sky less than 3 miles from my house yesterday...and my daughter slept through the whole thing. She was upset when she found out that you could see them both in the sky from my mother's front yard, even though they were quite a ways away. She said she would have gotten pics.

I don't know why I'm so fascinated by them. perhaps because they are so powerful and unpredictable. All the things I'm not. I'm sure that if I were ever in one for real, that it would scare the stuffing out of me. I used to hate thunderstorms. Then I became interested in photography and began to see such great opportunities in the lightening storms, that my whole view changed. It actually helped me overcome my fear.

Someone made a joke at church on Sunday and said "well, Spring is here, it was a long winter, but we made it through ok." Everyone just laughed. We have a saying here in Arkansas that says if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes and it will change to something else. We have really hot summers here, but usually fairly mild winters.

Since I've had back surgery, I can't stand the cold. I'd rather deal with it being 100 degrees than for it to be bone chilling cold. It causes muscle spasms in my back and I hurt so badly. The rain doesn't help. I told my husband last night that I knew when the front came through our part of the state because I could feel it. Who needs weathermen?

I heard that you guys got some fairly strong tornadoes as they came through the state last night. The Northeast part of Arkansas did too. Haven't heard about damage, but I do know that there was at least one touch down around Bentonville. That's a pretty populated area, so I pray that no one was hurt. Hope you came through ok. Is it still raining there?

it went from being 70 degrees here yesterday morning..with tornadoes to 30 degrees last night. Everyone I know just about is sick. It's awful. My sister in law has pnuemonia, we had a huge absentee list at school today.

Oh I know what you mean about the fires. The state of California has been plagued with some really bad ones...not bush fires, but burning acres of mountain terrain and threatening homes and business and even lives. It's terrible. I hope that you will try and keep cool. We don't get much snow in Arkansas. A little bit here and there, but most of the time it's in February if we get any at all.

Sometimes yes, most of the time, no. People don't want to pay the extra money to build them that it costs to do something different to the foundation. I don't know enough to really comment. i know we don't have one, mainly because we have a mobile home. We plan to build soon and I'm going to insist that we have a storm shelter of some sort. We are in between two mountains, so we don't normally get anything...but there is always a first time.

I would love to be a storm chaser! I know I'm crazy. everyone around here tells me so. I don't have the science background to actually do it for real though. I hope you will stay safe. All the tornadoes were in northwest Arkansas. All we got was a bit of rain and a few claps of thunder. It looks like the majority has passed us by. i was looking at the radar and most of the line is east of me now.