I really don’t have a clue why, but sometimes my dreams are stuck in WWII.
I’ve dreamed vividly of sights and scenes painted in my history books, made quirky and odd because dreams just do that. I’ve dreamed of wartime nights when thunderstorms translated into bombs dropping in my dreamland and made me leap out of bed (only to sheepishly crawl back in).
Needless to say, when I woke up this morning to something my silly brain could only explain as an air raid siren, I had to make sure it wasn’t another silly dream. It wasn’t.
We’d gone to sleep with a mild storm that increased into something pretty crazy by the middle of the night. Apparently sirens around here are warnings to take cover, because tornadoes are in the area.
Now, I’m pretty much a North West country girl, and while there was a tornado warning once near my home in Colorado Rocky Mountain Highlands (very odd), it wasn’t the same thing and there weren’t any sirens anywhere to go off anyways.
Plus, waking up from sleep, tornado wasn’t exactly on my mind, but fire didn’t make sense and obviously there’s no need for air raid sirens. Scott finally woke up, and said “Tornado? They have tornadoes around here, don’t they?” When you’ve grown up in Alaska, it does pay off to be married to a partly Texas raised guy.
So… uncertain what exactly was going on, I grabbed my laptop and pulled up the weather. Sure enough- tornado (not yet touched down) sighted by doppler less than 6 miles away. Eventually the siren ceased to wail and since it was moving away, we stayed put.
I don’t think it ever touched down, and at least now I know how people know if they are asleep if there’s a tornado and they ought to go somewhere safe. And next time, that siren probably won’t give me such an initial adrenalin high, wondering what in the world it is.
It did get me thinking about safety, of hiding places and being prepared. Unfortunately for us, the safest spot is under our rental- with plenty of spiders and crickets and dirt. It isn’t made for hiding out in, but it’d do. I just really hope we never have to use it.
That would be an oddity to hear a siren here too. I guess that is one we thing we are blessed with, not really any danger of tornadoes or hurricanes here, and very, very rarely an earthquake.
I grew up with earthquakes, and they don’t bother me so much, and I guess I’ll get use to the tornadoes and sirens. But so do not want to crawl under the house at night. :P
I’m an Okie, who has stood outside and witnessed many a tornado circulating overhead (we rarely go underground unless it’s on the ground, headed in your general direction and you can see it!). They just installed a tornado siren at the end of our road, and it is SO.STINKIN’.LOUD. Oh my goodness, I’ve never heard it go off for a tornado (even though we’ve had several within a few miles range), but every Saturday at 12 noon the dogs tilt their heads and start howling in unison as they run it through a test.
Storms at night are scary, though! You can’t see them!
Okay, I’d loove to see a tornado. In the sky, not on the ground by my house, of course. But when it is dark, I can’t see and that makes me nervous, yes!
This is probably a few miles away (the siren) but still such an erie, funny sound it is loud and clear anyway. I would not want one on my street, I think. I’d jump every time. *sigh* :P
Glad the tornado decided not to reek havoc at your little home! Love you!
It would be even scarier at night! *shudders*
Thankfully it was leaving your area!
I heard about the tornado warnings on the radio yesterday- in TX and TN mainly. I thought of you!