MetaChat - I am obviously a child of the Midwest.

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05 October 2006

I am obviously a child of the Midwest. The sky's starting to do a weird eery "light behind the overcast clouds" thing, and all I can think is "Duck and cover! Tornado!" But they don't have tornados in California. Right? →[More:]

It's weird to me that I have such a visceral reaction to this. I feel like a dog nervously slinking around before a thunderstorm. I want to go hide under a bed.

post by: occhiblu at: 13:02 | 23 comments

Wrong. But they're not as common or as bad as the ones in the Midwest.

posted by keswick 05 October | 13:13

Just take a nap. If you wake up and find yourself on a yellow street filled with midgets, then start worrying.

posted by jonmc 05 October | 13:15

I was about to accuse you of being not-comforting, keswick, but that chart actually shows 0 tornados in San Francisco for the last 56 years, so I'll retract it. :-)

I just find the "light enough to be sunny, but still overcast and rainy" combo to be frightening.

Ah well. Maybe lunch will fix it.

posted by occhiblu 05 October | 13:19

I don't think San Francisco does. What keswick said: they don't get to be the big guys that the midwest gets. I'm guessing they run into mountains every place they try to go.

posted by small_ruminant 05 October | 13:19

I don't think San Francisco does. What keswick said: they don't get to be the big guys that the midwest gets. I'm guessing they run into mountains every place they try to go.

posted by small_ruminant 05 October | 13:19

oops.

posted by small_ruminant 05 October | 13:20

Hee.

It does look like they're almost all in LA and Orange Counties. Take that, SoCal!

posted by occhiblu 05 October | 13:21

I actally miss the pyrotechincal displays of the midwest. When I lived there I was too young to really appreciate it, because I still found it a bit frightening. Wisconsin thunderstorms definitely stand in marked contrast to the months long light rain showers we get in Oregon. I visited a friend in Minneapolis recently and experienced a storm as we drove down the freeway. My face was pressed to the windshield the whole time - it was exhilirating.

posted by pieisexactlythree 05 October | 13:29

Yes, I do miss thunderstorms.

Apparently, however, the Blue Angels have decided to recreate that level of sheer terror caused by loud noises by BUZZING MY FUCKING STREET.

Sigh. I hate Fleet Week.

posted by occhiblu 05 October | 13:30

Sigh. I hate Fleet Week.

Yeah, seamen all over the place.
*rimshot*

posted by pieisexactlythree 05 October | 13:40

Is the sky green or some other color? Because I only associate colors with tornadoes -- too many grey days in Chicago and Columbus to make that association with plain old overcast.

posted by me3dia 05 October | 13:45

I don't think San Francisco does. What keswick said: they don't get to be the big guys that the midwest gets. I'm guessing they run into mountains every place they try to go.

The environment west of the rockies usually can not produce the conditions needed for extremely intense thunderstorms or supercell storms to form. The plains produce so many of the big supercells with the long-track destructive tornadoes because of the unique combination of cool air coming in from Canada, warm moist air coming in from the Gulf and dry air moving in from the southwest.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 05 October | 13:55

Oh yeah, I've totally been digging the summer thunderstorms here in Texas. Absolutely spectacular!

posted by muddgirl 05 October | 14:03

Is the sky green or some other color?

Yes. Not quite green, but that weird glowy not-quite-right-as-sky color.

posted by occhiblu 05 October | 14:23

I remember those creepy creepy glowing, dirty yellow cloudbanks showing up in the middle of the night in Indiana.

posted by small_ruminant 05 October | 14:36

I'm an almost-lifelong Californian, and that rare (for here) green-tinged sky still makes me get all "da dum da dum da DA dum" inside - even though that scene in the movie was in black & white.

posted by expialidocious 05 October | 15:24

Where are you from, occhiblu?

posted by Eideteker 05 October | 16:39

I'm just a dumb child.
Light behind the overcast clouds like this?

posted by moonshine 05 October | 16:53

Suburbs of Chicago, originally.

My parents, also from suburban Chicago, had their high school's gym completely destroyed by a tornado when they were in school. Their yearbooks were full of photos of twisted metal and blown-about building bits.

posted by occhiblu 05 October | 17:13

moonshine, I like that photo. But it was more kind of like this (minus the obvious tornado). I don't know -- it's almost more a feeling in the air than an image, though.

Now, of course, it's sunny and gorgeous.

posted by occhiblu 05 October | 17:20

Suburbs of Chicago, originally.

Well that explains it. Down state if it looks like there will be a tornado, then we all run outside to take a look.

posted by sbutler 05 October | 17:40

Ohh, I've seen those clouds.
Where the sky's bright yet the ground's really dark? Here it usually means really big storm coming, too. Except tornadoes don't manifest here very often.

posted by moonshine 05 October | 19:46

That is funny, because I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Chicago last year, and I've just realized that the drastic temperature changes had been stressing me out. Why? Because in California we call that earthquake weather!

posted by halonine 05 October | 22:31

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