A Peculiar Blog

We’re getting farther and farther into the changeover from summer to autumn and with that change comes severe weather caused by masses of warm air running into masses of cold air.  The result can be anywhere from light rain or a mild thunderstorm to a severe thunderstorms, tornadoes or worse.  Living in Northeast Arkansas I have the opportunity to get a much closer view of this sometimes spectacular weather than a lot of people do since I’m pretty much in the middle a large portion of the US that has some of the highest risks of tornado activity in the country.

I still remember the storm that passed through this area on “super tuesday” in 2008.  My brother no doubt remembers it even more because on it’s way through here an F3 tornado picked up the van he was driving and threw it around for a while.  It’s only by the grace of God that he walked away from the incident with only a few scratches.  The van on the other hand, didn’t fare so well.

While, as the super tuesday storms proved, it’s true that things like that can actually happen at any time of the year it’s also true that the spring and fall months are when they are the most likely because that’s when the right conditions are most likely to exist.

That’s why I’ve actually been looking around sale pages to see what kind of weather instrumentation there is to be had.  I’m not just talking about weather radios either.  I’ve got one of them and it has yet to make a sound in the year or so that I’ve had it. Yeah, I know, there’s always several weather sites to look at but they don’t generally focus much on *local* weather details for this area and since the closest television station is like 90 miles away, even there coverage is mostly about Jonesboro and surroundings.  I’m located on the outer fringe of their coverage area.

That’s why I’m thinking of a Home Weather Station.  Something that will allow me to watch the local conditions a lot closer than any radio, tv or internet weather service is going to do.  I figure that combining that information with weather radar maps that I can get online I’ll be a lot more informed with data that I know is local because it’ll come from my back yard.

[Tags]tornado, weather, super tuesday tornado, severe weather, local weather information[/tags]