heavy weather

We've been having storms off and on the past few days. In fact - last night, my county was under a tornado warning (but the weather news-guy - the only GOOD local news reporter, thankfully, is the weather dude - observed that they didn't have confirmation of a tornado on the ground. And I live in a big county.)

And I got to thinking about how one of the probably-unrecognized blessings of computer advancement are the improvements in weather forecasting.

A generation ago - when I was a kid - there were Civil Defense sirens that were rung. There wasn't Doppler radar; what weather radar there was was fairly primitive. I remember being bundled off into the basement (I grew up in NE Ohio) and having to sit there for a LONG time until they were sure there wasn't going to be a tornado.

Before my time - the 30s and 40s and even into the 50s - there really wouldn't have been any warning, unless a farmer out in his field or a cop on the beat happened to SEE the tornado and was able to call it in to a radio station or something.

In 1974, in Xenia, Ohio, a very large storm of tornadoes killed 32 people (link, for the weather buffs like me).

In 1999, 40 people were killed in the outbreak of massive tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma.

Hopefully - only 9 died in this most recent outbreak.

But I would guess that before weather-radar, there would have been far more deaths.

I'm always kind of fascinated by the severe-weather coverage - it is now to the point, in larger urban areas at least, that they can pinpoint the neighborhoods or even the STREET INTERSECTIONS that are in danger.

That's a far cry from hearing that "all of Summit County is under a tornado warning until 10:15 pm" and my having to grab my stuffed Snoopy doll and go hide in the basement with my parents and my brother.

And so - another thing I'm grateful for on the list of modern conveniences and comforts? Good weather radar. And people who are well-trained to interpret it and convey the information.