Tornadoes Are Scary!

   Reading about the damage inflicted on Atlanta tonight courtesy of a tornado reminds me just how frightening nature can be. It doesn't matter how advanced our technology is or how completely we dominate the food chain on Earth - when Mother Nature gets pissed, we feel it!

   I remember as a kid in California being fearful of earthquakes and feeling several minor ones over the years. I conveniently skirted the major ones though (I was in SoCal when the Loma Prieta quake hit the Bay Area on October 17, 1989 and up at Tahoe when the Northridge quake struck in the San Fernando Valley on January 17, 1994).

   I did see wildfires, some up close, though never too close to my home.

   Now I've moved (close) to tornado country. Tornadoes have been reported in places as nearby as Boulder but the the Front Range of the Rockies' proximity disrupts the airflow sufficiently to make tornadoes a rarity in this area.

   Those who live in what I refer to affectionately as "West Kansas" (basically consisting of east of downtown Denver through to the Kansas border) do not make light of tornado risk. Last March, a deadly (F4 - winds up to 199 mph) twister tore through the small town of Holly, pretty much wrecking it.

   Every time I drive out to DIA (about as far east as I venture typically) I casually glance out east in the hopes that I will see only peaceful planes.