I was watching the main news at 11oclock last night when I saw a farm being swept away by a big tornado in Kansas.

It wasnt you was it KF? Im sure other members saw it and wondered the same. Looks like there could be mass destruction in the area.

All the best. 

Hope all is well, KF

All is well.  The south half of the county was in a tornado warning last night for about 45 minutes and all the firemen in the county were paged out to storm watch, but the weather service only issued the warning as a precaution, they said from the beginning the rotation was very weak on the radar.  It is farther west that has been getting hammered day after day, and south in Oklahoma.  I understand that early last night Iowa and Minnesota were also hit hard with 8 dead. 

I have looked at the convective outlook for this morning, at this time putting us in a 5% chance for a tornado today, but also stating that if the sun shines things will be much worse.  If we get through today and tonight, it appears for several days we will be in the clear.  Thanks for thinking of me, I am OK but many of my fellow Kansans have lost alot these last several days. 

          If that's the Pratt tornado I am finding it to be about 100 miles from you Kf. - A bit too close for comfort. All the best, Ally.

Good to hear you are OK Kansas. I too was thinking of you whilst watching the news. That twister yesterday came north, killed a child in Minneapolis and touched down again south of Winnipeg in the Steinbach area, fortunately for us in open farmland, before heading east into Ontario.

Really cold here today, the sheep want their coats back!

Yes glad all is well KF. Judging by what I can make from it uve had quite a few windy days starting friday where a small town called Greensburg in southwest kansas got destroyed by 250mph mile wide tornadoes. 95% destruction wrecked hospitals,homes and schools.

I wasnt sure what county you were in or whether it reached you, so lets hope the people it has affected get through ok.

Do you have any storm chasers in ur area ?

Must be tough trying to predict where these twisters will touch down. I've always fancied storm chasing, but can't afford it!

I saw a film I think called "twister" which was all about storm chasers. Dont know if anybody is nutty enough to chase them in real life.

Twinkle, you are a year late on Greensburg, it was wiped out last year. It nearly sustained another direct hit last week, Thursday I think.  I have blogged the last several times about tornado activity in our area and posted some pics of destruction from a small tornado that passed about 5 miles to the south of us.  The NWS insists still it was what they call "channelized straightline winds" but we were storm spotting that night and we say it was a tornado.

I think "Twister" was a little hyped, but there are people who do chase storms, several categories.  I chase storms, but only if they are in the immediate area, the fire departments around here are also the storm spotters along with the Sheriff and his deputies.  Then there are those who travel far and wide to storm chase, either for research, film making, or thrills.  There are also now storm chasing tours where you pay money to do what we have a hard time on the Fire department getting people to do for free(maybe we should be charging).  Do a search using "tornado tours" and "tornado chasing tours" and see what comes up.

By the way, 2.5 inches of rain last night and this morning, .25 yesterday morning and 1.4 inches the night before that.

If you liked that you would probably like the programs they have about the real ones as the one I have seen was really interesting but then I loved the scenery they were driving through too and love those kind of programs. AS they I things that interest me and if I had more guts would like to try a bit like the truck drivers in Canada that drive across the frozen lakes. But as stated I'm too much of a chicken.

That why I like the UK somuch only one poisonous snake and nothing that could be compared really too the tornados, earthquakes or hurricanes or ice storms that the US and Canada have.

I glad to hear you are ok and hope those that were caught in it will soon get back to normality soon.

Sorry Kansas ur correct. Its not greensburg this time then? Probably havent rebuilt from last year anyway. I was reading an outdated google like a prize clown so I look really clever now.

Anyway besides my stupidity I did as you said and googled storm chasing tours. Very dangerous though, specially as they change direction.

Have you got any pictures of any local tornadoes close up .??

sjk, I watched a program yesterday called ice truckers, did you see it? That was all about what you mentioned.

HI Kansas, 4.3" rain has it done much damage?? We had over an 1" yesterday and 2" forcast for today with 40 to 50 MPH winds.Was s**ting it a bit this morming,but the rain has held off just got the wind.We had storms at about 5th June last year that rolled a load of Wheat,fingers crossed. There is a lot of rain about this year,the whole of EUROPE looks stormy at this time.JOHN.

2.5 inchs of rain would mean flooded here. I had a look through ur album KF, hope you all get back to reality soon.