I'm ready for ThUnDeR...

Tonight, I got to do something I've been wanting to do for a very . long . time . Mike and I attended a Skywarn storm spotter training session. I've been infatuated with thunderstorms for many years already.  As a child, I was extremely--irrationally--afraid of them.  When I was in elementary school, I was the last child on the bus when the tornado siren went off just as I was about to step out of the door.  Instead of letting me get out of the bus, the driver slammed the door and drove me back to the school.  How that was safer than letting me run the distance into my own house, I'll never know.  I could hear on her cb radio that there had been a tornado spotted north of Mazeppa, and I spent the next hour or so in a corner of the school wrestling room with my head tucked between my knees. My fear eventually developed into a fascination.  I am absolutely in awe of thunderstorms as they are one of the most tangible manifestiations of the power of our Creator.I had hoped to persuade my hubby to try it with me years ago... ...but he wasn't interested. He thought my thrill would pass, but it has only grown over the years as I've tucked away to watch storm chasing documentaries, and ordered various books and videos on the study of weather. My hubby and I share an appreciation for photography, and I even tried to use that to entice him into storm watching with me, but I still didn't have much luck... Until last summer... Last summer was a historic year for our state. Minnesota had more tornadoes than any other state last year! Finally, I realized I was taking the wrong approach with my husband... What is the one thing that my engineer-hubby can't resist? Numbers.  And even better--statistics of numbers.  Data.  Records and comparisons...you get the idea. So, I suggested that he use a patent award to invest in a weather station, and he liked the idea so much that he thinks he thought of it.  (shh...)  The device arrived in September: 

If you load Weather Underground for Oronoco, MN, you will see the current weather in our backyard, and you can view all the weather data since September.  Sweet.  Now he was starting to share my enthusiasm and our common interest grew. Tonight, we finally attended the Skywarn session, and he was eager to learn.  

It was a fairly large gathering of people at the Event Center in Rochester.  There were a lot of law enforcement professionals, firefighters, and even some local news media. 

It was a 2 hour presentation of severe weather information, and the second half had more specifics on storm spotting: 

He concluded the evening with a case study of the June 17 tornado outbreak in Southeast MN--the night we almost accidentally got our first tornado intercept driving through NW Rochester!  As best we could calculate, we were driving in the path of the tornado when it was on the ground--we had to have missed it by just minutes.  We had no clue...but thankfully, it didn't come as a surprise to our Heavenly Father and we were providentially protected.  Here is the tornado's path from that night: 

So, I consider tonight the beginning of a new adventure for Hubby and I.  I already have visions of spraying the old '97 Accord with Rhino Lining and plastering it with weather instruments and radio antennas and turning it into the Amundson portable weather station.  ;-)   But remember, I'm a visionary...   So, I'm just thankful that I finally got dear Hubby to go to a spotter training session.  :-) Now just bring on the thunderstorms...