Tornados in January???

Missouri has the weirdest weather ever. People not from here are shocked about the tornadoes we get, usually in the Spring and Fall. I've never remembered 70 degree weather in January nor the amount of tornadoes and storms in our area last night.

It started about 5pm as I walked out of Walmart with a cart full of groceries and heard the city sirens going off. I was shocked. It was cloudy and "storm looking" but not so much a tornado feeling. So I busted to my truck, threw my groceries in the back and called Bert who was home with the kids. Cell service was extremely slow but I got through before leaving the parking lot and he had no idea about any tornadoes either. After getting home in just a few minutes, we saw the news reporting favorable conditions for tornadoes on the west side of the county. 15 or so miles away. Whenever there is a tornado in any part of this county, Nixa sets off the sirens. On one hand, I think it's better to be safe than sorry. On the other, it makes having the sirens go off all the time something you start not concerning yourself with every single time.

So I went about gettings dinners ready. Kids kid friend potatoes and ham with shredded cheddar. Bert and I had spaghetti. Just in the time I was cooking dinner, two big storm cells came real close and I worried about my family and friends and what damage they might be getting. Luckily, no one was hurt or sustained any damage that I know of personally. Places like Strafford and Republic though got a lot of damage. Roofs blown off schools and homes demolished is what the news is reporting.

So, kids are in bed and we were thinking about watching a movie. Then the weather guy starts talking about another cell coming through in about 20 minutes. So, we opted to watch the weather instead. This one looked the worst and even Bert was concerned. So, we got stuff ready to move to the basement if needed. This cell dropped the biggest rain on us and our street was flooded almost immediatly. The worst of it though went just east of us though and into Ozark...whew!!!!

So, we watched one more cell come thru and it looked like we were going to be on the South end of everything so we went to bed. We left a window cracked because our bedroom window faces North and the city sirens are all south. If you don't have a window open, you won't hear them.

We got woke up at 3:30 by super high winds and hail pelting the house. It was LOUD. We jumped up and check the TV but our cable/tv was out and of course, our cable internet was out too. We turned on the scanner but the city traffic was quiet. I decided not knowing what was coming was 1,000 X worse then seeing it coming on the radar. Then we remembered the radio and they were reporting super high winds, 60 mph, but no tornadoes. Bert went back to bed and I stayed up to make sure and finally went back to bed at 4.

Kids slept till 8:30 this morning (bless their heart) and I've been watching the news all morning getting all the details. We even made the national news. I feel lucky we missed another round of severe weather and hope our luck continues. Bert had to take an alternate route to work because of flooding on Tracker Road and it looks like my neighbors house might have been flooded NW of our house.

Kids never stirred the entire night. I'm big on music while they sleep. Ethan listens to showtunes and Emily has a Disney CD she listens too. When all the rain, wind and hail came, their music blocked it out and they never heard a thing.

This "could" have been ice and snow. I'm not sure which is the lesser evil.