Crazy weather.... everywhere...

Compared to back home in Sweden where they are dealing with lots of snow, icy and cold weather we are in Alabama dealing with severe weather too, but the most severe once are Tornados and Hurricanes.

Now when the summer has passed us and from what we have experienced it is quite difficult to explain, but I do like the Swedish summers much better compared to the Alabama humid heat. Parts of this summer was awful. We could not be outside at all. When I try to illustrate it for folks back home I said: Turn on the hairdryer, turn it on low speed with heat on. Blow it directly to your face so it almost burns. In your other hand you have a bottle of water which you squirt onto your face so your face stay constantly moist. That is how summer is here from top to toe.

We haven´t seen much rain this summer at all, but when it does rain... it does not drizzle. It is pouring down. No umbrella would like to have to deal with it either. But, what is the most worrying about the weather systems here is the tornado season which runs from April-November. We have been very fortuned to not have had any encounters of Tornados or Hurricanes yet. But the closest call we had this season was the very last day of November and the last day of the tornado season.

This morning there was a lot of moist in the air and it was 22C (73F) outside already at 8 a.m. It started blowing after dropping of our kids at school. It seemed like every body (local people went about their business) and so did I. When I got home I saw my Iphone blinking and I checked it to find issued warnings in our area for tornados. I turned on the TV and followed the news about the warnings. But it seemed cool and I did like everybody else, went about my business and made it to the gym right before the rain came down. Or should I say heaven opened itself and through a bucket of water down on us... The noise of the rain coming down was high and water came flooding through the cracks of the doors and windows...

Apparently there are different stages of tornado warnings but I cannot separate them. However, this particular weather system was just crossing our neck of the hoods, but luckily not in my neighborhood. But in the aftermaths of it, it left traces of so called "touch downs" just a half hour drive from us... And that is close enough for me. Because the devastation these weather storms leave is unbelievable. When the system had passed the temperature had also dropped nearly 12 degrees C and that is just over a couple hours time frame - so this moves fast...

Luckily this touch down was not too bad and severe. So, I guess we were lucky this time and no lives were taken.

We have since we moved here learned how to act when the warnings are issued. If we were at home, we should take shelter inside the house in a room without windows and a room located in the center of the house. If we are outside and encounter a tornado, the recommendation is the leave the car and go lay down in a ditch. If kids are at school we cannot go and pick them up until the tornado has passed. The warning it self of a tornado in your neighborhood is through a laud signal like our military alarm - these signals are tested every third month like they are back in Sweden, but for different causes.

The Weather Channel and all the local channels was reporting about the Tornado warning this day. Here you can see how the warnings are issued from New Orleans in the South to Huntsville in Northern Alabama.

The channel also very carefully tells you how to act when a Tornado is spotted. This is of another tornado in our neighboring state Louisiana.

The storm had just passed Montgomery in this picture and moving North.

The news seemed very intense when this weather system appears and it is difficult for someone who has not been in a weather like this to even illustrate how what it can do or what force it has.