Sometimes I feel like my brain is stuck in about second grade, in that I feel completely inferior brain wise to everyone else sitting around me in certain situations. This doesn’t happen a lot, I mean I do watch Jeopardy every day, but when it does, its alw
ays reassuring to notice that there are quite probably others in the room on equal footing with me.
This happened to me recently when I attended the local weather spotters advanced training. My love of the weather and especially storms started at an early age. I have always been fascinated with thunderstorms, lightening and tornadoes. Why does one storm produce them and not another?
I have been taking photos of clouds and storms my entire life. I used to take my children outside when there was a thunderstorm to the north of us and show them the clouds and features of the storm. My youngest daughter is still terrified of storms in spite of me trying to help her love them.
My oldest son was also fascinated by storms and became a weather spotter after high school and got me into that as well. He has that math/science brain that goes well with all the knowledge of weather. I look at it from more of an artistic mind.
Today, my storm spotting days still continue and while I don’t go out anymore and sit in my car near thunderstorms that could develop into tornadoes, I do still keep a watchful eye out here at my home and have a pretty great view of the countryside around me. I like to think I can help keep my little town and the cities to the east of me more weather informed.
Each year the National Weather Service in Des Moines, puts on a beginner and an advanced weather spotter training sessions that are held around the state. I’ve been a registered storm spotter for many years and have attended many beginner storm spotter trainings to always keep up to date. This year I decided to attend the local advanced spotter training, thinking I could gain more knowledge. This is where the brain inferiority comes into play.
The class was held at Latham Hall on the UNI campus. The only parking nearby is metered for thirty minutes only. I didn’t realize this until I had put about three too many quarters in the meter and realized I was not getting any extra time. To be fair the part that tells you it is for a maximum of thirty minutes is written very tiny and across the inside of the meter and very hard to read. You are welcome for the seventy-five cent donation UNI.
I walked into the building and waited with the others out in the hallway, most were from small area towns fire departments. I could tell because their jackets said so. They are usually the ones who go out in the storms and keep an eye out for the rest of us. Even with all of today’s weather tools and technology, there is still nothing better than eyes on the weather locally. All the people in the room with me were all volunteers, it made me proud to know all of these people cared about their local communities.
We sat in a small classroom with theater style seating. The seats were uncomfortable and about halfway through I think my buns fell asleep. There was a little tray thing on the side of the seats that the people next to me had put up to set their notebooks on but I had no idea how they worked and didn’t want to cause a spectacle in front of everyone there. I used my lap to take notes, often poking holes in my paper.
The room was very quiet as we all waited for the hour and a half presentation. They announced we were free to come and go during the presentation as they were not going to stop for a break during it. Thank goodness I had stopped by the lady’s room before I entered the classroom. I’m always very self-conscious about leaving a room during any type of presentation and will risk bladder explosion not to have to do so.
I always feel a little strange sitting in a college classroom, because I never did so as a young person. I know my kids would find this kind of room familiar for lectures, and they would have known how that little tray thing popped right up, but I felt odd sitting there. I looked around the room and most of the people attending were men, most had on work clothes, but there were also a few women scattered throughout and one couple that looked about ten years older than me, so I didn’t feel like I was the oldest one there.
The training began with an overview of the basics and I felt at home with these things. How to report hail, never describe it as marble size. Various types of watches and warnings. Where to look in storms for possible tornadoes, typical time of day severe weather breaks out.
Then he started to ramp up the information, talking about cyclonic this and that and all kinds of big weather terms that my brain was suddenly scrambling to try to understand and comprehend. People around me were intently listening so I assumed they were understanding all of this. I nodded my head occasionally hoping I too would look like I was getting all of this. I did notice the lady sitting in front of me kept reaching into her purse and was eating candy, so I’m guessing she was on equal footing with me. I felt a bit more encouraged.
He went through many slides showing various types of storms and supercells and what they call each type of supercell and whether it’s left or right cyclonic or splits and on and on. These terms by the way may or may not be accurate as I am telling the information as my brain took it in.
We watched a few videos where people had stayed put and continued taping the tornado even though after a while it was obvious it was going to hit them. I wanted to yell “RUN” but knew it wasn’t appropriate and the entire time I wondered why? As much as I love a good storm and all the fascinating parts of it, I would not just stand there while a tornado was bearing down on me. I do understand the strange allure of a tornado but safety first, always.
At the end of the class the candy eating lady in front of me piped up and announced she had photos on her phone of a shelf cloud and I could feel everyone in the room roll their eyes. I’m pretty sure they all did too. There is always at least one like her at every training session. I also felt like my intelligence level in the room just advanced a few steps above hers.
Out in the parking lot I was relieved to see there was no ticket on my car window and my car was locked, as I couldn’t remember if I’d locked it or not and was worried about that the entire time I was in the meeting. When I got home I uploaded the latest weather reporting app for spotters and set my notes and handout aside.
I realized that even though most of the lecture and terms were way over my head, I did come away with some very useful knowledge. I know where NOT to be watching from when a severe storm is approaching. I know you do NOT stand and continue filming when a tornado is coming at you. I know you DON’T try to drive your car through a huge supercell storm hoping there is not a tornado hiding inside that curtain of rain. I know that a lot of tornados are wrapped inside heavy rain and very hard to see. I know that 19 is the state record for number of tornadoes spawned from one supercell.
While I may not understand all the science terminology and all the radar charts, I think I can be helpful in keeping an eye out for my local communities. Next time the sky goes dark in the west, just know that I am probably standing outside keeping an eye out for shelf clouds, rotation, hail. I’m also taking lots of photos, but I promise you, if I see a tornado, I’m heading to the basement.
Until next time….Toni