The weather forecast was for severe thunderstorms only and not even a tornado watch was issued. They said that there would be 60 mph + winds and damaging hail, heavy rains and flooding in low areas. No weather spotters were out, so I thought all would be well. Not so....
It had been too hot all day yesterday and when the cold winds hit all at once, I knew it was not going to be good. Then the skies started turning that sickly shade of green and I started to watch! My old cat went ballistic, as he always does when a tornado is close; I took him with me for years when I was storm chasing..so he knows what is up. I had just enough time to grab him and head for the bathroom. I could hear it coming and sure enough it was right over head in seconds...not minutes.
I heard lightning hit, could feel the house shake like it was coming apart and had those thoughts that since this was after 4:pm, when most of th F4's and F5's are born, that this might be it. The roar was undgodly! This was the loudest tornado that I have ever heard and it beat the tornado at Andover, KS in sound!
Finally I heard it go and although the rains were so heavy I could not see much, between the lightning flashes I could see the outline of a good sized wedge tornado heading east; this one came from the NW!
I called 911 and then went to check...a electrical pole was leaning over the highway in front of the house and ready to go at any second...made the second call to 911 and told them about that.
I then checked the horses, other livestock and went to check the hives. Sure enough one of the hives took a direct hit from a maple and was crushed under the tree. The neighbor had better pay for that one! I then looked at the other hives and found them all twisted and in the wrong places....I got up at daylight and put them back up again....covered with honey!
It could have been much worse, but still, I lost the rest of the honey crop...no sales for me this year unless there really are miracles. The hives in the other yards were all blown over too....what a mess to clean up today.
Brenda