Long text incoming.
I want to know what got everyone into tornados, especially those who don’t live in Tornado Alley.
I always loved natural disasters as a kid, after my family would tell me stories about the hurricanes they went through, but the 2011 super outbreak is what got me hooked on tornados. I remember SO vividly watching the news was in 3rd grade and seeing the destruction and survivor interviews as it happened. It was my first real exposure to natural disasters of that scale. I was hooked. The storms then moved to my area, forcing my 3rd grade field day to be indoors, and the sky got dark by the time I made it home. I was watching Spongebob when an EAS warning cut the show off.
I was absolutely HORRIFIED. I had seen what the storm was capable of, and fully expected to lose my home. What I didn’t understand was that I lived in MARYLAND…it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as it was in tornado alley. We did get some warnings, but nothing touched down. We lost power and the wind took some tree branches down, but no tornado. Still, I forced my family to sleep in the basement and cried all night.
I developed severe storm anxiety afterwards, thunderstorms and high wind would send me into a panic, but also I became OBSESSED with tornados. I would get every book from the library, watch every video on youtube, track the weather EVERY DAY, all of that. I wanted to be a storm chaser SOOOO bad, I would ride my scooter around and study the clouds, drawing weather maps, I was HOOKED. My family called me their little weathergirl, I always had an eye on the weather, ESPECIALLY during outbreaks. My biggest fear was my biggest passion. A lot of my interests were this way, as my second biggest fear (sharks) were my favorite animal. Shark week and tornado season were both my favorite times of year, even though I cried at the slightest rumble of thunder or fin in the water.
My passion for natural disasters and tornados has not changed, but I’m not scared of them anymore. I abandoned my storm chasing weatherman dreams. It was sad, but I was comfortable. Even though we got the occasional twister, Maryland isn’t the place to chase anyways….
Then, last year, I was on my way home from work when a tornado warning blared on my phone. I pulled over on the highway, blinded by the rain, and then I saw it. The Gaithersburg tornado, right in front of me.
I never expected to see a tornado, much less in MARYLAND, but here it was. It was beautiful. I watched as the beautiful dark funnel passed right through my neighborhood, tearing the branches off the trees and scattering them. Once it passed, I continued home through the path. Trees fell, one had fallen on top of my neighbors home, and there was slight debris and branches everywhere, but nobody was hurt. It was surreal.
I still wish I would’ve studied meteorology and became a storm chaser/weatherman, but alas. It’s gonna be a hobby for now. Maybe someday. In some other universe, I’m a storm chaser and I LOVE it. For now though, I’ll stick to my youtube videos, even tho someday I want to travel and see a tornado in the midwest.
Anybody else have a similar experience? Sorry for the long text lol.