About 5 p.m. today I looked out my front window at a very distinct spinning and rotating cloud that looked like it was reaching for the ground but I dismissed it as "scuttle" - the sometimes observed finger-looking clouds that accompany severe thunderstorms. Ten minutes later my wife and I heard the distinct sound of a tornado siren and turned the TV on to find that there was some rotation being watched.  Of course I have been glued to the weather reports and it is now confirmed that a tornado did touch down very briefly about a couple miles from my house!  So I did get to see my first "official" funnel cloud in quite a while.

For those of you who don't live in Oklahoma, we are the crazy kind of people who grab video cameras and go outside when it's best to go in your shelter.  That is totally me!  I have been fascinated with tornadoes since I was a child and can still vividly remember seeing several as a kid.  Once I was looking up through our storm cellar door as we were closing it to see the center of some rotation much like the eye of a hurricane.  It's weird, I know, but it is totally exciting to me.

If you are ever in Oklahoma during the spring or early summer, let me know and maybe with a little luck I'll be able to take you tornado chasing!