"dixie Alley" Worse Than Tornado Alley

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/18/weather/tornado-forecast-severe-storms-south-saturday/index.html


Good morning all,

Per the article "Dixie Alley" is worse because of the population density.

That term "urban ponding" !


Keep on the alert and be prepared. No need to saddle soap the rubber boots / Wellingtons.

Do have arrangements to disinfect 'em when returning from flood waters. Consider a large plastic dish washing basin with appropriate disinfectant.


Prep, prep, prep
and
factor in safety

 

We were just under a Tornado Warning.

Not just an Alert, a Warning, which is to say,"Head for the basement or your storm shelter!"

My dang cell phone kept blasting the Warning sound, loud & annoying (overrides your volume control). I still have a flip phone (no web access; don't need that crap), but it does transmit warnings.

I was out driving. The gun shop I visited was dead center of the "coming festivities". Sky did look like a mean storm was coming. I didn't rush. Drove back to our place. The dark purple storm-front followed me. We didn't get hit. Long back, in another state, I tried to outrun a tornado. Almost got hit. (Was in periphery and caught bad side winds. Almost tipped my SUV. Couldn't see to drive. Didn't see any flying cattle. )

I'm still alive, or this is my ghost typing.

While at the store this afternoon, saw some beautiful firearms. This place, in addition to all of the standard firearms, has some historic stuff, engraved firearms, expensive firearms up past $9,000. A plain old M1 .30 carbine now costs $1,000.



They had the following Sharps reproduction in 45-70. I think that they were asking around $1,200. These octagon barrels are very heavy, making the rifle front-heavy. Back in the buffalo-hunting days, shooters would use cross-sticks as the barrel prop. One should NEVER rest the barrel on ANYTHING; however these Sharps were, of course, chambered for black-powder cartridges = very low pressures = no barrel deformation = didn't affect sighting. These narrow scopes have precious little light-gathering ability, but in the daytime they did fine (even with cloud cover). I looked through the scope in the gun store and sighting was difficult due to trying to use one of these indoors. The rifle in the store had a superior casehardening to the photographs below. Had some divine deep blues.

 

North Tennessee and southern Kentucky just got slammed with tornadoes.

Tornado destruction areas are war-zones. Trailer parks get total destruction. One guy got killed in his trailer. His trailer was lifted by the tornado and thrown into another trailer, killing a woman and her child therein. Some houses lose their roof, some houses are scraped off the face of the Earth; i.e. not a bomb blast, nothing left except a concrete slab. No basement = death.






We here in here at the footlands / base of the Appalachian mountains to the east have only gotten hit with winds and snow. Winds up in the mountains are BAD. Looked out the window and can't see the yard, nor road, nor our vehicles for the snow-cover. Not bad though. I mean, hey, it's December, after all. Been below freezing, just without the precipitation. Now it's snowed = normal.

Checked out the 4x4 used truck I just bought. Got on a narrow gravel road uphill. N0 4x4, the back wheels got no traction = spun, threw rocks. Put it in 4x4 High (not Bulldog; didn't test its Budddog mode). In 4x4, I couldn't get the wheels to spin / no rock throwing = 4x4 works great. I didn't test Bulldog because I'll likely rarely -- if ever -- need it. I'm retired, so why go where I needn't go?! In a bug-out, maybe.

When working for the Forestry Service, our motorpool only had three 4x4 trucks among the many. It had to get BAD to use those. That's up to the experienced foresters (I was just a kid / grunt labor).

Farmers, foresters, workers of every ilk simply put weight in the bed of their trucks (me too, back in past decades) and have winter-ready tires for tires -- plus chains if needed (me too, in past decades). Right now, I'd NOT travel up at altitude! The roads up there have NO guardrails = you can die and not be found until springtime ... maybe. You'll just be another missing person / another number. Farewell forever. "Too bad; so sad."