Oklahoma Weather

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…well, maybe not.  Tornado season doesn’t end with a celebration of Christ’s birth and tons of presents…right?  I’m not missing out on some fun tornado festivity, am I?  But I digress.  This little tornado season post is reposted on Oklahoma Women Bloggers today and they titled it “It’s That Time Of Year”.  Something about that title made me giggle and think of Christmas carols.

Well, it’s that time of year again…tornado season.  We live in tornado alley, we should be used to it, right?  Wrong.  I get this feeling that people have been getting themselves more worked up than usual over the weather.  I’ve done a very scientific study (which consists of me reading Facebook) regarding our reaction to severe weather and I’ve come to the conclusion that it has gotten out of hand.  I can practically hear the sobs over FB as friends wring their hands and torment themselves over the impending doom.  The Norman Transcript had a front page article two weeks ago about the possibility of storms for the upcoming week.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the possibility of storms (which didn’t happen on the day they said it would happen, by the way) making front page news.

I’ve come up with the following survey to accompany my scientific study to determine if you too have succumbed to the weather hysteria.  If you answer “yes” to more than three of the following statements it may be time to schedule an appointment with a meteorological therapist.

If the words “Pottawatomie County” make you feel sick to your stomach.

If your storm shelter is standing room only because you have packed so much bottled water and granola bars in there your family can’t sit down.

If you have a back up generator for your generator.

If you consider Gary England a close personal friend even though the two of you have never actually met.

If you have ever slept in your storm shelter the night before a storm was supposed to hit.  You know, just in case.

If you would describe your anxiety level at an 11 from the end of March to the beginning of June.

If you scream at the kids to get in the bathroom when you seen Mike Morgan in a bedazzled tie.

If you start to chew your hair the minute the skies start to darken and at the first drops of rain.

If you equate tornado season with “the end times” and are certain the Lord is calling us all home.

All kidding aside, tornado season should be taken seriously.  However, there is a point when we turn the corner from cautious to hysterical and cease to become a calming influence on our family.  Who do you think our kids take their cues from on how to handle  a storm?  Anxiety breads more anxiety.  We don’t have any control over what will happen in a storm, where it will hit or what damage it may cause.  But the one thing we can control is our own response to it.

Having said that, I reserve the right to run screaming for the hills if we get trapped in our storm shelter because our house is flattened on top of it.