Rotation updated

Crawled into bed earlier than usual tonight - had an eye appointment in the late afternoon, and was still feeling the effects of the eye dilation. Just over an hour later I woke up, thinking "Gee, I didn't know we were going to have thunderstorms"...

...and ten seconds later, "Hmmm, is that really the tornado siren? Doesn't that only go off for actual warnings, not watches?"

What can I say - I had been sound asleep. Popped the radio on, and the national weather service warning was playing. Yep, tornado warning. Um, the basement is dark, damp and uninviting. The bathroom is the most interior room of the house, followed by the office as the room with the least windows. The office has more toys and more comfortable seating - grab the huge flashlight, cellphone and bathrobe and head for the office.

Half an hour later, and the tornado warnings have lapsed, though both severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings are still in place. A tornado touchdown was confirmed a bit west of here, and possibly in one of the southeast suburbs. It's hard to know exactly what the damage is, with this being a nighttime event. Power lines are down all over (not here, obviously) and it's still raining like God is planning to flood us out again, but the worst of the weather is out over the lake.

Thanks so much to the weather people and the emergency crews from all parts - they run into danger to keep us out of danger. I'm getting the impression this storm pulled itself together out of nowhere, with very little notice, but in spite of that, warnings went out in plenty of time for people to take appropriate action.

Tuesday - The tornado in Eagle is preliminarily classed as an EF2. More of the story and pictures here. No fatalities, only fairly minor injuries. Considering that the tornado siren in the town malfunctioned, that is truly a miracle.