The recent tornado outbreak in Illinois made me think about the only time I’ve seen a tornado over land (I’ve seen several waterspouts). I remembered it was spring, my first grade year; but couldn’t remember exactly when. However, Weather Underground (my weather source of choice) had a link to the Tornado History Project, and I was able to find the record of this particular tornado.
As I said, it was spring of my first grade year; April 4th, 1977, to be exact. School had just ended, and I went to the steps by the first grade classrooms to wait for my mom. It was a pretty, sunny spring day; a few clouds in the sky, but nothing threatening. When I got to the steps, I found mom waiting for me; which was unusual… I normally had to wait for 30 minutes or so. I got in the station wagon and mentioned that she was early.
Mom was extremely tense. She said there was a tornado warning for Rome. I looked at the sky again; still sunny, but a little cloudier.
By the time we got to our house (marked by the red circle on the map), the sky was covered in dark, sickly-green mammatus clouds. I didn’t know that was what they were called then, but this event stoked a fascination with severe weather for me. My youngest two sisters (still older than me) were also home; my oldest sister was in high school and was still there. Mom herded us all into the small closet under the stairs and went to try and call the high school to check on my oldest sister… but our phone wasn’t working. (remember, there were no cell phones then.) By now the wind was up and rain was splattering. Mom decided to go across the street and see if our neighbor’s phone was working. My sister Susan begged her not to go, but Mom went out the front door and across the street. We watched her through the window next to the front door; and as we watched, we could see the top of a funnel cloud over the top of Horseleg Mountain (which you can see on the map).
The tornado never got close to our house, but just that little glimpse I got fascinated me. As I got older, I studied everything I could about tornadoes and thunderstorms; and they still intrigue me today.