I think I've always been interested in Severe Weather.  "ANYTHING", to do with weather fascinates me!   I've seen many storms, but none as severe as the one that came through town on April 19, 1996.  We didn't expect another twister so soon, we had already had one the night before on the 18th through the Southeast side of town!  Twice in two days is more than enough for anyone, believe me!

  I've seen funnel clouds, tornadoes, striated supercells, (stacked dinner plates look!),  mesocyclones, roll clouds, small microbursts - (downburst dust foot), shelf clouds, wall clouds, hail, flooding, close lightning strikes, tail clouds, collar clouds, etc...  Did I mention close lightning strikes!  (update on lightning strikes May 2002),  I had a bolt of lightning hit real close in front of me while driving through fairly heavy rain.  That blinded me for about 3 or 4 seconds, I was doing about 35 mph and did slow down a bit and just held the wheel straight, didn't panic, but whoa!  My vision finally came back fairly quick, but not quick enough!   I can do without that stuff!  Thankfully I was on a rather wide road, and I finally got where I could see the road again!  That does tend to shake ya up a bit..though!  ;-)

  I have been out in inflow winds, with air being sucked in by a big tornado!  (The big Cantrall Illiois tornado).  Rusty VanRheeden (N9JFZ) and I were just about a mile and a half west of Warrensburg and could hardly stand up in the wind feeding the storm.  We had to hang onto the car door to be able to stand up for a bit there!    We were facing the tornado with the wind at our backs, "of course"!  (It is wise to keep an eye on the tornado)!   A very HUGE tornado, I remember it very well!  We decided we didn't need to be any closer to it!  Then all of a sudden the tornado slipped back up higher into the sky..  disappeared and then a few seconds later and a bit further South it came back down again..  big as ever!  We found out later from the guys at NWS that we were at least 12 to 13 miles East of the tornado.   whoa!  lol

 I think I have experienced just about everything that comes along that has anyhing to do with storms in Illinois, except softball sized hail, always do my best to stay away from that stuff!  Don't like large dents!  Have been close to the big hail though..(eh Kevin??!! (N9RTF) - WAY TOO CLOSE!  We had reports of 4 inch hail.. just East of our location!  We stayed where we were and that wasn't a hard decision to make at all.   haha! 

  Flash flooding can be 'exciting' and dangerous!  I was out watching storms, and later checking the roads, found a couple of people in a van that were preplexed, they were trying to get to Warrensburg and they couldn't find a road that wasn't flooded.  So, since I knew the area better,  I had them follow me and we arrived at a spot where they knew they had a major highway to be able to find their way.  We made that only after a few detours.   Had tree's being knocked down out of a gully West of town that day, with flash flooding.  Seen one stretch where the water was over about a quarter mile of pavement!  Don't like those situations!  And I didn't go through it either!  Hard to tell, if the road actually is still there or not! 

  You take your life in your hands if you drive across  a flooded area on a roadway..  In fact the road may not even be there at that spot.. they wash out very easy!  This is a very dangerous situation! 

  Storm Spotting can be a very dangerous undertaking, please don't attempt this unless you have been to the ~ National Weather Serivce ~ storm spotter training classes, and have been out with a trained spotter, you really need to know what you are doing!  Even then be very careful!  The more training you can get, the better off you'll be! 

  You need to know how to be as SAFE you can be, at all times and know how to find the correct location for safety and to have the correct view of the storm.  Plan your escape route ahead of time!  I always try to park at a four way intersection, have a way to escape, or have a culvert to duck into or a deep ditch to get as low as possible for protection.  I also stay OFF of Interstate highways, tough to get off of them at times, and with a tornado coming you might want to change directions!

  I attend the NWS Storm Spotter Seminars every time I can, meet old friends and usually learn something new!

  I use an older model HP digital camera, works neat for storm pics for the webpages.  Recently  thanks to Ebay, i've purchased another HP camera.. (618) with zoom..  so I should have more pictures faster as the storms roll in!

  I've been retired for several years so if there is a 'chance' for storms I am usually watching our local radar,(WANDTV-Decatur, IL). and the Weather Underground radar http://www.wunderground.com for up to date radar and weather information.  They have a lot of info on their radar!  I also have a friend that feeds me the weather alerts for a 5 county area (at least) to my cellphone!    I check a lot of different internet sites for data, and try to be out and rolling way before the storms get close! 

Of course I depend on Muggs , 'My Boston Terrier THUNDERSTORM dog to alert me!   She alerts me usually, before anyone or anything else does! 

note:  Muggsey and Pugsley (her nephew) both got deathly sick and we had to put them both down...sad days in 2007!  Since then we have adopted two more boston terriers, Mandy (6 years old) and Abby (12 years old)!  Mandy has taken over the thunderstorm alert job for Muggs!   So, I still get early alerts!  ;-)  Abby is deaf, so they don't bother her a bit!   She's the boss... ;-)