Weather Memory: November 17th

It took my friend and I about a mile of driving south on Highway 77 before we were out of the trees that surrounded the park areas of southwestern Lincoln.  As soon as we were past those trees, though, we knew that we had made the right decision.  To our southeast, the three white towering clouds in close conjunction to each other filled the sky.

We now had to get east. I thought that Saltillo Road, once a rural road south of Lincoln, was in better shape than it was. Had I known how bad it was I might have suggested that we waited for another option, but there was little time to get further south. At 4:32 PM, 92.9 “The Eagle” interrupted their music to broadcast a tornado warning. The disc jockey announced that the rotation in the storm was nearing the town of Bennet, on the far southeast side of the Lincoln metro area. We were already several miles west of the storm. We had no choice but to take the poorly paved road east.

We reached Highway 2 with the dark blue sky directly in front of us. Being 5 PM in mid-November, the sun was setting and lightning was illuminating the sky. We pushed east on Highway 2 until we reached Palmyra, and then we turned north on Highway 43. From the town of Eagle, we turned east on Highway 34. Had it not been evening rush hour, we would have taken H34 straight east from campus.

We could now see under the thunderstorm when lightning flashed. The cloud base was just northeast of the road, clearly rotating as the tornado warning continued for the storm.

The sky was now dark and the lightning paused for a moment. We stared into the dark blue sky, waiting for another glimpse of the storm.

Flash.

We both saw the funnel at the same moment. Both of our arms went into the air, pointing in the same direction, just to make sure the other saw the developing tornado.

We did not see the funnel for long. Rain moved in front of the tornado, and the storm weakened soon after. Many storms do not last long after sunset; they thrive on sunshine, warmth, and atmospheric instability.

Chasing would end for the 2003 season that night. Ready for the quiet and cold weather of the winter season, we had found ourselves one last story.