Tornado Warning

So B and I are trying to watch TV tonight, and they keep flashing tornado and flash flood warnings at the bottom of our screen--but don't worry, not for our county (Hennepin), although it is effective for some nearby counties. But yeah, they do have tornadoes here in Minnesota. B and I had heard that somewhere, and then it became a bit more real for us when we were at the airport and saw signs for tornado shelters next to stairwells and such, with a little tornado symbol next to them. Since then we've been noticing them in lots of places. We've got a basement in our duplex, so that's good.

And don't worry, tornadoes aren't as common here as they are in some other states. Minneapolis only ranks 11th among tornado-prone cities with more than 100,000 people. Here's a summary of Minnesota's tornado history.

Anyway, the second day I was at my my new job, this past July 6th, I went to lunch with some of the guys, and as we came out of the restaurant a siren kind fo like an air raid signal was blaring through the streets. It was explained to me that they were testing the tornado warning siren. Weird.

Then at work today, we were discussing tornadoes again. One fellow told me that you know it's tornado weather when the sky turns kinda greenish. It was also explained to me that they (and by "they" I think my co-worker meant the state of Minnesota) test the tornado sirens the first Wednesday of every month, in our area anyway.

To which one smartass in the room (not me) says, "Hope we don't have an actual tornado on the first Wednesday of a month."