Yesterday there was a tornado in Beaumont Texas. What is so remarkable about this tornado? No warning, no thunderstorm warning or watch. Just all of a sudden a tornado appeared and was on the ground a short period of time thank goodness. It hit Wal Mart and Kohls @ the Parkdale Mall and Barnes and Noble is closed today, I think Petco also, minor injuries but roofs torn off, cars piled up one on top of another in parking lots. Why do I mention this in my blog? I was in Beaumont yesterday 2 hours before the tornado. Why? if you 
knew me I would say I got a wild hair. My husband insists on wearing Levis 501 jeans and I needed internet. So I went to a coffee shop in Bridge City TX with wi fi and downloaded some software I needed for at&t internet (which I got hooked up all by myself at&t internet people, thank you very much). While I was on the internet I scoped out a J C Penny's that was close by, they have Levis (also Arizona t shirts and bras on sale but we won't talk about that). So I went to J C Penny's, I actually thought I was in Beaumont but was in Port Arthur. I remember the weird rain, off and on and the dark clouds but being from the midwest these storms are usually nothing down here. The clouds were a little droopy. So I decided to go home a different way so I
could be a little more oriented. BTW Bridge City is named that for a reason and I'm not fond of high bridges. If you saw a caddy going about 50 yesterday that's because my body was frozen going up over that bridge. I had my laptop in my car, it's old but it's really precious to me, I could imagine how my car and laptop would have survived being tossed around in a parking lot. So I went home through Beaumont, it was REALLY the long way around, I probably drove 40+ miles when 20 would have gotten me back the other way but I know how to get around a bit and how the highways are situated. In case you don't follow my life with bated breath I've only been down here in TX a couple days, I've never really been in this area before. So we are watching the news last night and there's been a tornado in Beaumont and it tore up jack. The bottom two pictures are of the normal sky today, there are supposed to be storms again later. I'm counting my lucky stars today. I could have easily decided I needed to go to Barnes and Noble or Petco (two of my favorite stores) up there in Parkdale Mall.
As I mentioned before this tornado came with no warning, the weather service would have said a 0% chance of tornadoes @ that time in Beaumont. Evidently there were two storms close together and when one was forming it caught the downdraft of the first one in it's updraft and that made a tornado? It's not funny but you should have seen the TV weather people trying to explain WHY there were no warnings or watches and HOW something like this could have happened in an area that isn't horribly tornado prone. I used to follow hurricane forecasting very closely and have always been interested in weather and tornadoes. I always said about the forecast down here by the coast if they say 30% chance of rain they mean it will rain 30% of the time, 40% ............
Oh and I get down here Saturday, (went to my first rodeo and had a great time otherwise) and then Sunday there are 3 storms in the Atlantic and it's going to rain, I think I draw these things maybe?
