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ysabetwordsmithI'm trying to catch up with more details about recent events. This is Today's Adventures for Wednesday, June 17. (See the Thursday and Friday posts.)
A violent storm swept through central Illinois that evening. At least one tornado touched down in nearby Charleston and in Effingham. In addition there were winds up to 80 mph.
My partner Doug alerted me when the weather went from Tornado Watch (conditions are right for formation) to Tornado Warning (a nascent or extant tornado has been spotted), requiring immediate action. We have a basement but it's not great -- water gets in, and it's possible that debris could block the door. The weather reports gave a clear trajectory for the storm, and we could identify an escape route. So we got in the car and hauled ass out of reach.
The main knot of storm was readily visible to the west of us, heading toward the east and south. So we went north. With the storm in view, I had a better opportunity to do something about it, since I'm a pretty good weather witch. At one point, part of the cloud started dipping lower with some vertical streaks below it, signs that it was thinking about forming a funnel. So I spent a good 5 minutes pushing that bit around, until it loosened up enough that I could just tear it apart. I definitely scattered that one completely. I also tried grabbing the main storm to slow it down, but well, air is HEAVY. It's about 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. I'm not sure I managed much with the main one. Anyhow, the funnel that hit ground was out of my view. I did the best I could with what I had to work with.
By then we were well north of the main cloud and it was just raining more-or-less normally. We decided to stop at a Casey's for supper. I didn't really want to get pinned down in a restaurant where I couldn't see what the sky was doing. We picked up a 2-pack of what turned out to be truly excellent barbecue cheeseburger sliders on King's Hawaiian rolls. They tasted like fresh-grilled picnic food. <3 One of the girls working there was kind enough to get her big umbrella and walk people to their car. I would've tipped her, but I'd left my purse in the car, so instead I just laid a hefty good-luck blessing. It was nice to see that the world still contains some people who are compassionate, competent, and capable of problem-solving.
We drove around while eating supper, watching the sky, the clouds, the rain. It seemed to be behaving more-or-less normally. We listened for weather updates; the main part of the storm had passed by our area, although there were still warnings about high winds. We discussed what to do next. We decided to head home and assess things there.
Along the way, we came to an intersection blocked by a fallen tree. This was a significant problem because the electrical co-op would necessarily be sending linemen out to fix damage, and needed to know that road was impassable. So my partner Doug called it in. He looped around to where we could see that intersection from its crossing road. Half of that road was blocked by a fallen electrical pole leaning over the road, although its wires were not broken. We reported that too. We did manage to get past and on our way. We saw a lot of other damage but most of it was smaller limbs thrown around.
A lot of water was collecting in fields too. In some areas, ditches were full and fluddles forming. Some water crossed the road. Other areas had much less. There was a flash flood warning, which is technically incorrect but still somewhat useful. What we get here is not a real flash flood with a fast-moving wall of water down a river or other watercourse. It is nature disputing possession of what was once wet prairie and is now drained for agriculture, with sheets of water forming on the surface of saturated soil. In most places it doesn't move fast, but it can get over a foot deep and block roads. Fortunately we didn't find any roads blocked by water.
When we got home, the power was out and had been out for some time. My computer had run out of backup power and shut off without being shut down properly, because I had bailed out of my chair without saving anything or shutting anything off due to the then tornado warning. Checking the plug-in clock, which we bought last summer for exactly this purpose, we discovered that the power had gone out very shortly after we left, around 6:15 PM. Around here, power outages are relatively frequent but rarely last more than a few hours. We checked the house as best we could but found no damage. We decided to stay home and see what happened.
For a while we just sat in the living room and read or talked. We kept a close eye on the weather reports. And that's when we started to get a sense that this might be bigger than usual, because widespread outages were reported. I went outside a few times. There was almost nothing lit in the nearly 6-mile circle I could see. Charleston was dark. Only a small part of Mattoon was lit. There was one light far to the west and one a little way north; I suspect those had independent power sources. Everything else was dark and most of the horizon glow was gone. Yikes.
Eventually we decided to open up our copy of Shadows in the Forest, a blackout game. It's an asymmetric game with a Seeker trying to find a bunch of Shadowlings. We played ... six rounds, I think, trying out different configurations. It's very different from other games in our collection, and we love it. EDIT 6/21/26 -- Read my review of this game.
The weather had largely died down. The power was still out. I think we gave up and went to bed around 2 AM.
A violent storm swept through central Illinois that evening. At least one tornado touched down in nearby Charleston and in Effingham. In addition there were winds up to 80 mph.
My partner Doug alerted me when the weather went from Tornado Watch (conditions are right for formation) to Tornado Warning (a nascent or extant tornado has been spotted), requiring immediate action. We have a basement but it's not great -- water gets in, and it's possible that debris could block the door. The weather reports gave a clear trajectory for the storm, and we could identify an escape route. So we got in the car and hauled ass out of reach.
The main knot of storm was readily visible to the west of us, heading toward the east and south. So we went north. With the storm in view, I had a better opportunity to do something about it, since I'm a pretty good weather witch. At one point, part of the cloud started dipping lower with some vertical streaks below it, signs that it was thinking about forming a funnel. So I spent a good 5 minutes pushing that bit around, until it loosened up enough that I could just tear it apart. I definitely scattered that one completely. I also tried grabbing the main storm to slow it down, but well, air is HEAVY. It's about 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. I'm not sure I managed much with the main one. Anyhow, the funnel that hit ground was out of my view. I did the best I could with what I had to work with.
By then we were well north of the main cloud and it was just raining more-or-less normally. We decided to stop at a Casey's for supper. I didn't really want to get pinned down in a restaurant where I couldn't see what the sky was doing. We picked up a 2-pack of what turned out to be truly excellent barbecue cheeseburger sliders on King's Hawaiian rolls. They tasted like fresh-grilled picnic food. <3 One of the girls working there was kind enough to get her big umbrella and walk people to their car. I would've tipped her, but I'd left my purse in the car, so instead I just laid a hefty good-luck blessing. It was nice to see that the world still contains some people who are compassionate, competent, and capable of problem-solving.
We drove around while eating supper, watching the sky, the clouds, the rain. It seemed to be behaving more-or-less normally. We listened for weather updates; the main part of the storm had passed by our area, although there were still warnings about high winds. We discussed what to do next. We decided to head home and assess things there.
Along the way, we came to an intersection blocked by a fallen tree. This was a significant problem because the electrical co-op would necessarily be sending linemen out to fix damage, and needed to know that road was impassable. So my partner Doug called it in. He looped around to where we could see that intersection from its crossing road. Half of that road was blocked by a fallen electrical pole leaning over the road, although its wires were not broken. We reported that too. We did manage to get past and on our way. We saw a lot of other damage but most of it was smaller limbs thrown around.
A lot of water was collecting in fields too. In some areas, ditches were full and fluddles forming. Some water crossed the road. Other areas had much less. There was a flash flood warning, which is technically incorrect but still somewhat useful. What we get here is not a real flash flood with a fast-moving wall of water down a river or other watercourse. It is nature disputing possession of what was once wet prairie and is now drained for agriculture, with sheets of water forming on the surface of saturated soil. In most places it doesn't move fast, but it can get over a foot deep and block roads. Fortunately we didn't find any roads blocked by water.
When we got home, the power was out and had been out for some time. My computer had run out of backup power and shut off without being shut down properly, because I had bailed out of my chair without saving anything or shutting anything off due to the then tornado warning. Checking the plug-in clock, which we bought last summer for exactly this purpose, we discovered that the power had gone out very shortly after we left, around 6:15 PM. Around here, power outages are relatively frequent but rarely last more than a few hours. We checked the house as best we could but found no damage. We decided to stay home and see what happened.
For a while we just sat in the living room and read or talked. We kept a close eye on the weather reports. And that's when we started to get a sense that this might be bigger than usual, because widespread outages were reported. I went outside a few times. There was almost nothing lit in the nearly 6-mile circle I could see. Charleston was dark. Only a small part of Mattoon was lit. There was one light far to the west and one a little way north; I suspect those had independent power sources. Everything else was dark and most of the horizon glow was gone. Yikes.
Eventually we decided to open up our copy of Shadows in the Forest, a blackout game. It's an asymmetric game with a Seeker trying to find a bunch of Shadowlings. We played ... six rounds, I think, trying out different configurations. It's very different from other games in our collection, and we love it. EDIT 6/21/26 -- Read my review of this game.
The weather had largely died down. The power was still out. I think we gave up and went to bed around 2 AM.
(no subject)
Date: 2026-06-22 10:28 am (UTC)Sounds like you went through a pretty anxious time of it, are you doing ok emotionally?