EEEEK! Funnel clouds!!!

[Judy G. Russell]

Okay... enough is enough. This is NUTS. There aren't supposed to be tornados and funnel clouds in #$%@# Central New Jersey!!!

Today it's been dark and gloomy and raining and hailing and now this!

http://imgsrv2.intertechmedia.com/image/DbLiteGraphic/200605/51310.jpg
[image courtesy of WCBS News Radio]

ENOUGH!!!

[ndebord]

Okay... enough is enough. This is NUTS. There aren't supposed to be tornados and funnel clouds in #$%@# Central New Jersey!!!

Today it's been dark and gloomy and raining and hailing and now this!

http://imgsrv2.intertechmedia.com/image/DbLiteGraphic/200605/51310.jpg
[image courtesy of WCBS News Radio]

ENOUGH!!!

Judy,

If that's the image I think, then those were the funnels here in Bayonne!

[Karl Semper]

It only a small one from the appearance of that cloud.

[Judy G. Russell]

If that's the image I think, then those were the funnels here in Bayonne!Yup, they started over Elizabeth (and I drove right underneath 'em on my way in to NY Presbyterian today) and then were spotted just west of Bayonne! EEEEEK!!!

Last time (and the only other time) I saw a cloud like that, I was with a second cousin and his wife coming back from Lovington NM to Albuquerque NM after doing some family history research there in Lea County NM. (Our great grandfather spent his last years there as a Baptist minister.) I stared and stared and stared out the car window (as we drove on miles and miles of absolutely straight road through the desert) and finally asked, "Is that what I think it is?"

My cousin said, quietly, "Yup."

I swallowed. "What are we going to do about it?"

"Hope we can outrun it."

We did, but not by much. It touched down around Roswell, NM, just after we passed through...

[Judy G. Russell]

It only a small one from the appearance of that cloud.Anything bigger than an itty bitty baby dust devil is too big for me!!! Toto and me, we don't live in Kansas, Auntie Em!

[Dan in Saint Louis]

"Is that what I think it is?"
Greetings from Saint Louis............

[Judy G. Russell]

Another shot near Bayonne:

http://www.nj.com/hp/332/funnel.jpg
[NJ.com]

[Judy G. Russell]

Greetings from Saint Louis............Yeah but... but... but you CHOSE to live in Tornado Alley!

[ndebord]

Yup, they started over Elizabeth (and I drove right underneath 'em on my way in to NY Presbyterian today) and then were spotted just west of Bayonne! EEEEEK!!!

Last time (and the only other time) I saw a cloud like that, I was with a second cousin and his wife coming back from Lovington NM to Albuquerque NM after doing some family history research there in Lea County NM. (Our great grandfather spent his last years there as a Baptist minister.) I stared and stared and stared out the car window (as we drove on miles and miles of absolutely straight road through the desert) and finally asked, "Is that what I think it is?"

My cousin said, quietly, "Yup."

I swallowed. "What are we going to do about it?"

"Hope we can outrun it."

We did, but not by much. It touched down around Roswell, NM, just after we passed through...

Judy,

Scary, ain't it? I've already mentioned that one I saw as a kid in KS and how my grandfather did the same thing. Floored his big old Ford LTD.

As for that one in Rosewell...are you SURE it really was a Tornado?

;-)

[Mike Landi]

Another shot near Bayonne:

http://www.nj.com/hp/332/funnel.jpg
[NJ.com]

<shudder>

That would scare me...right to the bleach bottle for my laundry! Tornadoes are no fun. They occasionally, but unfortunately not "never", happen up here. When they do, the clouds are so dark, and sometimes are a sea-green color. Big maple and oak trees do not like tornadoes...neither do I!

[lensue]

>Today it's been dark and gloomy and raining and hailing and now this!<

Judy, I admit to asking for alot of rain but never those funnel clouds! Regards, Len [g]

[Judy G. Russell]

As for that one in Rosewell...are you SURE it really was a Tornado?I suppose it could have been a UFO landing, but I sure didn't see any little green men!!

[Judy G. Russell]

Sea-green is a good description. I swear I couldn't believe it this morning when I saw that sky. I kept thinking, "But we don't get tornados here!" Then I heard the news... Ulp...

[Judy G. Russell]

Judy, I admit to asking for alot of rain but never those funnel clouds!Yeah yeah yeah... It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!

[ndebord]

Sea-green is a good description. I swear I couldn't believe it this morning when I saw that sky. I kept thinking, "But we don't get tornados here!" Then I heard the news... Ulp...


Judy,

I don't know about sea green. My memory says an angry black green and an overpowering feel of nature taking over as the clouds come right on down to the ground and then...the funnel.


<shiver>

[ndebord]

Judy,

Hudson County, from 1950-1995 only had one reported tornado. That was on July 7, 1976 and it was only a F1 on the scale and nobody was injured, much less killed!

[Judy G. Russell]

Deep sea sea-green is a kind of black green. And yeah... Mother Nature was definitely Not Amused.

[Judy G. Russell]

Looks like the worst NJ has ever had is an F3 with 12 injured in Morris County in 1973. Second worst another F3 in Somerset County with 8 injured in 1990. By contrast, one F5 tornado in MO-IL-IN in 1925 killed 695 and injured 2027! The dead included roughly 70 schoolchildren whose schools collapsed...

[ndebord]

Deep sea sea-green is a kind of black green. And yeah... Mother Nature was definitely Not Amused.


Judy,

I didn't know that about deep sea green. Ya learns someting every day! As for tornadoes, well when I saw my first one, I was in KC, real tornado country, but growing up in Michigan, I was some 30-50 north of the end of what was then tornado alley. We saw lots of damage and lots of pictures of what ws happening just south of us In those days, tornadoes stopped in Flint. Now they come further north, as weather patterns have changed...just al little, no?

<wry grin>

[lensue]

>Yeah yeah yeah... It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!<

Judy, LOL! Well next week I'll make amends--it's supposed to be sunny and nice everyday! Regards, Len [g]

[Judy G. Russell]

deep sea greenTruth be told, it all depends on the light. The same water will appear blue or green or deep green depending on the light.

[Judy G. Russell]

next week I'll make amends--it's supposed to be sunny and nice everyday!Just try to deliver a nice bright sunny Memorial Day weekend, willya? My brother is coming up with his family...

[Jeff]

Judy,

I didn't know that about deep sea green. Ya learns someting every day! As for tornadoes, well when I saw my first one, I was in KC, real tornado country, but growing up in Michigan, I was some 30-50 north of the end of what was then tornado alley. We saw lots of damage and lots of pictures of what ws happening just south of us In those days, tornadoes stopped in Flint. Now they come further north, as weather patterns have changed...just al little, no?

<wry grin>

Nick, one spring day many many years ago I was in the middle of Kansas driving west on a dead straight county road. It was sunny where I was, but up ahead a bit there was a black wall in the sky. And down out of that wall came a funnel which touched down on the road I was on. I stopped and watched; it and me in a straight line maybe 10 miles apart. Absolutely fascinating, until the realization kicked in that it was still moving straight at me. I turned around and ran until the funnel withdrew up into the wall.

- Jeff

[Judy G. Russell]

Absolutely fascinating, until the realization kicked in that it was still moving straight at me.At which point I would have suffered a massive heart attack... or brown underdrawers... or both.

[Mike Landi]

You will never forget that color of the clouds. If you see that again, take cover!

[lensue]

>Just try to deliver a nice bright sunny Memorial Day weekend, willya? My brother is coming up with his family...<

Judy, it looks good if you believe these people:

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/forecast-15day.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&traveler=0&zipcode=07101&metric=0

No rain until June 2 after today. Regards, Len

[Judy G. Russell]

You will never forget that color of the clouds. If you see that again, take cover!I just went brain-dead when I saw it Friday. I couldn't believe that same color I saw out in New Mexico was also here. I won't do that again!

[Judy G. Russell]

No rain until June 2 after today.No rain isn't good enough! I want nice bright sunshine and early summer temperatures!

[lensue]

>I want nice bright sunshine and early summer temperatures!<

Judy, well what temperature do you want to be the high--I hope you're not going to demand 89 or 90 degrees! Regards, Len [g]

[Judy G. Russell]

what temperature do you want to be the high--I hope you're not going to demand 89 or 90 degrees!I said early summer, not dog days of August! I'll settle for low 80s.

[Mike Landi]

I just went brain-dead when I saw it Friday. I couldn't believe that same color I saw out in New Mexico was also here. I won't do that again!

If I saw clouds like that again, I probably would go brain-dead for a minute or two. Then I would grab the camera^H^H^H^H^H. <g>

[Judy G. Russell]

If I saw clouds like that again, I probably would go brain-dead for a minute or two. Then I would grab the camera^H^H^H^H^H. <g>Stupid me, stupid stupid stupid. I didn't have the camera with me. And I bought a little one just to have with me at all times. But I keep that in my briefcase, and since I was headed to the doctor's office, not the office office, didn't have my briefcase with me.

Then again I was so "this can NOT be THAT kind of cloud", I might not have thought of the camera anyway.

[Mike Landi]

I was so "this can NOT be THAT kind of cloud", I might not have thought of the camera anyway.

...or if you used it, you would have accidentally had it on "movie" and you'd have caught yourself yelling "HOLY SH*T!!!!" <g>

[Judy G. Russell]

...or if you used it, you would have accidentally had it on "movie" and you'd have caught yourself yelling "HOLY SH*T!!!!" <g>ROFL!!!

True story. Back about 100 years or so ago I was working for a lawyer who was representing one of two Soviet nationals indicted for espionage. The whole thing was a set-up by Naval Intelligence and the FBI and everything the spies did was captured on videotape, audiotape, or both. But occasionally the video and audio were captured separately. On one occasion in February 1978 the FBI was set up in a trailer near a bank of payphones on the Garden State Parkway waiting for the spies to show up, use the phones and leave a message for the American "spy" (a Naval Lt. Cdr. named Arthur Lindberg). The video was being captured from the trailer; the audio of any phone conversation by tapping the phones at that bank of payphones.

We got a copy of the full videotape in discovery before trial and sat down to watch it. We could see everything the agents monitoring the video could see and we could hear the agents as they talked to each other. At one point, it started to snow. And shortly thereafter a guy pulls up in a van and starts washing the windows of the phone booths. In the snow.

"HOLY SH*T!!!!" one agent said to the other. "It's GOT to be the f*ing CIA!"

One of the lighter moments in the trial...

[Mike Landi]

<g>

Let me guess, the Soviets did not show up that day....

[Judy G. Russell]

Actually, they did show up, and did use the phone. Turns out the window washer was... a window washer. A very conscientious "my contract says wash on THIS day and I wash on THIS day even if THIS day is during a blizzard" window washer.

[Mike Landi]

ROFL! Sounds like a government contract.

[Judy G. Russell]

ROFL! Sounds like a government contract.Oh good lord NO. With a government contract, it's more like: "My contract says to wash these windows on this day for this amount of money. But I'd rather do it on that day, and only those windows, and charge for it twice, and..."

[lensue]

>I'll settle for low 80s.<

Judy, give me the 70's any day!!! This weeks cool weather has been incredible but pretty great for working in the garden! Regards, Len [g]

[lensue]

>Turns out the window washer was... a window washer. <

Judy, what a story--this sounds like a something from that old comedy show Get Smart--remember that old TV series with Don Adams. Regards, Len

[Mike Landi]

ROFL!

[Judy G. Russell]

what a story--this sounds like a something from that old comedy show Get Smart--remember that old TV series with Don Adams. Yep. That case was a lot of fun to work on. An absolute dead loser from the outset (it's hard to win a jury case when there are video and audio tapes of your guy committing espionage), but enormous fun.

It also resulted in the first Soviet-for-Soviet swap the US ever engaged in. One of the conditions of the deal was that we withdraw our appeal to the Third Circuit -- a shame since I really think there was serious error at the trial level.

[Lindsey]

Okay... enough is enough. This is NUTS. There aren't supposed to be tornados and funnel clouds in #$%@# Central New Jersey!!!
I can go you one better: Imagine being on a JetBlue flight headed for Manhattan, turning on the DirectTV provided to each passenger to the NBC station and seeing warnings of that very same thing scrolling across the screen, effective up until the very time your plane is supposed to be landing...

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I would have been doing a lot worse than that!!!

[Mike]

Okay... enough is enough. This is NUTS. There aren't supposed to be tornados and funnel clouds in #$%@# Central New Jersey!!!
When I lived in oHIo, we built decoy trailer parks outside of town.

That seemed to work in most places, except for Xenia, which was hit twice, downtown, in 25 years!

[Judy G. Russell]

When I lived in oHIo, we built decoy trailer parks outside of town.ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!