歪歪漫画

Maybe it鈥檚 my poor memory or perhaps my deficient record keeping, but it seems like we are having another year of unusual and severe weather happenings.

Sure, things started out kind of quiet this spring. In fact, we were, for once in what seemed like a while, enjoying a longer-than-usual spring. It was a spring that actually happened. I liked it. In contrast, 2023 and 2022 seemed to go straight from winter to summer.

Then again, summer has been a mix of a blast furnace and a broken furnace, often seeing 40-degree shifts from one day to the next.

And those huge shifts have brought with them severe weather more often than not. I think I personally had at least four tornado watch alerts during the month of June. Even some came in May. I was lucky enough not to actually see a tornado or suffer the effects of one so far. But thanks to social media, we don鈥檛 have to miss anything. Seems like any tornado formation gets posted online, and with the recent high activity of tornadoes in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, I鈥檝e been seeing reports from more storm chasers than I ever knew existed.

I imagine the highways must be getting crowded by people heading toward these tornadoes rather than away from them. If they are helping provide early warning to residents, great. If they end up causing accidents in their chase, they are simply adding to the difficult work of emergency responders.

Perhaps my favorite post from one storm chaser in particular was on the last day of June, he announced he headed south because he felt the worst of the storms hitting the upper Midwest was probably over. I pray he is right.

We moved from our home in Verndale, Minnesota, not long after a tornado remodeled our entire landscape. It left our property rather devoid of trees, which was sad for anyone who cares about having trees as much as I do. We tend to shape our outdoor activities around those giant wonders. I know readers out on the open prairie love their wide open spaces, but I enjoy the shade and sounds of a mature grove of trees on a hot summer day.

Our current property is marked by damage from a tornado that passed through some 15 years ago. The large trees bear the scars and misshapen crowns of a powerful wind. Twisted metal from outbuildings can still be seen wrapped around trees nearby.

I know some places have had back-to-back damage this year from straight-line winds and tornadoes. That can be disheartening and scary. I鈥檝e been thinking that if this persists, home builders like my brother will have to start building underground bunkers, and not just for those who think the world is ending, but for those of us who think their home underground stands a better chance than one above ground. Of course, that鈥檚 not likely to happen here in swamp country, where much of my region lives where groundwater is just a few feet below the surface.

There have been worse times, I know.

Preliminary reports show that we鈥檝e notched 48 tornadoes in Minnesota this year. June 20 is a day many in our readership will remember for spawning tornadoes across a huge area of the northern Plains and Northwoods. Our average is 46 annually. But 2010 had 48 tornadoes in one day 鈥� June 17, 2010. That鈥檚 the most tornadoes in one day ever recorded in the state. That鈥檚 the day a tornado blew down my neighboring town, . Across the state, there were three fatalities, the most since . In that year, the infamous 鈥淣orthwoods鈥� outbreak killed 12 people with an F-4 rated tornado that had a surveyed width of 1-2 miles, according to the Minnesota DNR.

Meanwhile, North Dakota has racked up 34 preliminary tornado reports, the most since 2011.

In my research for writing this column, I came across one tidbit that I wish I had known before. It turns out, Otter Tail County, where I live, leads the entire state for the number of tornadoes recorded since 1950, by a long shot 鈥� 87 tornadoes on record.

Courtesy / Minnesota DNR

If anyone needs me, I鈥檒l be in the basement.