Tornado Sirens, Hail, and a Parade Coming This Evening

It's been years since the sirens went off to warn of a possible tornado, here in Sauk Centre. Now, we've gone to the basement twice in one week.


Clouds, looking northwest from the corner of South Ash and Ninth in Sauk Centre. July 17, 2010, about 1:20 p.m.


Look closely: those cars have their lights on. July 17, 2010, about 2:12 p.m.


The wind had picked up. Right after taking this picture, I decided to go inside. July 17, 2010, about 2:19 p.m.

Then, around 2:26 p.m., I heard the sirens and the family and I went to the basement.


Most of the hailstones were around the size of pea gravel. This was the largest I saw. July 17, 2010.


It's not as large as it looked from the top: this hailstone was rather flat. July 17, 2010.

I hope the folks who were in town for Sinclair Lewis Days were able to get in out of the hail. And, that the weather clears up for the Sinclair Lewis Days parade, starting just over three hours from now.

I'm planning to webcast the parade on Small Town America: Minnesota (no sound, but you'll get a good view of the parade).

Related posts:

• "Another Tornado Warning"
  (July 17, 2010)
• "A Tornado Warning, a Hard Drive, Frustration, and a Hummingbird"
  (July 14, 2010)

Another Tornado Warning

Another tornado warning's out for this area - the strongly rotating storm seems to be going past Sauk Centre.

More at Tornado Warning | Statement as of 1:58 PM CDT on July 17, 2010, Wunderground.com.

Towns affected include

• Long Prairie
• Little Sauk
• Grey Ealge
• North Shore
• Burtrum

Mostly north and east of here.

A Tornado Warning, a Hard Drive, Frustration, and a Hummingbird

Sometime after 2:00 this afternoon I saw gray sky out the living room window. Stepping closer, I saw a spectacular thunderhead growing.



I put more photos in today's post of the Sauk Centre Journal Blog.

We heard that a tornado had been sighted east of Glenwood - maybe 20 miles east of us.

Then, right around 3:00 p.m., the sirens went off and my wife, kids (the two at home) and I walked to the basement. No real rush - but we didn't dawdle, either.

Eventually the sirens stopped, we went up stairs, and watched a whole lot of rain come down.

We didn't even get hail. Not that I noticed, anyway.

Can't say I'm disappointed.

Other than that, I've been having a frustrating time finding stuff to clear off my hard drive. It feels a little like bailing out a cruise ship with a five-gallon bucket: lots of work, and not much to show for it. Objectively, I know that I cleared a little over a gigabyte of memory. Oh, well.

I remember when a 30-megabyte hard drive was huge. Actually, I remember when hard drives of any size were cutting-edge technology.

Hummingbirds have definitely discovered the feeder. Just before I started writing this post one came - fueling up for the night, I suspect.