Natural Disaster Can't think of a way to calm my mind about tornadoes yet. it will happen soon

[littleoc]

Dreams about tornadoes are driving me crazy. I know what it means -- that the pressure is dropping were I am, or changing just enough that it will be.

Injuries caused by humans flare up suddenly. My body starts practicing for the worst.

I remember my kidnapper causally explaining that he saw a tornado nearby here once, but it didn't scare him. Realizing just now that he was probably fibbing.

I remind my body that the pressure dropping and feeling achy aren't sighs of a tornado. My scientific mind requires evidence -- a radar, the pressures around, the direction of wind, the speed of it, the thickness of clouds....

i really need sleep. A relaxed body survives a tornado better anyway. I no longer sleep with my shoes on when I hear the creaking of the house, responding to the pressure drop. I think I'm doing pretty well.

I love tornadoes so much, and thunderstorms. It's always the wind that gets me, the dark clouds, and seeing that I can't see which direction the tornado is going -- proving that it's coming right at us. But right now... there's not one.

I wish there were some way to cope with tornadoes like I can with humans. I love humans, I love dogs. I've been attacked and injured by both. I have human friends and I have service dog. I love them, and they haven't hurt me.

But all tornadoes can be dangerous. All grizzly bears I've seen I've carefully avoided. The cougar I saw didn't have at chance with me. The coyote pack I saw briefly were easily avoided.

Can't think of ways to avoid a cloud so big I can't see around it, can't see above it. Can't reason with it, can't outwit it, can't help it because it's just a feature of living on a planet - and living on a planet is nice.

 

[littleoc]

I woke up with a jolt before the storm arrived. I KNEW because of something, and I had dreamed it...

Finally I can see the lightning out my windows. No wind yet. Can't hear the thunder yet.

Slight rumbles come next. I'll love that, and have the urge to go outside and look at it, usually -- except at night, which it is now, because then the lightning will illuminate a tornado. I know it's not necessarily true though. The last time that happened was in... 2014. Two months before I joined this site officially.

Radar shows a thin line of storms, but unfortunately my body was right. The thickest clouds, the strongest part of the storm, will arrive right over my city in approximately thirty minutes, based on speed of the storm. The winds are currently going north.

Why is it bothering me? I love storms. But not at night, and not when I can feel it a certain way. I should discuss that in therapy, i suppose.

Meanwhile... who really needs sleep anyway :) reading to the rumbles will be relaxing

 

[littleoc]

Actually -- I recall that I love summer storms. Not spring storms.

Tornadoes excite me, but when I watch them in documentaries or any other resource, I have to turn the volume down so low that subtitles are required.

They're so beautiful. When I've seen them I've never been in a good position to stare and give them a thorough look-over. I keep looking for and wanting ways to see them closer, and understand them fully, but I'm somehow still unsatisfied. Maybe that's what's bothering me?



In any case, I can hear the thunder now. The lightning is flashing so frequently that it almost looks like a kid is shining a flashlight through my windows every few seconds. Kind of relaxing. Like he's across the pond/tiny lake, scanning with his light, not yet seeing that there's a house on the other side of it.

Unfortunately studying the radar didn't prove I can go to bed relaxed and enjoying storm sounds, as much. The risk is very, very small, but I do see a very thick, active spot on the loose. Not rotating, at least not yet, and I've noticed that most the time even when it does? Yes, we get the tornado warning from the National Weather Service -- but it doesn't necessarily ever touch down to earth. Most of the time they don't quite make it that far.

And, if I really try to help myself here... no matter how much data I have to use, I can't just assume there is or isn't danger. Why not enjoy the storm for a bit? If danger happens, I'll do whatever I can. I can't prevent a storm. Nor would I really want to (they're nice -- unless they've hurt crops... but that's not helpable either, so...)

 

[littleoc]

Okay... the storm rages on, but the front of the...front has moved by. So now it's just rain and lightning and thunder.

I can fall asleep to the rest of this. Good thing, too. Because now it's 4am. Oof.

If only it were easy to avoid danger like that. Then maybe I'd feel as fine as talking to humans. Most humans I've met after trauma have turned out to be pretty great. :P

 

[Gs172003]

Dreams about tornadoes are driving me crazy. I know what it means -- that the pressure is dropping wer...

Sweetie I get ya.

 

[frogthroat]

I think everybody has an assumingly weird mostly unrelated thing they connect to their trauma. I always feel slightly nauseated being around too much Micky and Minnie mouse or Winnie the Pooh stuff. It feels like when you have to go eat at the VFW after a funeral. I'm bad with naming visceral feelings. There's a feeling of danger and some weird nauseating uneasiness or anxiety with these things. It's really strange how the mind works even stranger that you can hold these seemingly innocuous things in your body. It kind of makes you wonder what we really are.
Hope you're okay through tornado season. It will be over before you know it.

 

[LuckiLee]

Hi @littleoc. I just looked up nightmares about tornados on the "dream dictionary" website. It was very interesting. It actually described what you're dealing with right now. Check it out. And then go study!!! Love ya!

 

[littleoc]

I think everybody has an assumingly weird mostly unrelated thing they connect to their trauma. I alw...

I definitely understand that... stollen street/interstate signs and wolf pictures (the kind people have on T-shirts and stuff) freak me out now, but they themselves didn't get at me

Hi @littleoc. I just looked up nightmares about tornados on the "dream dictionary"...

Thank you! And love you too! :)

 

[littleoc]

There will be a severe thunderstorm arriving tomorrow in my area. I'm watching it form on the radar and see trouble. But we'll just have to see.

For now... should be exciting!

Louisiana, not so much. I watched that storm develop -- not good. Caught the formation of several absolutely astonishingly huge rotations. Several confirmed to have touched down. The National Weather Service had many of the affected areas covered previously under "marginal risk" -- and I wouldn't exactly challenge them. They know what's up, and I had the same basic info they did, only I'm not a professional meteorologist. Although I'm always proud when I spot a rotation and then minutes later see that the NWS has issued a warning.

But it does make me more worried about my area. Tornado watchers driving through is obviously troubling and exciting at the same time.

We were in a tornado watch for tomorrow, issued two days ago, but the NWS and NOAA recently downgraded it to a severe thunderstorm watch. By which I suppose they mean heavy rain (flash flood possibility) and strong winds. I'm not sure if it's early enough to predict hail... I can't see the cloud thickness with wind yet.

Although maybe I just don't have as much data as funded professionals :)

Anyway. We shall see.

As for the six-mile-wide rotation -- I wonder at the accuracy of that, but hope that the tornado itself (if it even touched down) wasn't that huge.

I doubt it could be. That's a LOT of pressure. Our atmosphere isn't like Saturn's! :P

 

[littleoc]

This storm has multiple huge rotations.

It is very hard to study as it approaches. My body can sense it -- the lowering pressure, air going up and OUT of the house.

Ugh.

I will get through this. I can see exactly what time it will arrive and that it won't be TOO long. It'll be okay.

 

[littleoc]

The music that plays for the tornado alarms are so beautiful.

So is thunder.

Tornadoes are too, although I hope we can avoid that today!

 

[Friday]

I wish there were some way to cope with tornadoes like I can with humans. I love humans, I love dogs

You might consider storm chasing, storm photography, met degree / certs, disaster response, etc.? <<< Most of those are -at best- part time jobs, and most are gig-work. So you’d choose which storm systems you wanted to work, based on how you were feeling af the time. Ditto, choosing to work with experts in their field, rather than say running off half cocked or with a bunch of amateurs that don’t know what they’re doing / are terrible people to learn from (unless you like collecting bad habits, although personally, I like collecting forgeries / I have enough bad habits ;)).

Different avenues of bringing big weather into your life in a more controlled fashion?