Friday's TOR-CON....again....sheesh.

This crud (insert more colorful word) is really driving me truckin' crazy! (Hope that inuendo isn't too strong for M-squared) We had close calls Tuesday with 5 confirmed tornado touchdowns within 100 miles of my house. We've had two in STL already this year...which is beyond rare in a bigger city. And, I'm as sick of this weather as I was the snow this winter. My goodness, will it EVER go away? It's happening so frequently, I'm about to bookmark the darned page for easy reference. But, here we go in the Midwest, and parts south, with another round of severe outbreaks.

The guys in bold have already had close calls this week, and are in the bullseye again. Why don't the weathermen miss THESE forecasts like they do snow and temperatures? Here's to hoping the weathermen become umpires for a day.

Next week, we are supposed to start flooding in the lower Midwest now. I don't know about other parts of the region. Please add a thread if flooding, or significant weather, is going to be a problem for your area. I know the folks up north are starting to get their annual snowpack flooding. Hope y'all stay above water up there! And, we already know that "manure" rolls downhill....so yet more "manure" heading our way. Wheeeeeeeeee!

Forecast for Friday, April 22


AR north - 4 to 5
IA southeast -3 to 4
IL west-central - 7
IL northeast - 3 night
IL east-central - 5
IL south - 5 to 6
IN south - 5
IN central - 4
IN north - 3 to 4 night
KS east and south-central - 4
KY west - 4 to 5
KY central - 3 to 4
MI south - 2 to 3 night
MO east - 7
MO central - 6
MO west - 5
OK central - 4
OK northeast - 4
TX north near Wichita Falls, Abilene - 3
other areas - 2 or less

Keep posting these.

As someone who loves history and weather, I have learned these things cycle. I remember the weather in IL as a kid, springs were bad, winters were harsh. Then as a teen before moving down south they tapered off. They had a decade of mild weather, then harsh, now it's bad again. I have discovered one of my favorite things to do is sit in the coffee shop and evesdrop on old men's conversations about the weather, and how it cycles, although they don't call it that. We are smack dab in the middle of a bad cycle of hurricane season too, so that means once spring is over here, and June 1 shows up (I thought we had until September-geeze) things could get wet here.

Those of you in the Lower South and Coastal regions living near rivers, especially the Mississippi, need to keep an eye on rainfall in the north. Cairo IL gets slammed this time of year, as it's near where the Mississippi and Ohio meet, it all heads south to New Orleans. The Red River is high this year too, we are near it, that's one river you don't mess with, it's nothing but sand bars underneath it, and they are constantly moving.

I am in Central OH and we have 2-4 inches of rain predicted by tomorrow; that is after two inches in the past two days! I have only one planting of greens, radishes and chard in so far. It has been way too wet to even plant!

We are hanging out in the basement now. Reports of a tornado at Lambert which is less than 1/2 mile north of us.

soccermom, go to kmov.com or fox2now.com and get on their streaming video when/if your satellite goes out. i sit and watch these relentlessly when weather rolls through. being in the basement is great, but it's always nice to have eyes on the skies while you hunker down.

my wife just got in the shower....she's been waiting for an hour and a half for these storms to blow over. now, i'm just waiting for the baseball game to start....hopefully...lol.

you ohioans realize the reds and cards are tied now, right?? hehehe. big series this weekend.

oh, by the way, the airport has confirmed damage to concourse c and concourse 1.....glass blown out. there is also a cool picture on channel 4 that shows a shuttle on a concrete wall hanging over the top of the parking garage. and, fox2's dave murray was telling people in the studio to get under cover....he said he would go under his desk and broadcast from there if need be. edit: EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO LAMBERT AIRPORT.....EMERGENCY VEHICLES EVERYWHERE AND MINOR INJURIES INSIDE THE AIRPORT. THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY HIT BY SOMETHING. FRIDAY BEFORE EASTER WEEKEND....LOTS OF TRAVELERS COMING THROUGH THE AIRPORT AT THAT TIME.

st ann reports tornado at 834pm with tractor trailers standing on end.

st ann and the airport are pretty close to jymarino....i hope she's ok.

I had fox 2 streaming on the lap top while we waited. I am in St. John which is directly on the south west of highway 70 at 170 we did not even get any wind. The airport to the north west of the highways had the damage as reported by Backyard. This weather is really crazy. Looks like next week will be just as strange.

TWC is now covering STL. They are trying to assess the damage. You would think STL is the new Edmund/Moore, OK....or Greensburg/Andover, KS....by the way we've been getting hit. Granted, they are all small tornadoes when compared to the previous 4 I just mentioned, but too close for comfort all the same.

The FAA website has just posted, as part of it's delays, that the STL airport is closed due to tornado damage and the reopening date and time is currently unknown.

That statement has never been uttered on that website before.

We didn't have wind down here, either. On New Year's Eve, the Sunset Hills tornado missed us by less than a mile, and we never had a wind gust over 20mph. In fact, the power poles on Watson Rd that snapped were less than 1/2 mile from my house.

Here are a few pictures I took in Sunset Hills...





Here is the one of the power poles 1/2 mile from my house...

Wow, glad you are alright.