You know you're from Tornado Alley...

[conestogo_flood]

You know you grew up in tornado alley if...

The first thing you do if you hear tornado sirens during the day is check your watch to see if it's noon.

You don't get worried unless the sky looks "green".

You use the word "tornado" as a verb.

You chuckle at all the facebook groups called "I survived the ___ tornado."

You might go indoors when there's a tornado, but you won't "seek shelter" for anything less than an F3.

You know what Doppler radar, Hook echo, wall cloud, and rain-wrapped all mean.

You've never exactly memorized the tornado precautions, but you've heard them enough times that you know them by heart anyway.

Watching the weather is entertaining. And red on the Doppler radar is exciting.

The phrase "Tornado on the ground, take your immediate tornado precautions" sends exciting shivers up your spine.

You've seen photos/videos of tornados and said, "Wow, that's a nice one!"

You can feel/smell tornado weather brewing a few hours before the storm actually begins.

There's an odd feeling as though you've misplaced something if you make it all the way to June without a tornado warning near you.

You think people that live in earthquake and/or hurricane prone areas are crazy.

You know what people are talking about when they mention the "May 3rd" tornado.

You watch the movie "Twister" just so you can point out all the inaccuracies in it.

You know your weathermen by their first names. i.e. Gary.

When you hear the tornado sirens go off, you go outside to watch the storm and take pictures.

Most of the tornado video footage comes from everyday people with camcorders instead of from actual news/weathermen.

You're sure there's a giant tornado magnet hidden somewhere in Moore. And that there are smaller ones distributed throughout trailer parks.

You know that the four seasons are actually: summer, late summer, winter (if you're lucky), and tornado.

You don't consider it windy until the windspeed is faster than 20mph.

You are highly entertained by people from outside tornado alley when there is a tornado watch. (Especially if you're the one who's visiting the other state.)

Your school has tornado drills. And you assumed that schools in every other state had them as well.

There's enough random stuff in your tornado shelter that you could live there for a year.

You stand under your carport or open your front door to watch hail and/or thunderstorms.

You know the difference between a basement, a cellar, and a storm shelter.

The weather is a completely acceptable subject for conversation, at any time, for any occasion.

Your local mall has "tornado shelter" signs posted.

It doesn't bother you the next day to find out that your area was under a tornado watch the night before and you had no idea. Unless, of course, it caused you to miss some interesting cloud formations.

Getting to "play" in the basement/cellar/storm shelter excites you or numbers among your favorite childhood memories.

You keep matches, candles, and candleholders in more than one place in your house.

Your town will never get hit by a tornado because you're between two rivers or because an old Indian legend says so.

You laughed at everything in this list, but you also respect a tornado's power. And you know that after it's over, clean-up and re-building has to begin.

[Aslkahuna]

Well, I'm not in the alley but I not only look out the door during thunderstorms and hailstorms, I videotape them. Also in Arizona it isn't windy until the winds exceed 30 mph.

Steve

[conestogo_flood]

Lol, yeah. I don't have to live in Tornado Alley either to penalize Twister. I think every weather buff owns that movie, but never watches it. And, when we do, we p. ourselves off.

[wx247]

Haha... that list is right on the money. I didn't realize most states don't have tornado drills though. They are a common occurence here.

[Ixolib]

I think I liked this one the most...

You think people that live in earthquake and/or hurricane prone areas are crazy.

[TexasStooge]

I'm from Tornado Alley as well.

[conestogo_flood]

Well, I live in Canada's tornado alley. Does that count, lol. We don't have sirens, or television mets or storm spotters. So I can't relate to a lot of those. But, people here do know the green skies, and take pictures of the clouds.

[DaylilyDawn]

Does living in the Hurricane alley count?

[HarlequinBoy]

Haha, that was amusing and pretty accurate.

[Miss Mary]

I think I'm in "the" alley. I know Xenia, OH (small town one hour north of Cincinnati) HAS to be. That town has been hit by tornadoes so many times........the 1974 one wiped out 75% of that town!

But I enjoyed that list. So true. I have checked my watch, so see if the siren is a test....

Edit....Wikipedia says Cincinnati is in Tornado Alley. Odd but I thought it was a continue swath/path, starting SW of here, going up east?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tornado_Alley.gif