4 Seasons of North Dakota

The four seasons of ND you should know about:
1. Winter- and lots of it. Typically lasts October-March
2. Flooding. Lasts through April.
3. Mosquitos. Lasts May-August? September?
4. TORNADO. Lasts June-July-August? TBD

June 17th was our very first experience with tornado warnings.
We were headed to run errands but realized we forgot the Red Box we needed to return. We decided to go grab it and then run the errands. Upon crossing the bridge to our apt, we heard sirens...we thought it was the trains at first.
We got home and turned on the radio..."Severe weather and tornado warnings for Grand Forks County". I'll admit I panicked a little...I thought tornado season was a joke here. Not to mention I had no idea what you're supposed to do in a tornado warning (go in the basement if you have one or stay in a room with no windows). All in all, things were ok. We stayed inside (well Steven explored a little) and everything ended up being just fine. There was a mini storm that hit first, followed by a torrential downpour. Then, it was time for the huge part of the storm to pass through. This brought on more rain than I've ever experienced before, hail almost as big as golf-balls...and then sunshine.
Here are my crappy BB pictures because our cameras were both dead.

The hail:


Later that same day:


In less than 2 hours, it came, got worse, and then left. There were a few touchdowns and a lot of funnel cloud sightings. Our city was ok, but there is a small town out by the air force base that got hit and a town in MN just across the border. This town got the worst of it...a gas station was destroyed as well as some homes and a few fatalities. I tried finding the article on our city web page, but they archive them after a week. I think the two that actually touched down in MN were considered E-4.

What really amazed me was all the idiots who were outside watching the funnel clouds and then calling into the radio station. Seriously I think in the 2 hours I was listening to the radio station, the DJs probably had to say something like "Make sure you're safe first and then call in with information" over a hundred times.

We were supposed to have a huge storm with tornado warnings last week, but that didn't happen. Maybe June 17 will be our only way to experience tornado season.