We're good, had a handful of relatives and two cats show up for safety (they live near Bethany.) They just left. We've gotten over four inches of rain, have had to pump excess out of pool so it doesn't overflow into the house. Small hail and not much of it. Worst problem was one cat scratched the other's eye when they were locked in the pantry together.

Just came in from the shelter. All is well here in Newcastle. Just TONS of rain. If the rain will let up even just a little bit I want to go out and look at the gauge. It's gotta be at least 4 inches so far.

I am safe...and I hear Sharon is too.

Lisa

I can't yet talk about what happened to my DD and GD tonight. I am too mad and frustrated. Let's just say a couple of weather stations put a lot of people in danger tonight. A local fire dept. refused to assist an elderly gentleman with a heart condition as well WHO was stuck in flood waters up to his car's doorknob. we are all safe, but it's gonna take awhile to calm down. These are the stories I doubt you will hear on the news.

Checking in from NE Norman. I've really got to get some more comfortable furnishing for my fraidy hole...and I maybe should have gotten a bigger one. Mom, Mom's BFF, sis & hubby & 2 boys were down in the hole with us!

I've also been in touch with Tigerdawn. She rode it out in her new cellar too.

Will assess any damages tomorrow. Praying everyone is safe and sound.

Paula

I did hear reports early on of news media telling people to get out of okc. Its a tragedy. And very frustrating. I am so sorry and sad for everyone who has been affected by this.

E

We are safe but still have severe storm warnings in the NE part of the State. No tornado warnings now, but a constant roar of thunder in the distance. We haven't been in any danger in Grove.

My son, near Copan, has been pumping water out of his basement for two days, but the good news is that the tornado missed him.

Carol, according to the future radar i watched, you and i both will be having heavy thunderstorms until the wee hours of the morning. Im hoping they only stay as rain, and do not go tornadic. Im still under a tornado watch until Midnight. Luckily my house in Grove is up high and wont flood, but i worry about tree damage.

Stay safe and let me know what happens in Grove if you have the time tomorrow. Im near Honey Creek marina. Just one cove over from Courthouse And two over from woodard if you know where those are.

I swear i know that town better on the lake than i do on land......

Yes...I am fine, as are Katie and Greg - we hunkered down in the basement area of Baptist Hospital...we and 100s of our closest "friends"...it was as good as that sort of thing can be.
I thought of Leava and her hubby throughout the afternoon and evening - they live in El Reno. Has anyone heard from them??

Sharon

Well we had a tornado warning in Grove and two neighbor families joined us in the shelter. The rotation was to our southwest but since it was across the lake and headed straight for Grove, we didn't take a chance. Nothing else headed our way at the moment.

Larry, Get prepared, they are headed your way.

We are okay in far ne Cleveland county. We loaded up the cat and the dog in the junker car and headed south. Got home about an hour ago...no power, tons of downed branches, and the yard is a lake. There were dozens of abandoned cars on the side of harrah road, so things must have been icky. But, the house and standing! I will have to wait until tomorrow to check the garden and the rest of the yard.

Power likely is out near Leava's, but I'm just guessing about that. We saw lots of power flashes on storm chaser video as the storms rolled through there.

Glad to hear from all of you so far.

You folks in NE and E OK watch out. Your weather isn't going to quiet down any time soon.

I don't even want to think about tomorrow yet, y'all, but remember that our multi-day severe weather outbreak is supposed to continue on Saturday.

I wonder when we can get back to talking about gardening? Maybe on Saturday as discuss how to save plants from perpetually flooded gardens.

It is June 1st now. Maybe June's weather will be kinder than May's was.

Dawn

So far, so good here on the Ar/Ok. line. The weather man talks tike that might change before morning, but still expecting most of the rough stuff to pass north of us.

Larry

Larry, It seems to have taken a left turn so you may not get any of it. I wouldn't trust it just yet, but it is looking better for you.

I left for Houston Friday morning around 7 AM.

Haven't talked to my neighbors yet, to see what the area and my house look like.

About to start another "epic ride", with Jenn from Houston, and Mel.

You can find out more about it at the link below.

Glad to read, that all went as "well as could be" for everyone.

Moni

Here is a link that might be useful: riding across Texas and half of Oklahoma

I still have to get out and look around. But apparently we had no damage, here, at all. We don't have a shelter yet, and it was a very "exciting" night. At least at some point the wind reversed direction, blowing directly into our bedroom window, which is very unusual.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Safe in Midwest City, the tornado that passed over TAFB was 3-4 miles south of us. 7inches of rain or more, no severe wind or hail damage but all of the tomatoes and peppers I have in buckets are standing in water, Will be bailing water out of them shortly.

Keith

Here in Pink/Tecumseh area we are fine. We have huge tree branches down. We had some damage to the chicken run and fencing. The most devastating to me is the almost total lost of my garden. I grew everything out there from seed. I babied and coaxed them along and I was about to get the payoff. I had squash and cucumber just starting to grow, Huge tomatillo, tomato and pepper plants, green beans and corn, among others. All gone! Not a leaf left. Just some sad holey stalks.
I keep reminding myself that my house and family are safe and well, but I shed a few tears for my garden.

Fine here in Cushing, some tree limbs down & parts of town lost power for awhile. A friend & I had spent the morning volunteering at the Art from the Heart event (free art activities) at the Moore Library, I am glad we left when we did! So, thanks to the lure of Big Truck Taco & TLC greenhouse we didn't have to drive through any weather to get home.

It is wonderful to see so many folks checking in and letting us know how they fared. I hope the folks we haven't heard from yet are still sleeping, are busy or are waiting for power to be restored.

Keith, I was especially concerned about you, Peg and Freckles when that storm was approaching TAFB. I am so glad y'all are okay. It sounds like you got a lot of rain.

Jenny, I am so sorry to hear that your garden has suffered so much damage. Weather damage is a constant issue here in our beautiful state. Clean up the mess and give the plants a chance to recover. As long as the ground isn't so flooded that the roots die, plants that are beaten back to the ground by heavy rain, hail, wind or some combination thereof often will rebound quickly. Corn won't rebound if its growing tip was damaged, but most other stuff will at least try to rebound.

Most of what you might have lost can be directly seeded into the garden now if you want to do that. When I have a storm wipe out a garden, if there is something I think won't rebound, I will replant some things and, when I do, I plant each new plant or seed in between two decimated plants. That way, the old plants that are damaged have a chance to regrow since I am not yanking them out of the ground, if they can, while the new seeds are sprouting. If all the new seeds sprout and all the old plants regrow, I have the happy task of thinning plants out instead of sitting there with bare soil.

Luckily, we have a long frost-free period here so can start over again after weather knocks us upside the head.

I know it is sad to look at a damaged or destroyed garden, but it happens to all of us at one time or another, and none of us here are going to let the weather force us out of gardening. We Oklahomans are very resilient people. With the weather we have here, we have to be tough and determined to start over....one more time.

Betty, I am so glad y'all got out of Moore.

I cannot be the only person who sat here and watched these storms last night and said to myself "Not Moore. No. No. No. No. No. How much more can one community bear?" It isn't that I wanted the storms to veer away from Moore and hit anyone else either....I wanted them to evaporate into thin air.....but to see areas hit again so soon after the earlier tornadoes and severe thunderstorm damage just seems incredibly unfortunate.

Dawn

ok here. I live about 1/2 mile from Tinker AFB and it was a close one. Got a hole in the roof and the garden is just gone. But we are ok and that is what matters.

Were are OK in glenpool. friends and family in OKC are OK. I can't believe all the rain in OKC

Mike

Jenny, I sent you an e-mail via Gardenweb. Let me know if you don't receive it.

George

Nothing notable happened here in Tishomingo yesterday, either. Except that it was rather hot & humid, & we got some rain overnight & early this morning. We have had so much rain here that we're under flood advisory. After the severe droughts, it's rather strange to see flood warnings & rivers running out of their banks. We haven't seen that here in about 3 years.

Very glad that most folks seem to be okay & able to check-in. I was watching TWC yesterday, while they were streaming live, & thinking of so many of you that were in the paths of these storms.

~*Natasha*~

Natasha, I was watching the storms in Garvin County last night and wondering if they were going to make it all the way to yall. I certainly was hoping they would weaken before they got there.

We have the same flood warnings y'all have, but the rain is mostly staying north and east of us, so at our house there certainly is no flood risk.

I was watching TWC too, and my son was up there chasing tornadoes (he was so smart when he was a kid, but nowadays I think his brain has fallen out of his head) and I was a nervous wreck on his behalf. I was feeding him radar, watch and warning data, etc. as he chased tornadoes but what I really wanted to do was get a hammer and pound some sense into his head. We just don't get enough severe weather here to feed his adrenalin so he goes out looking for trouble. I prefer to stay home and hide from the weather trouble before it arrives at our house.

As the storms progressed, names of the folks in each area popped up in my head so I was engaged in 'mass worrying' from a distance. I hate this weather and wish it would go away and let everyone get on with the recovery and let life get back to normal. I cannot imagine the psychological trauma experienced by so many people last night after all that has happened in recent weeks. Storm-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a real thing, and I bet it is being experienced at high levels in this state.

Dawn

Thank you Dawn for the encouraging words. That really helped me. I'm gonna try what you suggested.

George, I got the email and replied. Thank you so very much!

I'm glad everyone is okay so far.
I hope everyone else's garden is still thriving. I love to come on the forum and read how things are growing. I love to see the pictures as well.

Jen

Jenny, I have lots of seeds I could mail you if you send me a message with your address and wish list. If you want to come to okc or meet midway I could get you some divisions of garlic and perennial flowers.

Jenny, I have lots of seeds I could mail you if you send me a message with your address and wish list. If you want to come to okc or meet midway I could get you some divisions of garlic and perennial flowers.

Dawn, thanks for worrying about me! I was also keeping a close eye on the Garvin County storms & hoping they wouldn't make it down here. They didn't. When there's even a chance of overnight tornadoes, I cannot go to sleep. I stay up & watch & listen & obsess. I'm very weather aware & prepared, but I wish I had an underground shelter. Even though idiots *cough* I mean people around here swear that Tish will NEVER get hit b/c we're in a valley, I don't believe that bull for a second.

I'm very pleased to see the rivers & creeks flowing so full, but hoping that people stay safe with the flood waters. Our immediate area has gotten enough rain to flood things, but Washita River also rises when OKC gets rain. And they've gotten a lot lately, so I'm betting that Washita is out of its banks today. Blue River & Pennington Creek, although they don't have as large of a drainage area, I'm sure are full, if not overflowing, as well.

Your son sounds like my husband! LOL. He is an adrenaline junkie that loves to stay outside & video the storms. May 20th, for example, our tornado sirens were sounding & where was my hubby? ON THE ROOF FOR A BETTER VIEW...*rolls eyes with facepalm* I'm of the same mind as you. I want to go hide until it's all over with, but because I'm so worried about my insane husband, I end up running in & out fussing at him. Perhaps we should team up with some hammers? ;-)

I was also engaged in some mass worrying from a distance, but I'm a natural-born worrier. As I watched things unfold, I was praying that all our fellow GW members in the path were safe (not just them, but all in the path). This has been a very rough month for our state.

I'm sure that many people will be suffering from PTSD from the storms. Hearing that Moore was sounding their sirens again yesterday made my hair stand on end, imagining what those poor folks must be feeling. I can only hope that June is not as bad as May has been.

~*Natasha*~

I am fine on the AR/OK line. My garden is beat up from the wind and rain, many onions are laying down and the corn is leaning, but its too small to get great damage.

My youngest granddaughter was over to help me Thur., and then left for a mission trip to the Moore area Fri. to help there. I was concerned for her safety, but proud of her big heart. She will be back by Tue., she takes care of her very ill father two days a week. I think that is pretty good for a young lady that Is not old enough to legally drive.

Jenny, I have plenty of seeds also, just let us know what you need.

Larry

Jenny - Too many seeds here, so I would be happy to help.

Larry - I sure was glad to see that the storm took a left turn before it got to you because coming across Eufala it looked really nasty and just continued to build.

I was glued to my computer. My daughter, in Tuttle, started for a tornado shelter and saw a funnel, so they turned around and went to Chickasaw until the storm ended. My son has been pumping water from his basement for a couple of days and more water fell on him last night along with a tornado just a few miles away. I have 2 monitors on my computer and I was watching central Oklahoma on one and northeastern Oklahoma on the other. When it finally became apparent that their areas were clear, our neighbors began to call to see if I thought we were in danger. Just as I hung up the phone, a rotation feature appeared across the lake from us and they issued a tornado warning for Grove. I was just preparing to call the neighbors when I saw flashlights coming across the road, and another family was here by the time that couple got inside. I kept watching the storm, but finally said, "OK, it's time." We all went to the shelter for awhile. Better safe than sorry.

Those storms were just relentless last night. They would stay in one place for so long, or move only a short distance, and begin a rotation. It seems that all I did yesterday, and well into the earlier morning hours was monitor the storms. I hope the storms ended with the month of May, because they have just been crazy.

My garden looks like a jungle and it is too wet to work. Each time I go into the garden, I pull a handful of something and give to the chickens. We didn't get to eat many of the salad greens this year, but the chickens don't mind the fact that they are bolting and have flowers on them. LOL

I have a neighbor that loves poke sallat and lets it grow in his yard. Every year I try to catch it when it first comes up in my garden, but with all of the rain I wasn't able to keep up with it. It is just awful this year, and I am feeding it to the chickens everyday. They don't seem to mind that it hasn't been boiled and drained, boiled and drained, boiled and drained to remove all of the bad stuff, but I have no intention of eating it. Then I have wandering jew, and grass, it is all just a mess.

I planted a 16 foot double row of Sugar Snap Peas and although it is June, the plants look great and are just now blooming. They all have the normal white blooms except for one plant. The plant looks exactly like the rest, but the bloom is dark purple.

I planted all intermediate day length onions and they are just now starting to bulb. One bed has been blown around a little too much and they are laying over a little, but they all look healthy and none have bolted so far.

Has anyone heard from Dorothy and Dana? Dorothy's town was mentioned over and over last night as the storm moved across that area.

We just got our power restored here. I live in the northern part of MWC, almost to Spencer. We were scared when the tornado was headed towards Tinker AFB. All we got was some hail and lots of rain.

I've lived in this house for 12 years and this is the first time our power was out for more than a couple of hours. I think we took that for granted for too long so today we are buying more flashlights, a weather radio, etc.

I went to check my garden first thing in the morning because of all the hail. The few spinach and lettuce plants I had left are destroyed. My bigger established plants overall look pretty good. A few broken branches and few knocked off fruit/blossoms. Some of my smaller peppers look pretty beat up but I think they will recover.

Cynthia

Jenny, I have oodles of seeds too. If you need seeds (and you know that a lot of the good varieties are sold out in some stores by now), just post a thread of seeds you'd like and I bet a bunch of us can send you some.

Carol, I haven't heard from either Dana or Dorothy. Did Dorothy's area get hit hard? Does anyone know? Maybe it is a power issue. I heard there's still lots of power lines down in many storm-hit areas.

I hope SeedMama is okay. She hasn't been online much since she started her new job. Maybe Paula has heard from her and will let us know.

It is not as wet here as in much of OK, so I am about to head out to the garden to transplant a lot of verbena bonariensis and Laura Bush Pink petunias from the old front garden, where they relentlessly pop up everywhere, to the new back garden, which still has plenty of space.

Carol, June is starting out nice and cool and rainy. The last time we had a year like that, it was a great June for Sugar Snap Peas. Mine are already done here, out of the ground, and replaced with hot weather stuff, but yours might have a great month there if it will still cool and cloudy a while and not start hitting 100 degrees too early.

The pea with the dark purple bloom sounds lovely. It will be interesting to see if the pods it produce are tinted pinkish or purpleish.

I have been pulling out lettuce every day and giving it to the chickens and am down to only a handful of plants in one of the tubs. They will eat it long after it has bolted, but then they eat bugs....so they aren't real picky, are they?

Considering what a long and wild weather night it was, I think we're lucky so many of our forum members have had a chance already to post their status. I hope others will do so whenever they are able.

Larry, My short day onion necks began softening and falling over about two weeks ago, which seemed a little early, but it is what it is. Now the first of the three intermediate day length varieties is doing the same thing. I guess it will be time to harvest soon, though it seems too early. On the other hand, it is June already.

The wind blows my corn over, and then in a couple of days it straightens itself up and then the wind blows it over again and it straightens itself back up again. I've never seen the corn knocked over so many times in one year.

Some of the potatoes (the early varieties) are starting to act like they are done too. It also seems too early for that. Maybe my sense of timing is off because we stayed cold for so long or something.

You must be very proud of your granddaughter. She sounds like a very loving and compassionate person. I am sorry her father's illness is so severe. Y'all have had such a rough time with illness the last few years and I keep hoping he'll miraculously get better.

Dawn

Jenny, I emailed you and put a package in the mail today. Good luck!

We're okay here in Foyil/Talala area. I don't think it dropped that tornado until it made it up near Chelsea. Was exciting watching the storm chasers flying down my road though!

My garden faired okay but I think my Nectarine tree needs some support now :-( But I'm so thankful we're still here and well.

I'm sorry to hear people have house and garden damage. But it's good to hear everyone checking in

We're fine here in Blanchard. The storms stayed mostly north of us, so we only got about an inch of rain, some small hail, and about 30 minutes of gusty wind. I had to stay home with the baby, so my husband went out chasing alone. I was worried about him and for good reason. He was stuck in gridlock traffic not far from where the storms chasers were blown off the road by the tornado north of Union City. He's strongly considering retiring from chasing.

We actually left before the storm and made it out of the metro before it got really bad. Traffic was starting to slow on 35 when we were heading out so I'm glad we made it. We're spending the weekend in Dallas with the inlaws and I don't think that there will be much damage in Edmond when we return.

I have had 3.3 inches of rain since Wed. I didn't have any scary thunderstorms but there was a tornado warning for my county about midnight so I was in the basement with the dogs for a while. No water in the basement thank goodness.

Power is back on here (newalla). We lost one oak tree (it was actually my favorite tree of about 1 million in my yard), the okra and tomatillos are a total loss, but most of the garden is going to be okay. We have a peach tree that took a hit, but that dh wants to try to save, so I may be asking questions about tree salvaging in the next few days. I hope we hear from the others soon!
Krista

P-mac chiming in for Seedmama!!! She's fine...I talked with her several times last nite. They took shelter about the same time we did. I spoke with her right before. She sent me a text when they came out. They did loose power but Seedpapa was off starting the generator...they're safe.

I thought I saw Dorothy post on another thread....maybe it was before the storms. I'm hopeful that since George is okay...so is she.

Paula

Ok here. I learned that my son had installed storm warning on my cell phone at 12:40 last night when it went off, waking us up. Then 10 minutes later daughter who lives east of Stilwell called and said, "Go to the pumphouse." But we didn't, stayed inside for the next hour and watched. Had a scary moment when they named a small store on Hiway 51 a couple miles straight north of us and said it looked like a small funnel was forming over it. With no cellar or storm shelter all we could do was pray--or go to the pumphouse, built on a slab, to get out of mobile. No damage in garden and only .8 inch in guage. I recorded that in June's column and added up May's rainfall, exactly 8 inches. My parents, also east of Stilwell, had no damage. Haven't heard from daughter today so assume no news is good news. (She had already been having cell phone trouble, so am hoping that is why she isn't picking up.)

So glad to hear from everyone who has checked in. So sorry for those whose gardens took a hit. It's not too late to buy plants or direct seed though, so that's fortunate. If it had happened in a couple more weeks there may not have been any tomato or pepper plants to buy.

I think it's time to invest in a storm cellar.

Leava and her family are fine (although their power was out last night) - her daughter responded on Facebook and said that most of the damage was south of them in El Reno.
Good news!

Sharon

We are fine in northwest OKC, just wet and very tired of weather. Everyone on this site is so nice to check with everyone else.

Dorothy - so GLAD to hear you all are okay. And Sharon - thank you for the news that Leava and Jeff are okay also. And really, really, REALLY happy to hear that every other of our "famlly" is okay too.

Do ya wanna know how far our family reaches? I had a message from Chandra (now in Amman, Jordan) on FB...telling me he was glad we were safe. That speaks VOLUMES.

Hugs to all. And SO VERY happy we have a relatively quiet, storm-free nite!

Paula

Thanks for posting this thread as I wondered about everyone!

Stay safe.

mullberry;
We have an old storm shelter. It's old. It's icky. It needs to be cleaned and sealed up. It's a good size: 9' tall and 12' long and 6' wide after stepping down about 30 feet into ground. It has sunken deep after all the years. Hard to keep water out of it. I'll be sealing it up and Bill making modifications to the drain this summer.

BUT AM SO GRATEFUL IT WAS THERE LAST WEEK when me and my little ones hunkered down into it. A couple inches of water meant nothing when that tornado came near. It's deep enough to hide them from an F5.

*hugs*

Heather, Hey, welcome back and congratulations on the birth of your child. I hope y'all are doing well. I am glad your husband didn't get flipped, rolled and injured like some of the guys on The Great Tornado Hunt team. I was watching TWC when all that was happening in real time and it was scary, especially when you looked at the storm chaser map and there were several dozen right there in that area. It is amazing only a few chasers got hit hard enough to damage their vehicles.

Reed, Y'all got out of town in the nick of time. By the time y'all were driving through southern OK, the highways in central OK were in total gridlock.

Dorothy, You'll never regret putting in a storm cellar. Even though there are some years we don't go to it at all (yay!), this year I have been in it several times. I don't think we've ever had as many tornado warnings in our county as we've had in 2013. Just having the shelter gives me peace of mind when the weather is severe.

Everyone in our family has weather aps on our phones and we get warnings. I like that, although it must have been a shock when your phone woke you up since you didn't know that ap had been installed.

Our May rainfall was almost identical to yours and most all of it fell in the last 10 or 12 days of the month. Our mesonet station got 4" more than us in May, but I wouldn't have wanted 4" more right now because the garden's lower end is too wet as it is now.

Paula, Thanks for the update on Seedmama. It is amazing Chandra was watching the weather and aware of all this from so far away. Once someone belongs to this gardening family, though, they belong forever---even when they move half a world away.

Bon, In recent years having a storm check-in thread has become pretty much standard procedure. It is impossible to talk to everyone here regularly and not know/care if they are okay when severe weather is occurring. When I am watching storms in other parts of the state, I always am thinking of the forum members who live in that area.

It always is such a relief to have everyone check in.

That sounds like an amazing storm shelter in terms of size and depth. I have seen one here like that and a couple of years ago they cleaned it up and fixed it up a little so it wouldn't be so icky. It is in a small community in NW Love County and serves as a community shelter. It isn't as deeply underground as yours, but is a nice big size.

Sharon, Thanks for the update on Leava.

Deb4tune1912, I am tired of this weather too. Maybe things will quiet down now that June is here. It would be perfect if the weather would stay cool and mild so we all can catch our breath, clean up our gardens and just be able to enjoy being outdoors for a few days without having to flee threatening weather.

Dawn

I am glad to hear everyone is safe. Y'all have been in my thoughts and prayers. This weather has been wild this year.
We had "something" right by house/school the other day. Some called it a tornado some called it a giant dirt devil. Whatever it was it sent everyone underground except me cuz I was napping.

Jen I hope you get your garden back up and running. It is hard to watch all your hard work lost. maybe like Dawn said some of it will come back on its own.
I know my peppers came back with attitude after being shredded by the wind and the one I fell on the other day, sheared it off at the ground down to one tiny leaf. HA it is putting out new leaves. I only wish I were as tough as a pepper plant.
Kim

So glad to see that everyone is physically fine! Things can be replaced, and gardens can be rebuilt, but you can't replace people. Although, my heart just cringes for those of you with garden damage.

We are fine here too, I guess. I can't find any damage, but I wouldn't know what occurred here just north of Wagoner, as we were in Kansas for a few days. All I know is we left Thursday as the 1st round was baring down on Tulsa around 6, chugged down the highway towards Bartlesville, saw a "cloud" that made us do several double takes to make sure it wasn't something we needed to be pulling off the highway for...Got to my mom's around 9, and our phones instantly were blowing up with phone calls and texts from family and friends telling us to get in shelter now. We still aren't sure where the tornado was, if it hailed here, how much rain we got. Its hard to say bc the ground was wet when we left, and it was wet when we got home last night, and I have yet to invest in a rain gauge. The only thing wrong in the garden was the cherry tomato plant that won't stay up off the ground, but that's normal.

I know many are sick to death of the weather, and the rain, and at moments, I am too, but I just keep telling myself, come July or August, we will be praying for a sprinkle and all this will seem like it never happened. So while, it seems awful now, we should be smiling and trying to make the best out of it, bc its all we really can do.

Bre,

We always need rain in the summer months, but we sure get sick of the rain fast when it comes with lots of violent weather in April and May.

I don't want to jinx us all by saying this, but June sure is off to a nice cool, mild start. The last half of May and, in fact, much of this spring, reminds me of 2004 which was a wonderful mild (well, mild for OK) summer with plentiful rainfall. That, along with the fact that June is starting off with pleasant temperatures (well, maybe not so pleasant in far western counties) gives me hope that maybe the summer of 2013 will be splendidly mild and wet and we'll have much more time to enjoy our yards and gardens instead of hiding out in the air-conditioned house just to survive.

News just broke on The Weather Channel, y'all, that three of the nine fatalities with the El Reno-Southern OKC tornadoes were well-known, well-respected weather researchers/storm chasers Tim Samaras, Pete Samaras and Carl Young. This is terrible news. These guys did a lot of storm research that furthered the weather community's understanding of severe weather. Their families and the wider weather research community surely must be stunned by their deaths. I am so sorry to hear they perished in this storm.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tim Samaras Bio at NatGeo

Dawn- Yeah, I could live without the tornadoes, and the death, but, I think I cope with these things, by just reminding myself, its a part of life, and life here on the plains. No one should have to die by weather related violence, but it does happen, and sadly, it will keep happening. I find the lining in the storm, and say, ok, so its a swamp out there now, but be grateful. Be grateful that you are alive, that your children are healthy and happy, that you can smile through any storm. Don't take my way of looking at it as if I don't care about those who have lost life, possessions, gardens, bc I do care, but, for me, its easier to be thankful for what you have then to mourn for what you don't.

I did see a projected forecast for the month of June, and it showed cooler then normal temps for the month, for a good part of the state.

That's terrible about those men. I am sure they will be greatly missed, by not only their families, but the weather community.