Why Are Tornadoes Following My Family?

Especially in places where they have rarely — or never — happened?

A tornado chaser filming his target (definitelytheworst.com)

“Dad, we’re under a tornado warning.” No parent who grew up in the Deep South (much less in places like Tornado Alley) likes to hear those words. But that’s what my son told me when I answered the phone at 4 A.M. this morning in Manila, and my son was calling from Bainbridge Island in Washington state.

Those who grow up in places where tornadoes are prevalent tend to pay a bit more attention to the weather. More than most people, we tend to watch the clouds for shapes, colors, and certain movements. We look for swirls, for that rather greenish color, for cumulonimbus clouds looming overhead, and especially for supercells like the one below:

A supercell above the wheat fields (nofilmschool.com)

My first experience with a tornado was late one night in February 1971 in the Mississippi Delta when we heard that telltale freight-train rumbling, and we all crowded into the center of the house for protection until it hit a crescendo and then slowly diminished. The next morning we went outside and saw the only damage had been to some roof shingles and to our 30-foot TV antenna which had been twisted around and…