So last night was an adventure to say the least. It all began around 5:30pm when the tornado sirens starting going off. We were quite surprised and turned on the weather only to see a tiny little storm that seemed harmless. We assumed it would all be over in a few minutes. We were wrong. The sirens didn't turn off at all for another 3 1/2 hours. A small but severe storm would pop up around Aurora (southwest of Springfield) and travel straight up highway 60 till it blasted Springfield. The second that the storm passed on by, they would pan back down to Aurora and there would be another identical storm following the exact same path. This honestly happened almost a half dozen times. The storms moved fast and would hit like a freight train. The only variations would be in what part of town experienced the hook echo portion of the storm - sometimes it would be northwest, then southwest, then west central, then it would be northwest again. There were confirmed tornados everywhere and the weather field reporters never had to move at all because each storm came right along the same path as the last. Cory, Ryan, Kayla, and I managed to get enough Cheezies pizza inbetween storms to last us through the national championship game. It was such a surreal experience. It's mid-January, we're watching football on tv, and during commercials we'd flip over to see how close the next tornado was getting. It was almost comical in how natural and relaxed it seemed. Kayla was well prepared for the worst, however, and had an exceptionally well-stocked storm shelter assembled in our bathroom. There were more than a few jokes made about the potential of four of us squeezing into the tub together. Below is a picture of our storm shelter...
There was finally enough of a break between storms for the guys to rush back to their dorms and Kayla and I went to bed. That's when the really interesting part began. Around 3am, Kayla woke me to let me know the sirens were going off again. We turned the TV on just to see the same situation as earlier in the evening. I was bored with it all and tried to go back to sleep. Fortunately, Kayla stayed up to watch it more closely. The weathermen were very earnest for everyone in Springfield to take cover but the rotation was occuring in southeast Springfield near Battlefield mall and thus I felt fine going back to sleep. Then all of a sudden the weatherman reports a confirmed tornado at the intersection of Kansas and Bennett. I realize that you don't know where that is, but let the fact that upon hearing that, I was out of bed and dressed in less than 10 seconds speak for the proximity of that location. Being a male, I obviously rushed to the window rather than the bathroom. There was a faint roar that I first perceived as thunder until I realized that it was constant and therefore must have been wind. Just as I looked outside, a toy car large enough for Titus to ride flipped on its side and started scooting along the concrete on its side. I then looked out into the street light to see the pouring rain blowing nearly due north as opposed to the toys and trees in the courtyard blowing due south. That was enough for me. I'd say that's the most scared I've ever been during a storm. We later heard that a building had been destroyed at Sherman and Chestnut which is located directly north of the baseball stadium. I drove by this morning to take the following pictures...

Amazed at the incredible proximity of this destruction, I did what any good cartographer would do: I rushed to work to create a map of the situation. I just had to let you all know how close this thing really came to us. I'm guessing that a funnel cloud passed within 200 yards of our apartment. Here's the map I created...

Well there it is. That's our story. I told Kayla that most people live their entire lives without being within 200 yards of a tornado. It's exciting now but it sure was scary at the time. I believe the newspaper this morning listed 18 tornados around the Springfield area yesterday and this morning. I think most of all, we were just excited about finally having something to put on our blog.