Wind in General
(Click any image to embiggen…)
As I write this in my hotel room in Oklahoma City…
I have entered a section of the country where, when the news is about the weather, it’s serious. No “We have live team coverage of the light mist falling in Hollywood.” They’ve got two camera trucks chasing storm cells. In the time it’s taken me to write all this, three four small tornadoes have touched down and then dissipated. At this point, it looks like all the softball-sized hail will pass to the north of Oklahoma City.
Walking downstairs to check out of the hotel in Amarillo, I saw the storm chasers being taped by a Japanese TV crew.
The big radar truck had already left, but here are some of the other storm chaser vehicles parked at the hotel. As you can see, the sky was blue and the weather nice, with the ever-present 25 mph wind. I decided to put the top down and see how far I could get before I ran into a thunderstorm.
Make sure you click on this picture. It’s hard for me to express just how beautiful the landscape was driving through North East Texas (the Panhandle, I think it’s called.) This is the place where stock photographs are born. It wasn’t hot, the wind was blowing… just amazing. By far, this is the nicest area I’ve driven through so far.
But then I got into Oklahoma and it said, “That’s not a windmill… THIS is a windmill!” It’s hard to see, but there’s a little white square at the base of the tower… and that’s a truck! This was one of about 40 I counted in this wind farm. I’ve also seen wind farms in California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Nothing in Arizona. Hmmm. I guess they’re all built by illegals. Or maybe Arizona didn’t want any of that dirty Federal money.
Heheh… Clinton’s monument… Heheh…
Bugs fear me. They see my windshield approaching and shudder at the sight of a LEGION of their comrades SMASHED against my car!
Finally, I made it to OKC. I wanted to write this light and breezy entry before I go to the OKC Memorial tomorrow, as I’m guessing I’ll be in a much less jocular mood.
Meanwhile, I passed a sort of double example of hot wind. The sign advertising this thing said it was the biggest in the world, then that was crossed out and replaced with biggest in the Western Hemisphere, then that was crossed out and replaced with biggest in Texas, then that was crossed out and finally replaced with biggest in West Texas.
