Weather update

Nothing like a few hundred tornado fatalities to put people on edge.

We’re under the following tornado watch:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED TORNADO WATCH 371 IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS

IN EAST ARKANSAS THIS WATCH INCLUDES 12 COUNTIES

CLAY CRAIGHEAD CRITTENDEN CROSS GREENE LAWRENCE LEE MISSISSIPPI PHILLIPS POINSETT RANDOLPH ST. FRANCIS

We’re in Craighead County.

The weather radar shows a line of storms in south central Missouri that’s tracking generally east and north and doesn’t look like it’s headed for us. Of course we all know conditions are right for supercell storms to pop up anywhere in the region, so the 1:30 p.m. radar picture doesn’t mean much.

A lot of people here are in full freakout. Several schools are dismissing at 2 p.m.  so kids can go hunker down somewhere safer. In Jonesboro, a couple of elementary schools with hardened shelter areas are being promoted as safe places to go.

Since we have no basement, our friend Susan has invited us to hang out in her basement if things get scary.

So I’ll keep an eye on radar and the TV and the Weather Channel web site and be ready to grab the dogs and go.

We were expecting some heavy weather after midnight last night, but the storms fell apart before they got here and the rain gauge was dry for the first time in a couple of mornings.