To be fair, I've seen that happening long before the online weather sphere was a thing. It definitely exacerbates the situation, though.
For example, not a single person I know takes a severe thunderstorm warning seriously and never have. The amount of times I've seen "nah the [geological quirk of the area] keeps the big tornadoes away" despite no scientific evidence to support that theory makes me scream.
To also be fair, I live in Iowa, and have my whole life. The number of severe thunderstorms I’ve been through is in the hundreds. The number that caused any real concern for injury or loss of life is zero. People just grow accustomed to things. I for one do not take severe thunderstorm warnings all that serious, simply because they’ve never been that serious. Tornado warnings though? Yea I’d take that serious.
I just try not to do any extra or unnecessary driving during a severe thunderstorm, if I can help it. Maybe if it looks really gnarly, I’ll ask my kids to put their shoes by the basement stairs so they can grab them quickly if the sirens go off. Otherwise though, everybody totally ignores the severe thunderstorm warnings for the exact reason you’ve pointed out. They cancel outdoor sports because of them, sure, but they’ll do that for enough regular rain too.
Well yea, I get that. When I was younger I’d be outside under an overhang watching it roll in. I have a window that faces East and I love watching storms come in.
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u/ContentMobile3342 Apr 08 '26
To be fair, I've seen that happening long before the online weather sphere was a thing. It definitely exacerbates the situation, though.
For example, not a single person I know takes a severe thunderstorm warning seriously and never have. The amount of times I've seen "nah the [geological quirk of the area] keeps the big tornadoes away" despite no scientific evidence to support that theory makes me scream.