This One Time? During Tornado Season?*
My First-Hand Account of the Only Tornado I’ve Ever Seen…

I lived on the plains of eastern New Mexico and the Panhandle of Texas for a combined total of 12 years. Tornado watches and warnings were a fact of life on the plains. While I was pregnant with my middle son, I worked for the Emergency Preparedness department at the City of Clovis, and was the one that got to run the regular Wednesday afternoon warning tests over the cable-interrupt system, while setting the sirens off (kind of a rush!). Before moving to eastern New Mexico, I’d lived 6 years in Lubbock, Texas, and while I’d seen more than my fair share of funnel clouds? I’d yet to see a tornado. Until that one time.
It was early June. I was house/dog-sitting for my neighbor, Beth, two doors down in our six-plex. My middle son had just had his first birthday, there was a cookout for the squadron my husband and my then-bestie’s husband had thrown, and we all went, early, because it got hot fast that time of year and little kids and heat don’t mix well.
We all came home, hung out under the carport after putting the little ones down for their nap. We thought it would be awesome to have a super-soaker water gun fight, so we did, because in dry heat? Water fights were the best! The girl that lived catty-corner across the lawn in another six-plex joined us and a good time was had by all.
My then bestie’s husband and my then-husband decided to ride into town to the Harley dealership to check out the bikes. We girls decided that a shower was on the list, since all the kids were sleeping. I went upstairs, turned on the TV in our room, jumped in the shower and while I was getting dressed, not only had the sun gone away, but a very loud tornado warning was coming across on the TV.
I dressed as quickly as I could, snatched my napping one-year-old out of his crib, raced downstairs, grabbing the keys to my vacationing neighbor’s house as I found my way to the phone and called both of the friends that had been outside with me earlier. All three of us lived on the ends of our buildings, and after having been through tornado safely/spotter classes while working with the City? I knew that it was best to put as many walls between us and the storm as possible. I told them both to meet me at Beth’s house and to bring pillows and the kids.
We somehow managed to get two toddlers, a four year old, and Nate (Beth’s Sheltie) safely into the downstairs bathroom under the stairs in Beth’s house. My two friends stayed with the kids while I grabbed the phone and looked out the back sliding glass door, calling in what I saw to our town’s police department. (Spotter training had not been lost on this girl, I can tell you that!)
What I saw was a wedge tornado, not unlike the one pictured above. Large (golf ball sized) hail was falling and I knew that the storm was heading in our direction. (Thank you, classes!) The wedge slowly moved toward my vantage point at the back door and I raced back to the bathroom where everyone else was, shutting the door behind me.
We sat in that bathroom for what seemed like an eternity, just waiting for the tell-tale locomotive sound that we’d all been taught was the calling card of a tornado. We waited, then waited some more. We didn’t hear the wind, the hail stopped falling, and suddenly? Silence.
The three adults went to the back window to find that all that remained of the storm was the melting hail under the bright sun.
Storms on the plains are crazy like that. It’s dark as night one minute, and then, *poof!* the sky is blue, the sun is out and it’s like nothing ever happened.
We dispersed back to our own homes, children and pillows in hand, and had only been home moments when the two men-folk arrived, my then-bestie’s Mustang pock-marked with major hail damage. My car, too, even being parked under the carport, had decent hail damage to the hood and entire driver’s side (we lived on the end).
The guys told us that they’d been on their way home when the warning was issued and after driving through that hail, managed to pull over under an overpass and wait it out. They said that the tornado had passed over them while they were parked. They both also reported that this event was one of the scariest they’d experienced to date.
After writing the bulk of this piece, I looked for information on this storm and couldn’t find any. I remember some signage being damaged, but don’t know the rating of said storm.
All I know is that this storm made the top 3 of my being legitimately scared of Mother Nature!
- Hurricane Fran
- Clovis tornado (this piece)
- The earthquake that hit when my parents weren’t home
Stay tuned for the story about #3. I’ll link that when it’s done.
When has Mother Nature scared the hell out of you? What were you feeling? I look forward to hearing from you!
*Play on, “This one time at band camp” from the American Pie series
