a.k.a. V.J.

It always rains on my birthday. That’s not a complaint or a lament. It’s just a fact. I know it’s going to happen, so I never plan anything weather-dependent for that day. Yesterday, Mother Nature provided the expected rain early in the day then, later on in the evening, she took things to the next level.

Early in the afternoon, while I was watching the Bills defeat the Indianapolis Colts in preseason action, alerts kept flashing on the bottom of the TV screen about a tornado watch. Our county was included in the watch, but it was one of many comprising a huge swath of Western and Central New York, so I didn’t think much of it.

The day continued on with mostly nice weather, interrupted by a few showers. We enjoyed a nice birthday lunch as a family and then Jen, Griffin, and I went to a spa for an hour in very high-tech massage chairs. After that, we had a light dinner and took a short early-evening walk amid darkening skies and low rumbles of thunder. Then things got real.

We all received alerts on our phones displaying this message:

Clicking on the warning revealed that we were inside a fairly confined area of concern. Seeing that red tornado symbol on my weather forecast was certainly a sobering moment.

As we were battening down the hatches, and removing things from the yard that might blow away (including the Bills flag I vowed not to take down until after the season), I noticed that some of the neighbors were out in their yards, looking up at the skies to the north. They were watching an almost funnel-shaped column of clouds moving past us. There was no rotation to indicate an active tornado, but it was ominous, nonetheless.

The menacing clouds eventually passed, and the warning was lifted after about a half-hour. We then got pelted with a short-but-intense thunderstorm before the meteorological drama ultimately subsided.

All in all, it was a nice birthday. I got to relax, eat some good food, watch a little football, and most importantly, enjoy time with family. Things got a little intense for a time but at the end of the day, the tornado didn’t materialize, nobody got hurt, and no property was damaged. And there was cake. I consider that a win.