Greensburg, Kansas

[Jeff House]

We stopped in Greensburg, KS on Saturday May 9, 2015. Actually we took the time to go through the Big Well and Meteorite Museum after lunch. We make it a point to support the town economically by spending some money there. This is not the first time it has come up on Stormtrack, but the town is still in the process of reaching its goals post tornado. You can see the green power and other green in Greensburg. They are looking to make a name for themselves in renewable energy and sustainability.

In 2013 we sat under a gazebo in Greensburg for 2-3 hours before documenting the Rozel tornado. I regretted not going through the museum with all that time in 2013, but this year we did so. Museum still has the largest hand dug well and meteorite. Now it has a moving exhibit about the tornado. Exhibits end on bright notes about green energy and recovery. We bought cheesy but fun Kansas Storm Chaser tees. Greensburg sort of embraces the fame from the tornado, but a few people are of course grieving. Still optimism is the prevailing mood. Also got a copy of Molly and the Tornado, a great kids book about pets in storms, recovery and hope. Green Bean Cafe serves lunch and I think a gift shop is next door. A new motel is available if one wants to stay. We usually base in Wichita but maybe will in Greensburg next time.

This time in 2015 we knew better chase targets were in North Texas and Colorado. Late as 22Z I was worried about a blue sky bust. However we had a nice chase. Around 00Z storms went in the OK Panhandle and moved northeast. We waited in Meade, KS for them to come to us - and better 850/925 mb winds. Between Bucklin, KS and Clark State Fishing Lake and Wildlife area we saw a wide cone/bowl funnel that I don't think touched down. Later a gorgeous striated wall cloud passed Bucklin. While the latter definitely did not touch down it was the most impressive part of the evening. This is not in Target Area because most of my post is related to Greensburg. Please stop there when it is on the chase route.

 

[joel ewing]

(Mods...please delete or move this post if I've got it in an inappropriate area...thx).
Reading Jeff's story about Greensburg reminded me of one of my own. Now, to set the stage a little bit, I have always had a bit of "psychic" abilities / psychic experiences beginning at age 6. I cannot make them happen on command, they just happen. OK...in 1961....which was 1st. grade for me....my family and I moved from our native Nebraska to southern Arizona due to a brother's debilitating asthma. Once settled in Arizona, each spring when school would end, my folks would shove my siblings and I into the back of a station wagon and off we'd go to the midwest. For 3 joyous days, my siblings and I would claw, bite and bruise each other all the way back to Nebraska, where we'd get dropped off at my grandparent's and cousin's farms in northeast Nebraska to spend the summers. It was during these spring visits that I would be exposed to severe wx. and tornadic t-storms. From Tucson to Nebr. we took the same 3 day route each year. It would be....Tucson to Tucumcari, Tucumcari to Great Bend (always stopping at the Dalhart D.Q.) and Great Bend to Albion and Norfolk Nebraska. For no reason that I can think of, one year when I was about 13 or 14 as we drove on old Hwy. 54 thru Liberal, Meade, Bucklin and on towards Greensburg I began getting a very paranoid, weird feeling in my mind. What came rushing into my mind were horrible images of tornado after tornado coming down out of the clouds at us. I definitely remember that at that time we were driving under soft, hi grey/overcast skies....nothing at all that would even hint at anything severe. I can also recall feeling extremely closterphobic under that big, wide-open Kansas sky....which shouldn't have bothered me, as I was used to that in Nebraska. The overwhelming source of fear in my mind however, were tornadoes. I was just CERTAIN that one or more was going to drop from that overcast sky and cause our immediate deaths. I can remember my fear even now as I type this paragraph. It eventually dissipated once we got closer to Great Bend, which had a roadside zoo/rest-stop area we'd always stop at, and once we did, that finally took my mind off my bizarre paranoia for good.
I made that annual trip with my family until I was about 16, and never had the fear of tornadoes near Greensburg or anywhere else ever again. I've often wondered what triggered the experience.... which was 39 years PRIOR to that horrific night in Greensburg in 2007. The bottom line....I don't think there is an answer. Was it me experiencing a psychic precursor 4 decades early? Who knows. My wife would argue "how can you claim you're seeing that far into the future when you can't even remember what day the garbage goes out?" She may have a point.

 

[Jeff House]

Thank you Joel for the reply. Good stuff! Given your lifetime of clairvoyance, I would say the Greensburg visions are significant. You might not envision all tornadoes. Who would? However since you were going to have strong feelings about Greensburg as an adult - we all did - makes sense those feelings came up as a child. I'm not an expert, but I do agree that your visions were related.