***** “I’ve never seen a tornado up close, but I’ve seen baseball size hail. “ ******
And since you are posting we can assume you had adequate cover. I was plowing a field on an open Tractor when my Uncle came screaming up Screaming “ YOU IDIOT “ ... we both ran to an Old Barn, he ripped the lid off of a Feed Bin and made me get under it, glad he did ... bout 3 minutes later big Hail was pelting us through the roof of that old barn... as he said “It only takes one to kill you” cause a few were a lot bigger than the others.
The reason he was calling me an idiot is that the sky had turned from regular blue to green then to purple... but what I noticed most is what I noticed least after the fact ... wherever you are at go outside and you will hear birds singing ... complete silence ... they all quit or had left the area (I couldn’t have heard them anyway I was on a Tractor).
TT
(Literally minutes after the Hail Storm ... Birds started singing again)
One thing which surprised me is that Florida has about as many tornadoes as tornado alley. They do seem to be not quite as severe here which might be because of all the trees.
I am pretty sure a Geography prof once told me that the most severe tornadoes occur along an area of North Alabama, North Mississippi and areas of Tennessee which are near those places.
(Literally minutes after the Hail Storm ... Birds started singing again)
Things I pay attention to - the pressure of the air, how it feels oppressive and heavy- when the wind goes very very still, and when the birds are totally quiet, added to that yellow green ugly sky. Then it is time to move.