Here Comes The Rain Again

Tornado in the Wizard of Oz

Well, it has rained all day. Sheesh, it has rained all week. Of course Wimbledon is not so far away, so the rain will be building up especially to cause anxious moment for the schedulers, but being Brits we love to talk about the weather.
The truth is this: our weather is not so bad. We don't get mad extremes, just enough to make us conscious of the seasons passing. There is a joke that if you don't like the weather here, wait an hour - and we do get all 4 seasons in one day. But extreme weather is extremely rare, unlike in...

...Mid America - the tornado belt. The first time we drove through North Dakota, we drove through an amazing thunder & lightning storm only to discover the next day a tornado had passed through nearby. Then, two years ago, when we were driving across the US, we were in Iowa (near the Field of Dreams). We had left a stormy Chicago behind, and the rain had followed us, but suddenly the radio cut out and a loud alarm sounded (the 1050 Hz tone, below), followed by an electronic voice (think Stephen Hawking): "Extreme Weather Warning". Apparently there was cyclical activity in the clouds and everyone was advised to get indoors (and into the cellar immediately). This was not really an option for us! It also didn’t help that we didn’t really know which county we were in at any particular time. Once the warning was passed the local DJ showed his ironic side by playing the song title of this post.

Found these guidelines (albeit for Colorado, but same idea).
"Only the most imminent life- and property-threatening hazards are broadcasted with the SAME signal and 1050 Hertz warning alarm tone, where the public has to take immediate action to protect themselves and their property. An operational guideline is that messages are alerted only for hazards urgent enough to warrant waking people up in the "middle of the night" or otherwise interrupting someone's activities at any time."

OK, I'm scared now.

Toto...we're not in Kansas any more - and that's maybe a good thing, we're safer with our standard rain here!