Global Warming Doesn't Always Mean Hot

As mentioned last week, we're facing some challenges here in the Ozarks. Most of them related to the current environment. At the beginning of February, a terrible spring-like tornado nearly destroyed a town about 18 miles east of us. We don't have a full basement here yet and when I saw that aqua green sky, I became terrified. This Kansas native knows that color usually represents a tornado.
Through the month of February into early March, we received a series of weird weather that alternated between 8 inches of snow, to ice, to spring like weather again.
Last week was no exception. On Monday, we were in the middle of a thunderstorm when lightening struck my modem and put my telephone line and me out of business for a better part of the day. By Thursday, we were back to winter with winter storm advisories. We only received 5 inches, but it was enough to knock out power for us - and according to a friend of mine in Pennsylvania who saw a news report - 44,000 others in Arkansas.
"I'm sick of winter and I would like to see some of that global warming," said an editor when she called to inquire about some files I couldn't send until our power was restored late Saturday.
Oh, but we are seeing the effects of global warming, it just doesn't alway show itself as hot.
Our goal now is to meet these weather challenges. Due to the terrain, underground basements are usually not built here. If people have shelter from tornadoes, they usually put in some type of storm shelter. I've seen two variations - one that goes underground and a heavily constructed concrete structure that sits on the lowest part of your land above ground. Although the lower level addition to our home will still be above ground, we've planned a concrete safe room for a storm shelter.
As for losing power, my aunt is investigating solar while we're investigating propane generators. In my next two posts, I'll talk about the advantages of each.