Tornado Turnpike???

You'be heard of Tornado Alley in Kansas.  How about Tornado Turnpike in New Jersey?

Last night my area of New Jersey was subject to not one but two tornado warnings as a result of the severe thunderstorms that passed through the northern part of the state.  And even though my electricity did not in fact go out in the severe storm we got - the National Weather Service is still trying to figure out if there were any tornadoes in northern New Jersey - the very fact that there were two tornado warnings in northern New Jersey and a third in southern New Jersey, which is a rare occurrence, has led me to believe that climate change is out of control.  I mean, there's a reason The Wizard of Oz  begins on the Kansas prairie and not in the New Jersey Highlands or Pine Barrens.  In fact, Kansas and Ohio, both historically tornado-prone states, are getting the sort of destructive weather that even they aren't used to.  Overall, the weather has become such a big part of the news that on PBS, Judy Woodruff is looking more like a weatherwoman than an anchorwoman.

And as for New Jersey, the show's not over yet; it's going to be a double feature.  There may not be any tornadoes today, but there will likely be more severe thunderstorms hitting the same areas of New Jersey that were pummeled last night, which means I can bet on a possible fiftieth blackout on my block.  Today's storms may be less severe than last night's storms, but to use a cliché of my own making, that's like saying Cleopatra is a better movie than Heaven's Gate.  I know, I'm dating myself there, but I can see a time when I date myself by saying that there was a time when there were no tornadoes in New Jersey.

And to make matters worse, the enhanced-risk zone for severe weather today that excluded my area now . . . includes my area.

Check back later . . . I may still be around. :-(