See A Tornado In Person...

It was a summer day at the airport where I worked and I sat at my desk preparing the bills for payment.  My station was part of the front counter that greeted pilots and passengers as they entered the building and it was my job to greet them with a cheery 'Hello!'.  The view from my workstation was perfect. Through two large windows I could see the ramp occupied by a few small planes and, just beyond that, the short runway. 

The office was particularly quiet that day - only small chit chat by employees could be heard.  The normal hum of the four office computers was absent.  We had been asked to turn them off since the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning.  It had been thought best to turn them off in case of loss of power. 

Rain began to fall as predicted, steadily at first and then gaining in momentum.  All at once it was like the sky had been opened up and buckets were pouring.  The drains quickly filled up and water began flowing under the hangar doors.  Several employees grabbed brooms and vigorously swept the water back out into the storm. 

When the rain subsided and the drains sucked away the evidence of the downpour, it was quitting time for several employees and they headed outside to their waiting vehicles.  I sat back down at my computer and turned it on.  As I waited for it to start up, my eyes wandered to the view outside.  The clouds were swirling.  All of a sudden, I saw a funnel form on the short runway and begin to make its way toward my office.

I jumped up and yelled, "Tornado! Tornado!"  My eyes were glued to the funnel cloud.  But before I could run down the hall to my boss's office it went back up into the clouds.  I stood concretely in that spot, amazed at what I had seen. 

Later I told others, including Mr. M, and they said, "Oh, it was probably just a dust devil."

Dust devil?  Ha!  I'd seen those before and this was no dust devil!

Lucky enough, a few other people on the airport had witnessed this same weather phenomenon and testified to what I had seen.  And you know what?  Mr. M believed them.  Ha!