Oklahoma weather doesn’t mess around, and this severe storm season has brought tragedy to the big screen.
First, let me offer condolences to those who lost loved ones or had friends and family injured in the Perryton, Texas, tornado last week. Three people died, and reports say dozens of others were injured.
More dangerous storms blew across Oklahoma last night, with 100 mile-per-hour wind toppling trees and power lines. Hundreds of thousands of people have been without power. So much for a calm holiday weekend.
But as we all sat and watched predictions about and coverage of severe-weather phenomena this week, there was at least one moment that challenged my perception of how intense Oklahoma storms can be.
Do you remember DVDs? Once a high-definition leap forward from the VHS tape, the Digital Video Disc — or Digital Versatile Disc — is an ancient technology that required a dedicated player and shelf space.
If it had been a minute since you DVD’d and chilled, the National Weather Service jogged your memory with a prediction of DVD-size hail across a swath of Oklahoma. The term hit social media like a gust front. KOCO’s Damon Lane tweeted a map displaying DVD-size hail predictions, and the rest of #okwx Twitter made all sorts of clarifications and alternative suggestions.
When first shown on Thursday ahead of the severe storms, DVD-size hail almost seemed like a typo, or perhaps even a joke. Comparing a round, flat object to a mostly spherical one just seems odd, and people had a lot of thoughts about the possible diameter comparisons of the ice blobs.
In the end, most of the hailstones that fell didn’t quite get up to DVD size, but down in Sanger, Texas, folks apparently saw the special feature.
With how gargantuan some of those old box sets could get, I truly hope I never see the day that old, icy technology is falling from the sky.
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