Oklahoma Isn't Kansas

Back in May 2013 Oklahoma City was devastated by a massive tornado whipping winds over the prairie at speeds greater than 200 mph.

The BBC reported that a record-breaking tornado that struck in precisely the same region in 1999, during which the fastest winds ever seen on the Earth's surface were recorded: over 500km/h (310mph).

While the early warning system alerted many people to the impending tornado, the two-mile wide storm ravaged the suburbs with a murderous intensity. Over twenty people were declared dead and hundreds were missing in the storm's aftermath. Schools and hospitals were not spared from the devastation and hundreds of houses were smashed to toothpicks by the EF5 or Enhanced Fujita rated tornado.

Meteorologists point to a number of factors leading to the creation of such a powerful event; the collision of hot and cold fronts of varying temperatures, but they are not discussing a major cause of its intensity which has to be the ground heat generated from the drought-stricken plains same as a hurricane gathering strength over the tropical warmth of the Gulf Stream.

This Monday the New York Times published an article about the vanishing aquifer.

Less water in the High Plains Aquifer, less cooling effect to the Bible Belt states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

And it isn't going to get any better.

The ancestors of Tom Joad from THE GRAPE OF WRATH will be hitting on the road again.

To read about the collapse of the High Plains Aquifer, please go to the following URL

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/us/high-plains-aquifer-dwindles-hurting-farmers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0