It was 24 years ago we made the move. Still it seems that the weather is still catching up. And, we didn’t ask it to!
By Benjamin Groff II GroffMedia© | benandsteve.com | ©2026
October 25, 2026
When Steve and I moved to Arizona, we were fairly certain we had left most of the crazy weather behind us.
After Oklahoma and Kansas, sunshine and desert scenery sounded like a reasonable trade. I knew Arizona had its own weather problems. But somewhere in my thinking was the comforting notion that tornado country was now behind us.
More than two decades later, watching reports from Heber-Overgaard, that comfort has taken a considerable beating.
The community suffered substantial damage during a suspected tornado Wednesday evening, October 21. Reports described damaged buildings, fallen trees, downed power lines, and residents suddenly facing the work of putting their lives back together.
For those folks, the storm is already much more than a question waiting for an official answer.
During my years in law enforcement, I watched storms develop over the Oklahoma prairie. I have seen threatening clouds begin to rotate, watched funnels descend, and seen what happens when that circulation reaches the ground and starts tearing the daylights out of whatever stands in its way.
Those experiences stay with you.
When I look at storm damage now, I look for a story in what was left behind. Where did the debris travel? Which direction did the trees fall? Does the destruction follow a narrow track? Why did one building suffer so much while another nearby escaped?
Those questions matter. But experience also means recognizing that the first explanation is not always the complete explanation.
Powerful downbursts can produce damage that resembles tornado damage. Survey teams examine the broader pattern, including debris direction, structural damage, radar records, and witness accounts, to determine what happened. That work establishes both the cause and the strength of the winds.
Waiting for that determination can be frustrating, especially when the pictures look convincing. Still, the survey involves more than deciding whether to attach an EF1 or EF2 rating to an obvious tornado.
There is another distinction worth making. A tornado does not destroy a house simply by creating a vacuum. Violent winds, flying debris, and the failure of parts of a building cause the destruction. A collapsed roof, by itself, cannot settle the question of what kind of wind struck it.
Radar has its own limits. A hook echo can indicate a rotating storm with conditions favorable for tornado development. It does not, by itself, establish that a tornado is on the ground.
That does not make the danger any less real. It means the evidence deserves careful interpretation.
I also had to reconsider something about my adopted home: tornadoes are unusual here, but they are not new. The National Weather Service describes the October 2010 outbreak as the largest in Arizona history. We had already been living here for years when it happened.
Apparently, moving away from tornado country did not come with the guarantee I thought it did.
Climate change belongs in the larger conversation, too. But connecting a particular tornado to global warming requires more than pointing to an unusual storm.
NOAA identificatioin continuing is still a uncertainty about how climate change affects tornado activity. We can take a warming world seriously while being precise about what any single event tells us.
What concerns me most is how easily unfamiliar weather becomes weather we dismiss.
Folks prepare for what they remember. When a threat seems to belong somewhere else, it is easy to believe there must be some mistake when it arrives at your door.
I understand that thinking. I brought a little of it to Arizona myself.
The families cleaning up in Heber-Overgaard deserve answers, assistance, and time to recover. Their experience also deserves our attention long after the storm footage disappears from television.
We can choose where we live. We can decide which weather we prefer.
The weather, unfortunately, has never agreed to honor the arrangement. In recent day the National Weather Service has confirmed the storm that hit Heber-Overgaard did produce a EF-1 Tornado resulting in the areas damage to property. The report states it was rated an EF1. The tornado touched down and stayed on the ground for 9.25 miles and 11 minutes. This tornado was about 350 yards wide. Officials said one person was injured. That wasn’t the conclusion of the report.
On Wednesday morning at 7:32 a.m., officials said an EF1 tornado touched down near Prescott with max winds of 105 mph. It stayed on the ground for 8 miles and 14 minutes. It was about 300 yards wide. No injuries were reported.
Based on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale, which rates tornadoes by estimated wind speed on a 0-5 scale, both tornadoes were rated EF1.
Arizona recorded at least 15 tornado warnings this week, according to the National Weather Service.
“That’s a large number for Arizona,” said meteorologist Mark O’Malley with the National Weather Service’s Phoenix office.
On Wednesday, it was the first time two tornados had touched down doing significant damage in two Arizona communities ever on the same day, in the history of weather record keeping. That is concerning to officials studying the changing effects on weather patterns in Arizona.
The damage reports may continue to be reviewed. But it appears that Arizona may not have seen the last of its unwelcome weather.
Does anyone have any information about the weather year round in Costa Rica?
