High-wind thunderstorms with bad hail, yes, you’ll certainly get hit by a few of those, and I would be curious how they coped with them.
They’re scary in theory, and in-fact if you have bad luck, but the acreage directly damaged by a tornado every year just isn’t that big, considering the size of tornado country.
I doubt the natives living here had any particular strategy for avoiding tornados specifically, though they may have had beliefs and practices concerning them and certainly must have had things they did to stay safe in severe thunderstorms more generally. Not because they were incapable of coming up with such (far from it) but because direct experience with a tornado (not just seeing it, but having one come near enough for avoidance or even sheltering strategies to apply, beyond what you’d do for any stormy weather) is fairly rare.
I've also witnessed two waterspouts: one large, thankfully at a distance, and another at about a half-mile.
if "western" films have any accuracy, you push your horse to lie down, back to the storm, and you lie against him in between his feet, under a buffalo skin
Horses get increasingly skittish the higher the wind gets, even in "normal" conditions - I guess it makes it so they can't smell things downwind of them, so it's an evolutionary thing.
When wind gets high, horses get really spooked.
No way in hell would I put myself between or anywhere near horse legs during a tornado. That's just asking to die. From the horse, not the tornado.
Yeah!
Just meant that inanimate objects, even ones they've seen before, are also sometimes suspect.
That old tractor? The one that's been rusting in the same spot for years? Well TODAY it's spooky, because... no reason.
"What's the best thing about a horse?"
"They taste like chicken."
But I guess you get suddenly kicked, bit, leaned on, etc., you develop strong feelings on the matter.
... oddly enough, he's rather fond of cows.
you don't know it's a hailstorm till you're in it, prior to that it's just a storm you see coming across the plain. And while a singular horse does get skittish, the idea here I think is that the horse finds the calm presence of its owner to be soothing.
(I’ve read that Lucas was extremely influenced by western films, I guess I know where that one came from now).