A cold and generally "crappy" 2008 spring pattern continued into early June. There was plenty of cold air in the mid to upper levels of the atmosphere and the local NWS noted in the morning AFD some cold air funnel clouds were possible. I really wasn't expecting to see one given how random the things occur. You essentially have to get lucky and have one form in your vicinity. I did take a few pictures of convection during the late morning and observed low cloud base but nothing terribly exciting. The radar showed the strongest cells moving south and east of my area and I figured nothing of note would happen overhead the rest of the day. Not more than an hour later I was warming up some soup for Ellie and noticed a funnel cloud extending nearly to the ground not too far to my west/southwest when I peeked outside the kitchen window. I shouted to Ellie, "Look, there is a tornado!". Ellie was excited to also shout, "Tornado!". She always enjoyed playing with the tornado in a bottle toy Dr. Ken Dewey gave me back in 2004. She also enjoyed a Matchbox storm chaser book and the small DOW truck that came with the book. She was familiar with tornadoes but this was her first time seeing one in real time. I did not hesitate to grab the camera and run outside to snap some pictures. I wanted Ellie to stay inside but she followed anyway. While no tornado is "safe" this type of storm posed extremely low risk and I was not at all worried about her safety. I was much more worried about distracted drivers on the relatively busy road behind my house. The tornado made little change in appearance during its 5 minute lifespan. I was getting ready to phone the NWS shortly after snapping the first few pictures (got my priorities backwards) but the city EMO pulled the siren trigger before I could make the call and then I simply filled out the eSpotter form after the fact. The first and only tornado I witnessed in 2008 was viewed from my backyard. The only chasing this day was a quick scamper to get the camera.

Standing in my backyard looking at a tornado about three miles to the west/southwest.

Left: Check out the dinky cloud the tornado developed under. Right: The sky looked a bit more ominous an hour earlier.

Left to right: steadily shrinking funnel