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Please let me know if this is personal blog or doesn't belong on Dakka.

5 years ago, on May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado hit Joplin, MO. You can find out more about the Joplin Tornado here .

I do like thunderstorms, even severe thunderstorms. It has been my life's dream to see a tornado with my own eyes (not just a picture of one), but so far, that hasn't happened yet.

I live in Illinois, which you may not know, and here is my favorite Severe Weather Story, which happened on May 25, 2011.

I woke up in the morning between 6 or 7AM, on May 25, 2011, the last day of 6th grade. May 25, 2011 was an SPC high risk day, and there were many watches and warnings issued that day. My location was in the High Risk, and all severe hazards were possible that day (Tornadoes, Wind, Hail). The day at school was good, we played the Wii game "Just Dance", and when I went outside before I went home, it was quite hot and muggy outside.

I went home, watched the movie "The Perfect Storm", and when I went on my old laptop after the movie (which I do not have anymore), I saw from The Weather Channel that there was a Major Tornado Outbreak underway.

The radio was on, and normal radio programming was interrupted by weather alerts for mostly tornado warnings, and a severe thunderstorm warning or two. We watched the news that night, and the transmission kept cutting in and out (the reporter would stop mid-sentence and the screen would freeze at random moments, so I would try to finish his sentence). Finally, there was a Tornado Warning issued for my location. The line of storms moved through with heavy rain and lots of thunder and lightning. Luckily, in my backyard, there was little damage.

The next day, my summer began. I will never forget May 25, 2011.

What are your stories?

Oh wow, the memories I get.

I do have a few, all of which comes from my vacations in Europe:

The first one takes place in the beautiful alps of Switzerland. Google Zermatt for context. Me and my family had spent the day hiking around the mountains, so we were walking to a lift station to go down to the village and our tent. We were about a kilometer away when we noticed some storm clouds. They looked pretty scary, I mean even the sheep looked scared!
So, we headed inside just as the storm hit. And it was a heck of a storm. The rain was pouring, But the worst part was te thunder. Just like you Kaptin I love thunder. It's jsut so powerful and awesome and reminds me how small I am. But this thunder was ridiculous. You know how thunder sometimes echoes over large open fields? Well, tru that but in a mountain valley. The thunder would travel through the valley. It echoed and quintupled in size and sound. It was horrible and wesome. And, for some reason, my dad and my brother went up to the top again. Wow.

Next story! We were heading home the same summer. We were eating some delish dinner in Garmisch Parten-Kirschen when we noticed some literally black clouds. We packed up and started driving through the alley northwards. When the lightning started hitting it hit the mountain tops around us. It was cool but pretty cool, as the lightning hit various huts around us and echoed through the valley.

The last one (sorry for the long post) was last year. I ahd been at a sailing competition in Stockholm. Came seventh, my boat came third. Pretty good! So, we were going home. We had noticed the wind was picking up and everyone was pretty tired, so we decided to go by engine instead of sailing. The moment we left the bridge the rain started falling. Not too bad, just made the boats wet and slippery. I was the only one on deck when the lightning started hitting.

The boats me and my scout group sail are pretty small, google h-boat to see how they look. The spars are completely in metal, and since we were on a pretty big river, I realised that if Lightning would strike near us, I'd get hit since I had to hold the spar for support. Lightning struck a shed about 50 meters away from us, almost setting it on fire. COOL.

I don't really have any interesting severe weather stories, but this is a cool idea for a thread.

Being a weather forecaster for the military... well I got countless.

One of my favorite was in Basic Training though. I had been in the military for a grand total of 5 weeks at this point, and my flight was put in charge of a "Rainbow" flight for the night. Rainbows were the guys so new that they hadn't even been issued uniforms yet, so they were still all in their civilian clothes.

It was about 8pm, and half the flight was in the showers, when the tornado sirens started going off. Our dorms were on the second floor of the building, the storm shelters were on the first floor. So me, and the 3 other guys who were baby sitting that night start busting these guys downstairs, half of them wearing nothing but a towel, the rest in underwear.

We get downstairs, and all the doors are locked. So I have everyone line up against the wall, kneeling down, and I go to find a TI to unlock the doors. I almost walk right into one as he comes around the corner, and he stops, stares at me, and at all of the naked guys I have huddled against the wall, and gives me this cold "Just what the hell do you think you are doing, trainee."

I stared at him in disbelief for a second, and just said "Sir, the tornado sirens have been going off, but the rooms we're supposed to shelter in are locked." He stop's, and it's here I saw that he just realized the sirens were going off, takes his keys out, opens the doors, and ushers us in.

We weren't in any immediate danger, as the tornado touched down on the opposite end of base, but at the time, it was certainly heart pounding. I never heard another word about it from any of the TI's, so that's how I know I did a good job. They'd only ever talk to you if you did something wrong.

*Standing in the rain, feverishly digging a trench, hearing dad say "there she goes," turn around a see the fire place blow apart and fall off the roof.

*Hearing a train and then hearing the roof of another house decide to take flight.

*Looking up to the underbelly of a KC tanker coming right over and bombing the woods behind the house with fire retardant-WHOOMP!

*Twelve inches of rain in fours hours-and that was what two weeks ago?

It once got really windy and rainy here rather than just rainy.

It interrupted the TV signal horribly.

Phew!! Glad we don't get many of those.

And then there was the time that we got 2" of snow over 3 days, terrible business......

I lived in norman, Oklahoma for 4 years, then Moore, Oklahoma for about five years - if you want to see tornadoes, just move to Oklahoma city. There's somewhere in the OKC metro that gets nailed every year.

Gotta say though, there's nothing fun about hail or tornadoes, especially when you go through it every single year from about april to june.

From about 2007-2012, I lived in apartments that were completely demolished in the 1999 moore tornado (largest wind speed ever recorded on earth). I was told that even the carpet was ripped from the slab.

Any rate, the only time I saw a tornado was when I was on my second story balcony, watching one come right toward me. It wasn't that dramatic, honestly, as it was completely cloaked in dark clouds and torrential rain, but the tv kept barking it was a tornado and it was heading right for me. Come to think of it, I was watching the weather and the last thing I heard from the news before the power went out was 'seek shelter immediately.'

Fun part is this: OKC has no basements or storm shelters, especially in apartments. When I moved in, I asked what to do in a tornado, and the manager said 'get to know your first floor neighbor, may have to ask them for shelter'. I didn't find that very comforting because, again, the apartments I was living in were completely demolished less than a decade ago.

The second quoted piece of terrible advice I got is "just leave in your car'. Well, guess what - that's what everyone does in a tornado. And what happens when a bunch of panicked people all jump in their cars and hit the road with blinding rainfall and hail? - Traffic jams. And the absolute worst place to be in a tornado is in your car.

So. I just sat there and watched it come. Not much else I could do. It petered out ~2 miles southwest of me. There was a bar I went to sometimes in the area that said they saw it just cruise past them.

That was a pretty minor tornado, too.

Best part of all is this: Again, in OKC, there aren't any basements. I believe it has to do with all the soft red clay the state is made of, so structures have to spread out their load over their entire surface area, and can't structurally afford to have voids caused by basements. So, for many, hiding in your bathroom is the only available recourse, which isn't a help when the tornado carries your home away.

For those that can afford it, the best people can do is pay, I think, ~$8,000 for what I called a 'safety grave'. They dig a hole in your garage (you park your car over it), about the dimensions of a grave, with a heavy metal door. In a tornado, you hide in it with your family, pets, and not much else. You also have to register them with your fire department, because your house will fall on top of you in the event of a tornado, and you may not be able to open the door. If the fire department doesn't know you have one, and don't come save you, you'll be buried alive.

I left in 2012 and never looked back. In 2013, another E5 cruised through moore, like God's mile-wide erase tool. Hit an elementary school at about 3pm on a school day about 2 miles away from where I lived, killed quite a few children as I recall. Lots of people lost everything they owned, their family, or their lives, that day.

If any of that sounds like fun to you - rent is cheap in moore! Fresh, new construction, too!

Ok soo, Bright day outside, nice and warm, been warm the last ten days, phone says its dry for the day......Went out in flip flops and shorts, no jacket.
I head off to the Boys & girls club I volunteer at. I sprain my ankle on the way, real bad, I had to get a brace. Voluntered for the day. when I leave its raining, hard. So I have to go back to the bus stop while it is pooring rain. Make it to the bus station. Head backto campus. I then have to head back to my apartment that is ontop of the campus bus only goes to the base. I hike up, it is still pooring rain. when I get there, the elevator is out. So I hike up the 3 flights of stairs with a sprained ankle. In the rain still cause their outside, and when I get there? Im wet, in pain and crying.

Ouze wrote:I don't really have any interesting severe weather stories, but this is a cool idea for a thread.

Yes, I thought so too.

Keep 'em coming, folks. I like the ones that have been posted.

June 2013, 3 tornados were around my town....one of them passed with a mile of our house as you can see from the video.

My son and I were on our way home when we spotted the first one, it was a good 10 to 12 miles away. My wife and two other kids were at home in the basement already. We took an alternate route to town, headed south as the tornado appeared to be heading east.

It then switched path and moved more south as we got closer to town.

As we were coming into town on the south side, we saw 2 smaller tornados in the fields to our east, maybe 2 miles from us at the most...they came out of nowhere.

The big one coming from the north came into town briefly...then pulled back up and and touched down again a bit further south east of town....

Had it not, the path it was on would have taken it right through our house/neighborhood.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
The big one was rated as an EF3

 Kap'n Krump wrote:
I lived in norman, Oklahoma for 4 years, then Moore, Oklahoma for about five years - if you want to see tornadoes, just move to Oklahoma city. There's somewhere in the OKC metro that gets nailed every year.

Dude, Moore. Move man. Move.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Kap'n Krump wrote:
I lived in norman, Oklahoma for 4 years, then Moore, Oklahoma for about five years - if you want to see tornadoes, just move to Oklahoma city. There's somewhere in the OKC metro that gets nailed every year.

Dude, Moore. Move man. Move.

....

I'm not sure what to say...

Let's see here, I remember watching a snowstorm make a large enough hill of snow for me to climb it to the top of my garage. Oh, and a few years ago we had -20°F weather. I do love Wisconsin.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Kap'n Krump wrote:
I lived in norman, Oklahoma for 4 years, then Moore, Oklahoma for about five years - if you want to see tornadoes, just move to Oklahoma city. There's somewhere in the OKC metro that gets nailed every year.

Dude, Moore. Move man. Move.

Check the 'location' information under my user profile. Note how it doesn't say "moore, Oklahoma".

Earth-shattering tornadoes are just one of the many reasons I left and never looked back. I love it in Denver.

For any interested, here's a fun interactive website showing before/after maps of the 2013 tornado:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/before-after-photos-plaza-towers-school_n_3332661.html

I am glad you made it out. Nothing like the LITERAL WRATH OF GOD coming right at you.

I live in Canada.

That is all.

Lightening hit my Hawk. Landed in Chicken Rd of FT Bragg. Burned out the Deicer blanket and blew fuses. Was the brightest point of my life at that time

 Frazzled wrote:
I am glad you made it out. Nothing like the LITERAL WRATH OF GOD coming right at you.

There's a reason Oklahoma is the buckle of the bible belt! People tend to get religious after witnessing that sort of thing annually.

"What do you mean all those plagues hitting Egypt couldn't have happened? We had them last week!"

 Frazzled wrote:
"What do you mean all those plagues hitting Egypt couldn't have happened? We had them last week!"

Half price bowling in Heaven last week Frazz.

Just posting here to remind myself to post the helmet cam from our department when the tornado hit out district.

A few years ago, I was sailing with my family. About two days after we had crossed into the Black Sea we got caught into this huge freaking thunderstorm. Now I have sailed into storms before, but this one was much worse than anything I had experienced so far. It was the middle of the day, but the sky became completely black and there were the biggest waves I have ever seen. Our boat went up and down like crazy. It feels pretty much like a very unstable rollercoaster that constantly goes up really fast and down even faster
My father is an experienced sailor and we have a pretty good boat, so he was constantly telling us not to worry, so at first it was kinda fun but then in the middle of the storm there was this huge waterspout mg:
At that point I went from being nervous to "Oh my god we are all going to die!" and even my dad got a little nervous. Luckily we managed to avoid it and we came out of the storm alright, but it really was one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking moments of my life.

I really wish I had taken some pictures but I was too busy cowering in the cabin worrying about surviving
I don't envy you guys living in tornado areas.

Oh yeah, thanks Cap for reminding me!

So me and my scout group goes out on a week long sailing trip every summer. Last time we were sailing to one of the easternmost islands in Sweden. The trip there was 6 hours of sailing. The storm hit just as we left the harbour. So our boats are supposed to lean away from the wind. That happens naturally when the sails get a lot of wind which pushes the boats. But I gak you not the boat was taking in water because it was leaning so much from the wind. We were literally using buckets to throw out wter while sailing at break-neck speeds.

Also, there's that one time I sailed over the Birch Bay (in Sweden) all alone withs torm winds. While my scout leader was sleeping. In the same boat.

Here is the video from when we had a Tornado tear through our district:

http://www.news9.com/Clip/3444432/watch-the-full-video-from-the-firefighters-helmet-cam

Not my cam, and I responded on a different truck when we started to roll out. The tornado was heading straight to our station and we were actually getting ready to respond to assist our neighboring department to the north when the department to the south announced that they were abandoning their truck and taking shelter 4 miles from our location. We kept an eye on the tornado and headed to the shelter when it was about a mile out, and it lifted about a quarter mile away from our station. That was the closest I ever want to be to one of those things!

No deaths or injuries in our district thankfully.

I remember one time driving through Iowa on my way up to Minnesota, I hit a really nasty storm. I had my music going, slowed down a bit, and just kept my eyes open as it was in the afternoon and starting to get darker.

Get through the storm just fine and all the sudden it's like someone flipped a switch. All the sudden sky is clear, sun is shining, and it's clear as far as the eye can see in front of me. Look behind me and it looks like the front of Twister. Lightning, huge thunderheads, and black as pitch.

Pull into the next town I see to get gas and decide to turn on the radio.

The town before that had just been hit by a tornado. I must've driven right past it and never seen it. It wasn't huge (couldn't have been more than an F1, F2 absolutely tops though I doubt it) but it would've really ruined my day if I had hit it. Spooked me pretty good, every cloud I saw after that got me tensed up for the rest of that drive.



Recently in Colorado, the ski resort I was working at got hit by an absolutely massive snowstorm. We'd had a couple warm weeks before it that had melted off the snow and next thing I know there's already a good 6 inches of fresh, heavy snow on the ground. Whiteout conditions, and I'm having to drive around a resort in a rear wheel drive V8 Ford van from the 80's. It was like Tokyo Drift: Ski Resort edition. To top it off, the highway was shutdown, so people were stuck on the highway and only choice they had for a place to stay was the resort. The expensive as hell ski resort for rich yuppies.

And they have no idea that front desk is a specific building, not the literally dozens of condominiums and hotels scattered throughout the area. Tourists who have no idea how to drive in normal snow, let alone a blizzard. And the resort has a truly bizarre layout where even employees can get lost the first few weeks they're there. And that's when you can see where the road is. The snow is coming down so hard that you can't tell the road from the drifts forming on the sides.

I have never seen such a clusterfeth in my life. Had I not driven there for 5 months at this point and had committed the road to memory, I would've run off the road at least 2 dozen times that night. And even then, I ran off the road once and got stuck multiple times in level, perfectly normal parking lots. It was an insane night. Having to dig your van out of a completely level parking lot in sideways snow at 8 PM at night remains one of my least favorite experiences.

I still remember the poor trucker who could barely speak english who parked in a bustop by accident, then got stuck and blocked the road for a good 20 minutes because he could only make it halfway out. Guests can't even see parking spots so cars are just parked wherever they can find a level piece of ground, usually getting stuck in the middle of roads or the lawns in front of buildings. It was incredible to watch.

I remember I got back to my room and just had a stiff drink. It was a really long night.

I've lived through five major hurricanes, four major winter/ice storms, and one tornado.


And I don't care to repeat any of it. Those were more than enough.

I don't have any interesting stories from the ground point of view, but I will say this: any weather is automatically many times more interesting when you are flying a small plane in it.

I actually have a thing for lightning myself lol.

Living in places i've lived, drought is a fairly common one, going 3 years without seeing rain at all was the worst.

In the same town, spent 9 months landlocked because of flood waters when i was in my teens, swimming pool disappeared underwater so we used to swim along the road to the pub and back. Had all food choppered in and nightly levie bank walks looking for leaks.

Lost half my roof in a storm and a few fences.

Doing some driving for work (airport pickup run) actually got pushed off the road from wind and rain (got back on ok though), lighting around everywhere, got to camp and had to take water truck out to put out fires started by lightning.

Funniest was when i headed out to help pull the local coppers landcruiser police vehicle out one time, 3 weeks old and it ended up in 2.3mtr deep floodwaters (still on the road though), total write off lol, drove up and could only see the top of an ariel.

Lots more that ive seen and driven through, dont get tornadoes like you guys though.

I lived in MN for 4 years. It got cold enough for rugby to be played on top of a lake, and then hot enough for the same lake to spawn legions of mosquitoes....legions.

So much bug spray was used.

 dogma wrote:
I lived in MN for 4 years. It got cold enough for rugby to be played on top of a lake, and then hot enough for the same lake to spawn legions of mosquitoes....legions.

So much bug spray was used.

After living in Minnesota and encountering everything you described, I told my family "imagine the worst every season has to offer around the united states, except for two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall. Thats Minnesota."

I will never understand why you would move there except for scotcharoos

The mosquitos there are so bad they can bite through fireproof none clothing, the summer heat with humidity is almost as bad as the south, and the winter is so cold I thought I a s going to freeze to death in my own house thanks to a horrible double whammy of wind and humidity that cuts to the bone