Tornados and Other Severe Weather

[FinalFantasyFan]

So I'm sitting in my apartment's laundry room on the first floor. It has no doors or windows. You guessed it, I'm under a Tornado warning. It's the second one or so in like a week, and it's a little inconvenient, but it got me wondering. I've never truly experienced severe weather, and I was wondering if anyone here on EC had. Maybe you've survived through a hurricane or seen a Tornado a few miles away. If so, aside from the obvious terrifying, what was the experience like? What did you do? This was just because I'm curious and would like to hear your stories.

[theJosephDean]

The only time I experienced a tornado was when I was eight. I lived up in this mountainous area with a lot of my maternal grandmother's family, and we all went to an uncle's house because his was the only one with a basement. I don't remember much but the thunder and my female cousins freaking the hell out (). =/

I've experienced lots of severe thunderstorms since then (as I'm sure we all have), but nothing as serious as what that was supposed to have been.

Well down here we get Hurricanes,Tornadoes, and Thunderstorms but it really doesn't get that bad. Usually for a category 4 or 5 though people evacuate and stuff but that hasn't happened in years. The thunderstorms are the most frequent but they aren't really that big of a deal since they don't generally last too long. I've been through a few hurricanes and they aren't as terrifying as they make them seem in the movies it's just kind of scary when their passing by and you can hear the really strong wind and rain outside.

We get a few tornado warnings every year here.

The only major one I remember was when I was little. I was so scared because the winds outside were so strong it blew out all our windows facing in the opposite direction. I was so scared I was puking in the bathroom (I was like..6..) I finally got up and looked outside and trees were down, power lines were sparking, and it was brown. Just because of all the dirt.

Apparently there was a tornado downtown (it wasn't a big city, so the downtown wasn't that big) which was only a quarter mile away.

Very scary. I'm still afraid of severe storms when there isn't some sort of underground room.

LOL! A TORNADO WARNING WAS JUST ISSUED FOR MY COUNTY! Good thing my rooms in the basement. ;3 *goes to wake up parents*

[Zumbro]

I lived in MN until 2008, and we had tornado warnings ALL THE TIME. You are looking at it from the wrong perspective though. In my neighborhood, whenever there was a tornado siren (we were at the corner of a bunch of cities, and could hear 5 different zones at once), everybody went outside. If a tornado destroys your home, sitting in the basement might help, but until you hear the sound like a train, you're probably safe enough to be outside. There were two I remember in particular. Once, the sky was green, as it will sometimes turn with tornadoes (no touchdown though). Another was a crazy day with a couple of tornadoes at once. Looking up and seeing the clouds swirling above me trying to start was awesome!

Tornadoes are dangerous, but there's really not much you can do about them, so enjoy the power of nature while you can see it.

[FinalFantasyFan]

Originally Posted by Zumbro

I lived in MN until 2008, and we had tornado warnings ALL THE TIME. You are looking at it from the wrong perspective though. In my neighborhood, whenever there was a tornado siren (we were at the corner of a bunch of cities, and could hear 5 different zones at once), everybody went outside. If a tornado destroys your home, sitting in the basement might help, but until you hear the sound like a train, you're probably safe enough to be outside. There were two I remember in particular. Once, the sky was green, as it will sometimes turn with tornadoes (no touchdown though). Another was a crazy day with a couple of tornadoes at once. Looking up and seeing the clouds swirling above me trying to start was awesome!

Tornadoes are dangerous, but there's really not much you can do about them, so enjoy the power of nature while you can see it.

That's terrifying and awesome at the same time. Yeah, it turns out nothing actually happened here, which was nice. I think it would be cool to storm chase from a safe distance away. Things to add to my bucket list.

[starfish]

Well I grew up in a trailer. As we all know trailers attract tornados.

Though we were fortunate that our land was near the bottom of a valley, so the tornados dissipated as they entered the valley. They hit a couple of times at the other end of the street, and relocated a few trailers. I was about 6 the first time and about 22 the second time.

We would usually just stand outside and watch, as it really was safer than staying in the trailer.

We also had really high straight line winds all the time. The area used to be farm land so it was flat with no trees. Nothing to slow the wind down. It was not unusual to get 80MPH winds during a good thunderstorm. We had one take the roof off the porch, another blow the barn over, and another time the wind picked up my sisters trampoline and carried it several hundred yards.

I don't worry about severe weather, as there is nothing I can do about it. I am so used to it, that I sleep though the worst of thunderstorms.

[MusicIsLife]

Today I sat through a 15 second earthquake? It was 5.0 north of ottawa, so it wasnt all that strong here, but the windows were rattling.

I've also gone through ice storm 1998, that was pure hell. Everything was encased in ice. And I've seen my fair share of severe thunderstorms.

Originally Posted by Zumbro

I lived in MN until 2008, and we had tornado warnings ALL THE TIME. You are looking at it from the wrong perspective though. In my neighborhood, whenever there was a tornado siren (we were at the corner of a bunch of cities, and could hear 5 different zones at once), everybody went outside. If a tornado destroys your home, sitting in the basement might help, but until you hear the sound like a train, you're probably safe enough to be outside. There were two I remember in particular. Once, the sky was green, as it will sometimes turn with tornadoes (no touchdown though). Another was a crazy day with a couple of tornadoes at once. Looking up and seeing the clouds swirling above me trying to start was awesome!

Tornadoes are dangerous, but there's really not much you can do about them, so enjoy the power of nature while you can see it.

One word. Debris.

[Maddy]

Every time there's some kind of severe weather in Melbourne in the last couple of years (such as earthquakes and enormous storms/flash floods) I've been at uni about an hour outside of Melbourne and not seen it.

[Apocalypte]

We don't really get severe weather... everything unusual here would be considered painfully average in the rest of the world.

[s5m1]

I experienced a category 5 hurricane when Andrew hit Miami. It was the most terrifying night of my life. As it approached, there were eerie, green flashes of light in the distance as transformers exploded all around. We were located right where the eye wall hit. The house had hurricane shutters and a strong roof, but it made sounds that buildings are just not supposed to make. The roof was groaning and creaking, and I thought it would tear off at any moment. Debris continually slammed into the shutters and doors, sounding like explosions as they hit. The angry, howling wind was so loud that we had to shout to talk, and we could still barely hear each other, even though we were only feet apart. The huge, mahogany front doors bowed inward as if they were balsa wood. They pulsed back and forth as if they were breathing. We were so scared that they were going to break open that we tied them closed with a rope around the handles. Torrents of rain sprayed into the house through every crack and crevice that we never knew was there.

Not surprisingly, the electricity had gone out at the very beginning of the storm. However, to our surprise, the phone rang at the height of the storm when my sister called from another state to see if we were okay. That was the last time the phone worked for weeks after.

The storm lasted through the night. When we emerged the next morning, the neighborhood was devastated. Houses up and down the block that lacked shutters were completely blown through. A huge chunk of the second floor in the house across the street was gone. Massive amounts of debris were everywhere. You could hardly see the grass. Trees, both little and small, were down as far as you could see. Those trees that were still standing were completely stripped of their leaves. It was as if Agent Orange had been dropped on the area. Power lines and poles were down all over. Streets were impassible. Entire blocks were wiped out, businesses blown away and street signs gone. Finding your way around was nearly impossible in some areas because nothing was recognizable, as all the landmarks were gone.

As you can tell, the storm made a lasting impact on me. It is something I will never forget and that I hope I never experience again.

[Phoenix]

One of the many reasons I'm glad to live where I do is that our severe weather is limited to thunderstorms (I hear we're expecting quite a bad one later today, coincidentally) and snowstorms in the winter.

[Cheria]

Well yesterday, I went to see Toy Story 3 (again).
The previews started when suddenly the staff came in to tell us that there's a tornado warning and that we had to relocate to a safer place.
I'm not sure which was worse, the fact that we didn't even get to the movie yet or people whose movies were interrupted.

[Ben]

I was in America when there was a tornado warning once! There was loads of lightning and stuff.

But where I live we only get the odd blizzard, gale and flood. Whenever we get mildly harsh weather in the village, everyone's power cuts out. It happens really really often.
I have a candle in my room with some emergency matches.

I've had school called off because on a few occasions—one is flooding because the rivers burst and everywhere get all watery. And the other was heavy snow and ice on the roads.

[Swamp56]

The thing about tornadoes that differs from other major storms is that they destroy only the area in which they are located, and nothing that surrounds them. But when they hit you, the damage can be extreme.

[Daniel]

I live in the Fingerlakes Region of New York State. The long lakes put so much moisture in the air that snow can fall for days, melt on the ground, poor back into the lakes, and snow again.

We've had white-outs where you can't see outside your window and everything becomes just snow. It get's dark and everything alive just disappears. It's creepy.

White devils form too because of the wind on top of the hills. I live on a farm called Windswept Farms. Guess what-it's windy! We have our house surrounded by trees to help block the wind and the white devils.

[VampConspiracy]

We have the occasional thunderstorm in the spring and summer months and the occasional snow in the winter months. Tornadoes can happen around here, but I have been (un)lucky enough not to see one. I am somewhat of a weather geek, so I am always vigilant...

[ivyjock]

oh chicago weather.

[Cheria]

Originally Posted by ivyjock

oh chicago weather.

Amen.