Had my first TORNADO today! Pretty cool stuff. (Just got the power back on.)

[DesignDawg]

Hey all,

Right after lunchtime, a big storm hit. While I was watching it, at some point I thought to myself "I've NEVEr seen anything like this before." All I knew was that it looked pretty much like video I watched a week ago from a hurricane, and I thought it might be a tornado. The wind blew a power line down across the street, and it was "LIGHTS OUT". We were without electricity for 11 hours today, and I have since found out from a friend over the phone (since I obviously haven't heard any news today) that it WAS indeed a tornado. Town looks like a WRECK. Lots of damage, but none of it affects me directly, so that's a relief.
Kinda exciting in a way.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[yakko]

Glad to hear you're ok.

 

[Soybomb]

Are the bikes okay?

 

[luv2chill]

Severe weather is COOL (if nobody gets hurt that is!). I live in Kansas and we get quite a lot of severe weather in the spring. A couple of years ago I watched a thunderstorm move in, but something was different about it. The clouds looked like they were "churning"... not just moving in a straight line, but like moving in all sorts of directions. I spotted a couple of funnel clouds. Then the sirens went off and I knew it was for real. Foolishly I stood out there and watched it the whole time (along with a bunch of other people in my apt complex!) but I'm just so fascinated by it all. Fortunately, none of the funnel clouds actually materialized into tornados, but we came really close. In fact, somewhere I have a pic someone took of the storm from another town, I'll see if I can dig it up.

l2c

Edit: Check this out!

 

[DesignDawg]

Hehe. Indeed they are. The winds were blowing West to East, and my apartment faces due North. The bikes are under a covered patio with no guard to the North, but APARTMENTs protecting them from East to West. They didn't even know it happened. Just a little buffeting. Nice little parking space. Keeps them out of wind, rain, and sun 24/7/365. Closest to a garage you're gonna get for an apartment, I guess.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[ArkAoss]

your in the carolina area right dawg?
think that storm has moved over and past my area, it was very very weak though, thanks for taking the brunt.

 

[DesignDawg]

Starkville, MS. Here (where I live) and Columbus (where my wife works) seem to be the places that got ripped the hardest today. (according to friends watching the news in Memphis and my parents in FL)

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Jmman]

Actually severe weather is pretty cool, just as long as you don't get hurt or anything. I have been through the big three, a hurricane, a tornado, and a typhoon.....

 

[DesignDawg]

I envy you. I've ALWAYS loved severe weather. THis, however, was the first time ever that I have had the thought "Damn. I better get the hell away fromt he window." My wife's school actually had a few windows implode. I got to see a big-ass steel trash bin literally FLY through the air across the street and wrap itself around a pole. That was right around the time the wires on the poles were dancing, hitting each other, making sparks, and I thought about getting away fromt he window.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Impact55]

In a sick way I love tornadoes. When I'm older I might chase them as a hobby.

 

[Jmman]

The one that really scared me was the typhoon. This was a couple of years ago in Hong Kong, and it really scared the crap out of me. The place was pretty screwed up.....

 

[DaveJ]

Yeah, severe weather is cool... We get a fair amount of it here in Ft. Worth... you know things are bad when you start hearing thuds on the roof, then realize it's softball sized hail! :Q That same storm took out the front and rear glass on my car, and blew the tree in the front yard down, missing the neighbor's truck by about two feet...

Dave

 

[Jmman]

I used to stay every summer on Lake Whitney down there in Texas, and I saw some real wild weather. We had a tv basically blow up because the antenna on the roof got struck by lightning, and I even saw a few tornados fairly close-up. I live in Denver now, and in the summer we have had a few of those hail storms as well. A couple of years ago a large hailstone literally broke off my side mirror on my car...I couldn't believe it....

 

[TonyG]

I live in the Texas Panhandle near Amarillo and we get lots of severe weather. Everyone in a while my neighbor will take me storm chasing, he works for a local new station. Severe weather is cool and I am lucky because the town I live in is down in a big hole I guess you could say so all the tornados go around us.

 

[bastula]

Glad to hear you are ok. I lived in (parents still live there) Oklahoma for almost 10 years and haven't seen a tornado once. But a few months before we moved there, a tornado ripped through the addition that we live in now.

 

[Azraele]

Wow. Good thing you weren't hurt.

Worst storm I was in was a doozie that lasted from about 6pm through the night spawning off several tornados. When I woke up the next morning, the town was a wreck, road torn uo, sidewalk gone, trees down everywhere and houses missing big chunks.

Second worst one was at the beach in NC. A strom rolled in about noon and as I was heading for the cottage, I reach the steps up and look up to see a huge heavy wooden deck chair( not really a chair, it's the kind you lay on) flying toward my head. I ducked and it sailed over me and over the dune.