What's the worst weather you've ever experienced?

[Cagey]

We had a tornado come through the neighborhood last week. This is southwest Michigan, more specifically, the Detroit area, and we almost never see that sort of thing here. We get warnings and watches all the time - have been ever since I was a little kid - but nobody pays any attention to them because they never amount to anything. Worst thing we ever see is thunderstorms and blizzards, and we're used to those.

This was bizarre, though. Sky didn't look bad - I had just been out for a smoke - but air raid sirens were going off. They're sort of a vestigial civil service thing that started back during WWII, I suspect, when there was some fear in some idiot politician's head that Germany or Japan was going to bomb the US en masse. Gotta warn the public to "duck and cover" <grin>

Those atomic bombs won't get us here!​

Nonetheless, they've been sounding them ever since then every Saturday at 1:00 to make sure they still work for at least 50 years that I know of, and certainly before that.

So... I asked myself "WTF?" This is Thursday. Have the dreaded Krauts and Nips finally figured out where we are? Interesting. Well, I've to things to do.

[source]​

10 minutes later, all hell breaks loose. Almost simultaneously, we lose power, and it sounded like a passenger jet was spooling up for takeoff outside. Have a look out the garage bay door, and you couldn't see for 5 feet. 75 to 90 mph winds pushing golf ball sized hail, and I mean tons and tons of it, along jillions of gallons of water was going horizontally past the door. First time in my life I've ever been tempted to actually seek protective shelter in a basement or someplace like that during a storm.

Long story short, it did a lot of damage, but appears to have been pretty local. Lotta windows out, cars and any other kind of sheet metal stuff severely beaten, trees either snapped, uprooted, or denuded, gardens just shredded to mush... on and on. Never seen anything like it before. Luckily, we have a brick building, the racecar was inside, and all we lost were a couple storm window screens, our flower garden, and took a lot of water on in the basement. Nothing insurmountable.

You see pictures of this sort to thing or worse on TV, and you intellectually accept that such things happen. I mean, the Gulf states are forever getting hit by hurricanes and tropical storms, and in some of the midwest states tornados are common enough that people build underground shelters specifically as a personal defense against them. But until you actually experience it, you can't appreciate the power of mother nature.

Anybody here got some good storm stories?

 

[jalane]

Yeah that was crazy, wasn't it?  I was hanging out in Shelby Township at my in-laws, it was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we were grilling kabobs, then all of a sudden, here come the sirens.  We honestly didn't take it very seriously (kind of stupid in hindsight), we just wheeled the grill into the garage and went back to our Whiffle-Ball game (yes, we were playing whiffle ball, it was awesome).  All of a sudden out of nowhere comes this torrential downpour so we ran inside and turned on the news and heard about the confirmed twister sitings. 

In the end, it was all good for us.  Rained like hell for about 10 minutes and then it was over.  Starting about a mile east of us, though, they didn't fare as well.  We went for a drive after dinner and saw tons of uprooted trees, several smashed car windshields, etc.

 

[mayfly]

I lived through the big tornado in Edmonton in the late 80's.  In that one we had soft-ball sized hailstones, horizontal rain like you had, and the damage was incredible.  Edmonton is an oil town - and the tornado touched down once or twice in "refinery row".  Some of those huge oil tanks were crushed like pop cans.  Freaking incredible.  I had an international harvester 4x4 at the time and was glad to have it - there was a lot of debris on the roads and getting anywhere took interesting driving skills.

It killed 27 people and destroyed 300 homes.  Here's a pic:

Oh - and my IH was parked next to my buddies honda civic.  The honda was totaled by the hail - and the IH had one dent

 

[TBurst Std]

Toss up between a tornado and some hurricanes.

The tornado skipped over the house I grew up in, but got the one at the end of the street. I was yound and do not remember what damage we received, but the house at the end of the street was pretty much toast.

In 2004, I experienced 3 pretty much direct hits from hurricanes Charley (CAT 4), Francis and Jean.
Lost roof, fencing, electrical and plumbing fixtures, screen room and assorted trees (one of which was 30ft tall, it fell away from the house thank God.)
To add to it, I was a few days out of a double hernia surgery and not suppose to lift anything over 5 lbs when Charley hit, Aug 13th.
Had to rush to clean up, get trees and debris removed and get a tarp fix going on the roof as Francis (CAT 2) hit 3 weeks later.
Three weeks after Francis, got hit again by Jeanne (CAT 3).

2004 was not a great year. Took about 1-1.25 years to get everything right.

 

[Mor Paul]

Well, this one time years ago, when it was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGLZqDXau98

 

[Cagey]

Yeah that was crazy, wasn't it?  I was hanging out in Shelby Township at my in-laws, it was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we were grilling kabobs, then all of a sudden, here come the sirens.  We honestly didn't take it very seriously (kind of stupid in hindsight), we just wheeled the grill into the garage and went back to our Whiffle-Ball game (yes, we were playing whiffle ball, it was awesome).  All of a sudden out of nowhere comes this torrential downpour so we ran inside and turned on the news and heard about the confirmed twister sitings. 

In the end, it was all good for us.  Rained like hell for about 10 minutes and then it was over.  Starting about a mile east of us, though, they didn't fare as well.  We went for a drive after dinner and saw tons of uprooted trees, several smashed car windshields, etc.

Yeah, I'm just south of there in Clinton Township. Never seen anything like it.

 

[Cagey]

I lived through the big tornado in Edmonton in the late 80's.  In that one we had soft-ball sized hailstones, horizontal rain like you had, and the damage was incredible.  It killed 27 people and destroyed 300 homes. 

Amazing what a difference in temperature will cause the air to do, isn't it?

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I've had my share of Hurricanes growing up on the TX Gulf Coast.  Nothing Katrina or Ike like in comparison, I had moved away by then, but there were several times we loaded up our valueables and drove a few hours inland to still be beat to death, hoping to return to a non-looted still standing home.  Hurrican Alicia in '83 bumped school starting 2 weeks back.  I remember seeing a boat on top of a 2 story house.  There were several near misses, as a storm builds strength and can still go anywhere.  It's sad but you measure the success on the damage it did somewhere else instead of to you.

 

[Paul-less]

July 17th there were about 40 tornadoes in Minnesota.

I was at an outdoor concert, and the band was covering Neon Knights. As soon as the sirens started going off, people started to run for their cars, and the band got really pumped up, and switched to War Pigs. :headbang1:
Hands down one of the coolest concert experiences I have ever had.

 

[Patrick]

i live in maryland and we dont get any really BAD weather. i mean we get a huge blizzards every 5 or 10 years but the only terrible, if you can call it that, storm i can remember is hurricane Isabel. a flying tree limb ripped our roof openand we were without power for three weeks.

 

[Cagey]

July 17th there were about 40 tornadoes in Minnesota.

I was at an outdoor concert, and the band was covering Neon Knights. As soon as the sirens started going off, people started to run for their cars, and the band got really pumped up, and switched to War Pigs. :headbang1:
Hands down one of the coolest concert experiences I have ever had.

War Pigs! LOL! Nice segue from the air raid sirens!

 

[Cagey]

i live in maryland and we dont get any really BAD weather. i mean we get a huge blizzards every 5 or 10 years but the only terrible, if you can call it that, storm i can remember is hurricane Isabel. a flying tree limb ripped our roof openand we were without power for three weeks.

Being without power is a real hardship, almost worse than getting something destroyed. I mean, it's amazing how fast your beer will get warm! <grin>

 

[pabloman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySNON249yes :icon_jokercolor:

 

[pabloman]

One day back in the summer of 97 I was headed up the highway and all hell broke loose. All the traffic came to a sudden stop. It was so dangerous. Visibility was zero. It felt like my truck was going to lift of the ground. I got out and headed for the ditch. After all the dust settled and I finally made my way to Dallas I heard that the town of Jarrell was pretty much leveled by an F5 Tornado. Then when we lived in Hawaii hurricane Iniki came through. Thas was a Category 4. We didn't take such a direct hit but on an island theres really no place to go.

 

[whitebison66]

I've been through hurricanes and blizzards in New England, and typhoons in Hong Kong.

It's an odd sensation to feel a 24-story building swaying in the wind.

 

[DangerousR6]

We had a tornado come through the neighborhood last week. This is southwest Michigan, more specifically, the Detroit area, and we almost never see that sort of thing here. We get warnings and watches all the time - have been ever since I was a little kid - but nobody pays any attention to them because they never amount to anything. Worst thing we ever see is thunderstorms and blizzards, and we're used to those.

This was bizarre, though. Sky didn't look bad - I had just been out for a smoke - but air raid sirens were going off. They're sort of a vestigial civil service thing that started back during WWII, I suspect, when there was some fear in some idiot politician's head that Germany or Japan was going to bomb the US en masse. Gotta warn the public to "duck and cover" <grin>

Those atomic bombs won't get us here!​

Nonetheless, they've been sounding them ever since then every Saturday at 1:00 to make sure they still work for at least 50 years that I know of, and certainly before that.

So... I asked myself "WTF?" This is Thursday. Have the dreaded Krauts and Nips finally figured out where we are? Interesting. Well, I've to things to do.

[source]​

10 minutes later, all hell breaks loose. Almost simultaneously, we lose power, and it sounded like a passenger jet was spooling up for takeoff outside. Have a look out the garage bay door, and you couldn't see for 5 feet. 75 to 90 mph winds pushing golf ball sized hail, and I mean tons and tons of it, along jillions of gallons of water was going horizontally past the door. First time in my life I've ever been tempted to actually seek protective shelter in a basement or someplace like that during a storm.

Long story short, it did a lot of damage, but appears to have been pretty local. Lotta windows out, cars and any other kind of sheet metal stuff severely beaten, trees either snapped, uprooted, or denuded, gardens just shredded to mush... on and on. Never seen anything like it before. Luckily, we have a brick building, the racecar was inside, and all we lost were a couple storm window screens, our flower garden, and took a lot of water on in the basement. Nothing insurmountable.

You see pictures of this sort to thing or worse on TV, and you intellectually accept that such things happen. I mean, the Gulf states are forever getting hit by hurricanes and tropical storms, and in some of the midwest states tornados are common enough that people build underground shelters specifically as a personal defense against them. But until you actually experience it, you can't appreciate the power of mother nature.

Anybody here got some good storm stories?

Hmmmmm, plenty of sarcasm, and hails from Detroit, you wouldn't happen to be Sir Schmoopy reincarnate would you? :icon_scratch:

 

[JaySwear]

the other week we had 2 huge storms in one day. the first was really just a ton of lightening around 6:30am. woke me up. was crazy, like nothing i had seen before. literally lightening strike after lightening strike. was like it was daytime outside. the second, though, was a tornado watch / warning / whatever. while it never touched down there was definitely rotation and it had some pretty damaging winds. pretty much everybody in the area had damage to something. the craziest was an apartment building in Gaithersburg that was almost literally cut in half by a tree (see picture below). tornados are EXTREMELY rare in this area. we also had 24" of snow last year :icon_biggrin: that was crazy too.

 

[-CB-]

Hurricanes Betsy, Frederick, George, Andrew, Charley, Francis, Jean, Wilma... and a bit of Katrina.  Worst for me was Wilma... we had in excess of 124mph winds.  I know that, because the anemometer blew off the roof of the local shelter and the needle stuck at 124mph/108knots - squarely cat-3 grade winds, but... the storm wasn't at its peak when the damn thing blew off!

I had a few big limbs (8", 12" or so) fall off my big oak tree.  Didn't hit Fort =CeeB=, so.. it was just chainsaw work.  Went over to help friends in Tampa move out some really big trees, bigger than I had saw for, but somehow gravity and enough relief cuts got the job done.  It was a mess, no power for 14 (or 15) days.  Campbells chunky soup from the can with crackers, and lots of bottled water was the meals-du-jour thrice daily. 

First thing I did when we got power... MAKE COFFEE!~

 

[pabloman]

You are persistant SOB I'll give ya that. So are you just gonna take whatever mother nature throws at ya? I would consider relocation. :dontknow:

 

[-CB-]

Nah.... and miss all those Drambuie laced hurricane parties... NEVER!~