Thunderstorm and Tornado Season is here!!!

[matt8325]

Originally Posted by AJ1972

I'm born and raised in the NYC area, and I would much rather have snow.
However, I've lived in South Florida for over 15 years, and I fear Tornadoes much
more than Hurricanes.
Now that I'm living in Georgia, I'll say I did NOT enjoy yesterdays weather AT ALL!

Same here, I absolutely hate ANY kind of severe weather. Having gone through a tornado and having my house destroyed, every time we have a severe threat I get really nervous and all the memories from that tornado come back. I do think that the media often overhypes events which makes me even more nervous.

[AJ1972]

Originally Posted by OrlFlaUsa

I took some time to look it up and wish to clarify by providing the following statement from Wikipedia:
Apologize for the misrepresentation guys, however I did know that the ones in Fl are usually the EF0/EF1 variety. While DT Atlanta's tornado was pretty rare and stunning (for lack of a much better word), check out this photo of DT Miami's most famous twister.

I lived in South Florida during this one.
They were showing it live on TV as it was happening.
I was totally freaking out!
This was 1997 I think.

[OrlFlaUsa]

Originally Posted by AJ1972

I lived in South Florida during this one.
They were showing it live on TV as it was happening.
I was totally freaking out!
This was 1997 I think.

Yeah it's been awhile, but was truly remarkable unlike the one in DT Atlanta which did some considerable damage. I'll say I've never feared weather until I left hurricane prone Florida for the piedmont region of SC. Now everytime it storms down here in Orlando (which during summer is daily at 3-4pm lol) I find myself freaking out that some rogue tornado is going to hit my apartment complex. Meanwhile, visions of my 3rd story roof blowing off and exposing us and our cats huddled in the bathtub with a mattress over our heads, play through my mind like a slideshow on repeat. Then I remind myself that I'm in Florida and that the threat of inland natural disaster is actually very low.

[RoslynHolcomb]

I hate the way the television stations overhype the weather as well. My tolerance is fairly high as I was in Alabama during the 1973 Super Outbreak. We had seven tornadoes touch down in one day. One pretty much obliterated my hometown. I was also in Huntsville when one killed more than 20 people and laid a swathe of destruction that is still amazing to this day. Having said that, I can understand why people would be upset, but as long as we have a Gulf of Mexico below us and Canada above us we're going to get tornadoes. Near as I can tell Alabama is substantially worse than Georgia, at least this part of Georgia. It seems that by the time the cells get here they've pretty much burned out.

[matt8325]

Originally Posted by RoslynHolcomb

I hate the way the television stations overhype the weather as well. My tolerance is fairly high as I was in Alabama during the 1973 Super Outbreak. We had seven tornadoes touch down in one day. One pretty much obliterated my hometown. I was also in Huntsville when one killed more than 20 people and laid a swathe of destruction that is still amazing to this day. Having said that, I can understand why people would be upset, but as long as we have a Gulf of Mexico below us and Canada above us we're going to get tornadoes. Near as I can tell Alabama is substantially worse than Georgia, at least this part of Georgia. It seems that by the time the cells get here they've pretty much burned out.

The Super Outbreak was 1974, not 1973.

[brownhornet]

I dont think the news overhypes anything. Thats the thing about tornadoes, even they can only give a general area where they THINK a tornado may touch down. I'd much rather than over do it than not give it any attention at all and someone not pay attention and die as a result of it. I dont think people realize that the storms yesterday could've easily turned out to be a lot worse than what they were. There was a tornadic super cell that did quite a bit of destruction just about an hour of Dalton. Could've easily been here.

You have to also keep in mind that quite often during weather like that a lot of people cant hear the tornado sirens and may not know whats coming. Personally I think they do a good job of showing the general area where a tornado may be.

[arjay57]

I dread the storms. While we do have wonderful trees in this city, many are old and have been weakened by the cycles of drought. One of our whopping oaks fell on my neighbor's house about 8 years ago and did several hundred thousand worth of damage. Another one fell and hit our house last year. It tore off part of the deck and knocked a hole in the roof. In both cases the trees just lost their footing in the soil and toppled over. Fortunately nobody was hurt but when those things come down it's like a freight train.

[AnsleyPark]

Folks - I highly recommend contracting with a tree service to injection fertilize your large trees. arjay's experience is pretty darn common around the area, and a good fertilizer regiment can go a long way in preventing this.