Severe Weather (Austin, Wichita Falls, Howe: rent, job, art)

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by seahawksweetie

Thanks!! We're thinking about North Richland Hills or Keller area.

To keep it on topic, it would be cool if anyone happens to have any pics of the lightning or rain or storm clouds to post.

That would be cool to see.

How about a tornado? I live 65 miles south of Fort Worth and these photos were taken in 2000 not far from my house.

Looking for Town for MINIMAL Weather Action

You can click on the thumbnails and get a bigger picture.

[momof2dfw]

I've yet to witness a tornado in my 40+ years living in Texas. But after the last two weeks on vacation we have been closer to funnels in Georgia than we ever have been here in Texas. Two as a matter of fact w/in 10 miles of us while we were in Savannah over the weekend. YIKES! Then the day we left Savannah to head down to St Augustine right after we left Savannah they got a downpour that flooded the downtown area right were we had been for several days. Then to top that off on the same day while on our journey we made a detour to see St Simon and ended up in the most torrential downpour and I'm not kidding the most horrific lightning storm EVER! People had their flashers on and we turned ours on too as that was the only way you could see the car in front of you even w/ their lights on. Lightning bolts were flying in every direction. There is this HUGE expansion bridge and we needed to go over it to continue our journey. That is till we saw lightning strike one of the main supports. Umm, we will find another way. Once we determined that we REALLY needed to go the way of the bridge we all collectively agreed we would be okay and went for it. As we approached the last PAVED turn around dh asked again if we were all sure. "Yes, we will be fine it is okay". HAH! Right then in front of our eyes lightning struck the bridge. The pavement shook I swear and you could hear the crackle and pop and of course blinded you. My lovely and reassuring, confident husband TURNED THAT BABY AROUND RIGHT THERE! Thank the Good Lord no cars were coming from the other direction as he made his own turn around. We then spent the next 45 minutes trying to get out of Brunswick, Georgia and back over to I-95 going thru parts of town that were flooded and some were a little on the shady side all without having to cross that darn bridge.

After that there is NO lightning in all of Texas that I have seen that has gotten us ALL rattled and scared so much.

[seahawksweetie]

Thanks everyone for the pics!

Wow, mom that was must have been extremely scary. I remember we were on vacation once in Mississippi and it was raining so hard we could hardly see the road. I was only about 10 and my dad happen to point out a tornado probably about 10 miles east of us. That was freaky.

[KewGee]

Weather always seems worse when one is out and about. I hate driving in the pouring down rain because I can't see anything and the only smart thing to do is pull over and wait. What I usually do is pull into a parking lot and run in a store or restaurant.

We had 29 tornadoes in the area south of the metroplex on December 29, 2006. I happened to be out and about that day never thinking I'd be hit by bad weather in December. I was traveling in Joshua (Johnson County) and on the radio, WBAP announced a tornado was heading toward Joshua. Amazingly, I didn't panic but stopped driving and waited it out at a store while the tornado sirens were blaring.

Then after that, I headed back home and within a few minutes, another tornado report came on the radio that one was approaching Rio Vista and headed to Cleburne. I was in Rio Vista at the time, so again, I pulled over, stopped at a store and everyone was escorted to the stockroom for safety.

Finally a made it home but not without a death grip on the steering wheel as the sky in my direction was pitch black and off and on, the rain came down in buckets.

I remember on a visit to Texas when I was a teen, I was driving around Fort Worth with my family and a lightning bolt hit the pavement right in front of our car. Yikes! That was pretty frightening to me and the noise of the thunder was quite obnoxious. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have ever moved here if I hadn't been young and not so wise. Yes, I'm still here, but family holds me to the area.

Of course, in 29 years of living here, I have many other weather tales about Texas, but there isn't any need to mention them. Everyone who lives here knows what the weather is like and of course, many other states have horrendous weather as well.

The only good thing about visiting the other bad states is one can get away from that weather by returning home. Since Texas is my home now, I can't escape the violent weather very well; therefore, I remain cautious.

[debntx]

Momof2, as you may know, much of the state of Georiga and beyond has been in a serious drought this year(something I know you can relate to being from this area). The recent fires that was all over the news awhile back burned quite alot of the area of South Georgia and North cental Florida. Much of that area is well below their normal rainfall this year so the rain was probably a much welcomed sight to the locals, although not with such intensity, I am sure. And as KewGee said, weather does always seem to be worse when we have to be out driving in it and especially away from home. I'm from Florida and I've never experienced weather like you described except during a hurricane when I was a child. But I've sure experienced it here in Fort Worth this year. Hail the size of marbles and golf balls, strong, strong winds, the loudest thunder, really incredible lightening, rain so hard you couldn't see the street in front of our home and lots and lots and lots of it (we all remember that . And there for awhile the tornado warnings were coming often and there were lives lost due to tornados here. My husband and I have lived a lot of places but the metroplex has some of the worst weather we've seen. Now...the really hot weather comes.

[KewGee]

Chatham County, Georgia (Savannah) has had 22 tornadoes in the past 57 years. None have been stronger than an F2 and no deaths, but 21 injuries.

On the other hand, Dallas County has had 80 tornadoes with 13 deaths and 355 injuries. 7 of those tornadoes have been F3s and 1 has been an F4.

Again, in the past 57 years regarding lightning, St. Johns County (St. Augustine) and Dallas County stats show Dallas County to have had 21 lightning events, 5 deaths and 6 injuries and St. Johns to have had 21 lightning events with 5 deaths and 2 injuries.

Gosh, sorry. I forgot I'm on the Fort Worth forum. Okay, more stats.

Tarrant County has had 43 lightning events with 1 death and 6 injuries.

That county has had 76 tornadoes (4 of them being F3s), 2 deaths, and 126 injuries.

Oh and speaking of floods, Texas never floods.

If people are moving to Texas, I believe giving them proper information about the weather here is important. I doubt they care about some place they'll never live unless it's on the Weather Forum where people tell about all weather horror stories or good stories as well.

[loves2read]

there is not way to predict one way or the other if anyone will be in path of tornado or struck by lightening--TX has bad weather but so do other parts of country--especially lately...

[beowulf7]

One of the most fascinating TX tornadoes I've heard about is the Red River Valley Tornado Outbreak that struck Wichita Falls in 1979. Also, check out a survivor's story. That's wild!!

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by KewGee

Chatham County, Georgia (Savannah) has had 22 tornadoes in the past 57 years. None have been stronger than an F2 and no deaths, but 21 injuries.

On the other hand, Dallas County has had 80 tornadoes with 13 deaths and 355 injuries. 7 of those tornadoes have been F3s and 1 has been an F4.

Again, in the past 57 years regarding lightning, St. Johns County (St. Augustine) and Dallas County stats show Dallas County to have had 21 lightning events, 5 deaths and 6 injuries and St. Johns to have had 21 lightning events with 5 deaths and 2 injuries.

Gosh, sorry. I forgot I'm on the Fort Worth forum. Okay, more stats.

Tarrant County has had 43 lightning events with 1 death and 6 injuries.

That county has had 76 tornadoes (4 of them being F3s), 2 deaths, and 126 injuries.

Oh and speaking of floods, Texas never floods.

If people are moving to Texas, I believe giving them proper information about the weather here is important. I doubt they care about some place they'll never live unless it's on the Weather Forum where people tell about all weather horror stories or good stories as well.

Maybe you don't care but I was putting it into perspective. Especially when one considers that many of these people looking to relocate here may have lived in or visited a state like Florida. While we were there and in these storms only LATER did we find out on more than one occassion that we were so near a tornado. No sirens at all, no warnings, nada. THAT is scary. At least in Texas our weather forcasters warn us as much as possible well in advance. Then the issue of lightning. The lightning we were in was NOTHING compared to what I have witnessed in 40+ years here in Texas. Yes sometimes bad weather seems worse when one is away from home but in this case, it was BAD! Then later on the news that night there in Florida I saw the report about lightning they did. Florida leads the nation in fatalities from lightning. Texas is not far behind but Florida and Georgia were right up there and higher. They showed the stats and even showed the radar of lightning strikes that we see here in the DFW weather reports. Nothing I've seen in Dallas compares. I've got a pretty good memory and I've yet to see a radar covered that much w/ lightning strikes here in Dallas.

As for those tornados. I too believe in letting people know the truth. That is why I tell them that in my 40+ years of being a Dallas resident I've yet to witness a tornado. No one in my family has been hit by a tornado either and they have lived in either the Dallas area or North Texas since the late 1800's. Where you live is a VASTLY different weather pattern than what those of us in the immediate Dallas metroplex see when it comes to weather. So please make the distinction known that you don't live in Dallas. Yes, there was a large sprout of tornados this past year on one day. That is NOT the norm and you know that so don't go scaring people half to death thinking they are going to be dodging twisters everyday here in Dallas. I know the statistics that you keep posting too. As a matter of fact of all of the tornados that have occured in the North Texas region since I was 5 I remember when they occured. Like the one mentioned in the previous post about the twister in Wichita Falls. Remember it vividly. BUT, the Wichita Falls area is on a very different weather pattern than the Dallas area.

Take it for whatever you want but I can also state MY personal observations in my 40+ years here in Dallas.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Maybe you don't care but I was putting it into perspective. Especially when one considers that many of these people looking to relocate here may have lived in or visited a state like Florida. While we were there and in these storms only LATER did we find out on more than one occassion that we were so near a tornado. No sirens at all, no warnings, nada. THAT is scary. At least in Texas our weather forcasters warn us as much as possible well in advance. Then the issue of lightning. The lightning we were in was NOTHING compared to what I have witnessed in 40+ years here in Texas. Yes sometimes bad weather seems worse when one is away from home but in this case, it was BAD! Then later on the news that night there in Florida I saw the report about lightning they did. Florida leads the nation in fatalities from lightning. Texas is not far behind but Florida and Georgia were right up there and higher. They showed the stats and even showed the radar of lightning strikes that we see here in the DFW weather reports. Nothing I've seen in Dallas compares. I've got a pretty good memory and I've yet to see a radar covered that much w/ lightning strikes here in Dallas.

As for those tornados. I too believe in letting people know the truth. That is why I tell them that in my 40+ years of being a Dallas resident I've yet to witness a tornado. No one in my family has been hit by a tornado either and they have lived in either the Dallas area or North Texas since the late 1800's. Where you live is a VASTLY different weather pattern than what those of us in the immediate Dallas metroplex see when it comes to weather. So please make the distinction known that you don't live in Dallas. Yes, there was a large sprout of tornados this past year on one day. That is NOT the norm and you know that so don't go scaring people half to death thinking they are going to be dodging twisters everyday here in Dallas. I know the statistics that you keep posting too. As a matter of fact of all of the tornados that have occured in the North Texas region since I was 5 I remember when they occured. Like the one mentioned in the previous post about the twister in Wichita Falls. Remember it vividly. BUT, the Wichita Falls area is on a very different weather pattern than the Dallas area.

Take it for whatever you want but I can also state MY personal observations in my 40+ years here in Dallas.

My area is not vastly different from Dallas and North Texas except for the frequency of tornadoes. You're area has more than mine, but it's still mighty scary in Tornado Alley where we both reside. About all else is pretty much the same.

I'm not trying to scare anyone. Actually the tornadoes in December were in Johnson, Limestone, Bosque, and Hill counties, not Dallas. Some people actually will not move to a state with tornadoes as some won't to a state with hurricanes or earthquakes. I, too, am just trying to be truthful for those that care about the weather and not minimize it.

I've never seen one either, but that doesn't mean the weather is not severe. Tornadoes can form with little or no warning; the weathermen are always preaching that.

We all have different opinions and likes and dislikes. I have a dear native Texan friend and her Texas hubby who also traveled around the Roanoke, VA area as I did this summer. She said to me the other day, "I can't believe we live in Texas when we can live some place with true beauty." We both have ties to family, and it would be a difficult thing to do, so we're still here.

Texas (parts) is okay, but in beauty, it just doesn't compare to so many other states. It really doesn't matter anyway except to those wanting to move here. I'm here, and I already know.