Have You Ever Seen or Been in a Tornado? (town, moving, thunderstorm)

[HighPlainsDrifter73]

Originally Posted by lilred0005

Wow, I'm really glad you didn't get hurt! I bet that was an experience you'll never forget. Can you imagine what the residents of Greensburg, KS went thru with that EF5? Thanks again for your post & the awesome pic. I will have to check out your thread. Take care, lil red

I actually drove through Greensburg, KS earlier this summer on an extended road trip. You can still clearly see damage from that tornado several years back.

I remember the tornado that hit Plainfield, Il over 10 years ago. I drove through the area literally minutes after it happened. What a site!

[jm31828]

I live in Nebraska- my wife and I do some storm chasing around here in the Spring. We've seen countless developing tornadoes, but have only been fortunate enough in the past couple years to see two tornadoes actually touch the ground. The first was an F2 tornado in northeast Kansas in April 2006 that we watched for a good ten minutes before it dissipated- it remained in rural areas only hitting one farmhouse (completely destroying it, unfortunately). The 2nd was June of this year just outside of Grand Island, Nebraska. It was a huge tornado that was a half mile wide- we watched it for probably ten minutes following a few miles behind it. It was heading directly towards a town, and that was insanely eerie- the radio stations had emergency management pleading for everyone in that town to take shelter immediately. Fortunately the tornado veered off to the north just before it got to the town, only hitting a factory on the far edge of the town, with nobody really getting hurt.

[lilred0005]

Originally Posted by jm31828

I live in Nebraska- my wife and I do some storm chasing around here in the Spring. We've seen countless developing tornadoes, but have only been fortunate enough in the past couple years to see two tornadoes actually touch the ground. The first was an F2 tornado in northeast Kansas in April 2006 that we watched for a good ten minutes before it dissipated- it remained in rural areas only hitting one farmhouse (completely destroying it, unfortunately). The 2nd was June of this year just outside of Grand Island, Nebraska. It was a huge tornado that was a half mile wide- we watched it for probably ten minutes following a few miles behind it. It was heading directly towards a town, and that was insanely eerie- the radio stations had emergency management pleading for everyone in that town to take shelter immediately. Fortunately the tornado veered off to the north just before it got to the town, only hitting a factory on the far edge of the town, with nobody really getting hurt.

Geez, I'm really glad that tornado veered off course and the town was spared. I would love to do some storm chasing, Supercells are something to behold. Unfortunately, I live so far from Tornado Alley that it is impossible(it takes like 6-7 hrs just to get out of Fla.). If we do end up relocating to CO or the Midwest, I will definetly be on the look out.

[jm31828]

Originally Posted by lilred0005

Geez, I'm really glad that tornado veered off course and the town was spared. I would love to do some storm chasing, Supercells are something to behold. Unfortunately, I live so far from Tornado Alley that it is impossible(it takes like 6-7 hrs just to get out of Fla.). If we do end up relocating to CO or the Midwest, I will definetly be on the look out.

Supercells- especially here on the Plains- really are a sight to behold. If you end up in Colorado you'd be in luck, a lot of severe supercells do blow up just off of the front range, and often become severe developing tornadoes in the far eastern part of the state, so there are a lot of storm chasers in Denver who can drive a couple hours to chase and be back home by the end of the evening.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by HighPlainsDrifter73

I actually drove through Greensburg, KS earlier this summer on an extended road trip. You can still clearly see damage from that tornado several years back.

I remember the tornado that hit Plainfield, Il over 10 years ago. I drove through the area literally minutes after it happened. What a site!

National Geographic had pics of a neighborhood in TX after an F5 hit. All that was left were concrete slabs and tree stumps....there wasn't even grass it scoured the ground clean.

I saw funnel clouds not quite reach the ground in Aurora IL (1991) and recently just southwest of Kansas City....maybe F1-F2 sized had they reached ground. I've seen a few F0's (dust devils more or less) over the years.

[HighPlainsDrifter73]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

National Geographic had pics of a neighborhood in TX after an F5 hit. All that was left were concrete slabs and tree stumps....there wasn't even grass it scoured the ground clean.

I saw funnel clouds not quite reach the ground in Aurora IL (1991) and recently just southwest of Kansas City....maybe F1-F2 sized had they reached ground. I've seen a few F0's (dust devils more or less) over the years.

I remember living on the farm and seeing dust devils in the open fields on dry, warm and windy days. I thought they were so cool!

[Lamplight]

Originally Posted by lilred0005

Wow, I'm really glad you didn't get hurt! I bet that was an experience you'll never forget. Can you imagine what the residents of Greensburg, KS went thru with that EF5? Thanks again for your post & the awesome pic. I will have to check out your thread. Take care, lil red

Thanks lil red. After seeing an EF4 in person, I can't imagine how terrifying an EF5 must be. I've watched videos on Youtube and it makes ours look rather puny!

[RichardW]

I experienced a tornadic thunderstorm as it was passing over me minutes before producing a tornado. This was near Lincoln on 29th September 2006.

Two problems:

I was in a university meeting during the back end of the thunderstorm
The tornado developed after the storm had gone over the hill and the developing funnel cloud would be hidden from view anyway

There was a tornado in Lincoln itself apparently in May this year. I just remember a heavy rainstorm but the thing apparently did some fairly superficial damage but nothing to shout about. Of course the silly local newspaper hyped it up saying "TWISTER STRIKES LINCOLN" or some inane crap.

[Tennesseestorm]

My mother and I were in a twister in 1978, but I was only two years old and slept though it on the front seat of a 1972 Chevy truck.

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by lilred0005

Have you ever been in a tornado? Where were you when the tornado struck? What state were you living in? What was the experience like?

Yes.

Jackson, MN

Driving an 18 wheeler

Texas

I discovered that I COULD actually drive a truck on 9 wheels for a short distance. Had I been fully loaded, the weight would have popped the tires and the truck and I would have rolled over. Fortunately, it was probably no more than an F-1.

I've seen dozens of them and driven through hundreds of damage trails. But, the neatest thing I ever did was watch a funnel forming right overhead.

I was standing out on the receiving dock at a retread shop in Harrisonburg, VA, watching a storm approach which had a very visible rotation. As it passed over, I could look right up into the rotation, which was simply a twisting, turning hole in the cloud which went up until it disappeared from sight. The most remarkable thing about it was that the twisting updraft had pulled rainwater into a corkscrew ribbon of water as far up into the cloud as I could see. You know how in those animated representations of how a tornado forms, it always shows such a corkscrew? That's EXACTLY what it looked like! I was amazed.

That storm did drop a tornado just up the road at New Market which damaged some buildings and totalled a chicken house. (Speaking of chickenhouse, I once came upon the path of a tornado which left the road littered with lumber and building parts near Camden, AR. All the traffic had to stop. Anyhow, I was talking to the cop who was stopping traffic and pointed to a nearby pile of lumber.

"What was that?" I asked.

"That was a chickenhouse which had 50,000 chickens in it. We ain't found a single feather!"