That was special. (Huntsville, Madison, Five Points: power lines, houses, neighborhood)

[33458]

I believe I just heard my first tornado.


Whew.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by 33458

I believe I just heard my first tornado.


Whew.

How far were you from it?
Did you know there was a tornado approaching before the sirens went off?
What did you do when the sirens went off?

[tammie2]

Originally Posted by Charles

How far were you from it?
Did you know there was a tornado approaching before the sirens went off?
What did you do when the sirens went off?

Were you home?

I said there was a "tornado sky" about 20 minutes before the sirens. If you were home or looking outside, here is what to look for.....

"yellowing sky" that starts to darken but everything you look at still has a yellowish hue.

Usually at this point if there will be a tornado, you will start to see the cloud organizing and one part of the sky will be clear and another very cloudy. Today, there were no clouds to the south of us, and they were organizing to the north.

skys that darken incredibly rapidly(turns from that yellow to looking like the middle of the night in 15 minutes). Depending on your distance, it could be bright by you(sometimes still yellow) and VERY dark in the distance.

We saw a funnel cloud forming, but I walked outside to look(I grew up in tornado country and they fascinate me).

[tammie2]

1990 Plainfield tornado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This one hit 10 miles from my house. I witnessed it from start to finish. They weren't too uncommon where we were and the panic around here reminds me of the snow panic, but then again we all had basements in the Chicago area.

My grandmother witnessed a tornado from a ditch coming home from work, it was at most 15-20' from her, I remember that well. She saw cars flipping and being thrown off the road. Fortunately she only suffered minor injuries from a fallen fence post.

It is wise to plan, not wise to panic. My kids know where to go if/when I tell them, they know what we are to do if we are in the car, at school, etc. Today we didn't hide, it wasn't close enough-despite the sirens. But if the day comes, we are prepared!!

[Made_it_To_the_Metroplex]

Geez, is it that severe over there? We're in the mid 30's and couldn't muster up a clap of thunder for anything. I keep thinking, "we'll get some of that", but it dies out before getting here (I'm a bit of a weather bug). But, H'ville has had its share of destructive tornadoes. I remember one in the early 90's that hit the Parkway area (was living in B'ham at the time).

[Reactionary]

33458 - happy that you're safe.

Charles - this one was a surprise. I was at a City Council meeting downtown when the tornado blew over - the whole building was shaking - they sent us all to the basement after it passed.

The news reports no injuries, but lots of damage - I saw plenty on my way home - big old trees and power lines down, roads blocked, power out, damaged homes. On some streets neighbors were acting as traffic cops - warning motorists about downed trees and blocked roads. City crews / residents are already firing up chain saws to clean up.

Funny - when I got home and the power came back on, I heard the news reports saying if you live in the 5 Points area don't try to get home. Doh!

[jazz06]

It started to form right over my house. We looked outside and literally saw the funnel developing. It would go down like it was about to touch the ground and then it would go back up. It finally touched down about 3 blocks from where I am. I have friends that stay over my Chapman and their houses have been damaged pretty badly.

[Elizabeth_G]

We saw the funnel in Madison....scared us (well, me). Husband and daughter were amazed. We were at Staples and could see it to the North when the lightening would strike. Very eerie. I lived in tornado alley for a time as a child (Topeka, KS) and it was an everyday occurrence to take cover. I've seen far too many and been involved a few too many times to think I'm safe from any distance, lol.

33458-Glad to hear you are safe and sound. That's a bit too close for comfort I'm sure!

[Charles]

From the damage sites listed here, it looks like the "Five Points Tornado of 2010" went from Five Points and headed northeast:

Damage Reported In Several Spots Around Huntsville - WHNT (http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-storm-damage-reports-12110,0,7590731.story - broken link)

[33458]

I was home and sitting here on the laptop, looking out my back window, which for me means looking at the woodlands between me and the hilltop developments. It was already getting dark, could not see much going on out there.
The hail came down violently, which prompted me to send a message to husband at work with a few words that would get edited here.
The powered struggled to stay on, but it appears I am one of the few now still having any.

I had already lowered or removed anything that might go flying earlier today (old FL habit, tropical storms every five seconds) so it was a matter of trying to figure out where the storm was and how severe.

Then the sirens started and I got a bit antsy - see - our cable has been shot all week...the TV is toast, can't pull in anything clearly (this happens every time it rains...gee, so glad we have CABLE) and since everything depends on that signal, internet was useless, too. I couldn't get the Doppler to load.
Told daughter to get her 'babies', that we were most likely going downstairs to the safe room. Meanwhile called husband at work in CRP to see if he could tell me what was going on since I was essentially blind, and by what information he'd been given (little to none) it seemed like the storm was not a concern to us.

Well, let me first explain that because of my location, the wind as it travels makes the most beautiful, haunting sounds as it rolls down toward me. But this was a tidal wind that I had never heard before. It did not sound like a train - not at all. I can only assume the trees and slight distance from me changed the quality. But it was very near and I knew something was going on out there.

The siren went off and THAT'S when I heard the wind. Then the siren came on again - but funny, after it ceased the second time - that's when it sounded more like an event. It was still churning out there, whatever that was...

So I called husband again or he called me - however we managed, because my cell keep dying, and he still didn't realize that it had come so close.
I could not get any weather updates but heard emergency sirens wailing down the street, so I started checking Twitter updates - that was all I could get.

When I saw the image someone took from Chapman Mountain, I knew that it had come very close to me, and I'm freaking lucky that it didn't come closer. Because we did not go down to the basement...

Husband has charted the track and suspects it was within 1/2 mile from my house.

And he told me not to listen to him again.

He had trouble getting home. The neighborhood down the way, close to Chapman Elementary has damage. I don't know if she'll have class tomorrow, simply because of the possible clean-up. I do not know how bad it is.

Someone's truck got tossed in to a house?