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First of all, as I've said earlier, I draw the line at people getting injured or major property destruction. I just want a good "sound and lights show".......
Just as I enjoy a 4.5-5.5 earthquake that causes some shaking but no major damage or injuries, I'd hate to have an earthquake of 7.0 that causes damage, death/injuries.
Same thing, I want to experience a "moderately severe" thunderstorm for excitement. I want to hear the loud, deep grumbles and see the streaks of lightning across the sky but not have people struck by it. I'd like to see marble size hail but not golfball size hail (only seen pea size so far). I really enjoyed this one- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ay-Bridge.html as that was the best one we had in our area in recent years but want to go to the next level.
Sophie, I'm sorry about your close call and all the destruction in your town- I can understand your fear. I'd probably fear earthquakes if we had "the big one" tomorrow and caused deaths and damage in my immediate neighborhood.
As for the "fear factor" I think there's a lot of individual variation as well.....some people may get really scared of a 3.5 earthquake if not used to them because of the shock factor (no matter how slight it is). Likewise, there may be people who totally freak out at experiencing a small thunderstorm as their first due to the deep, low rumbling sound.
There are also people who can experience a 6.2 earthquake as their very first earthquake and just go about their day thinking "cool experience" if they didn't see any damage. And there are people who've never seen thunder in their lives who can experience a monster severe thunderstorm and remain totally calm during the whole thing while enjoying the show.
People are individuals and vary greatly based on their personal experience and personality- and we all gotta respect everyone's opinions and experiences as an individual.
Last edited by AdriannaSmiling; 03-21-2013 at 08:46 PM..
Well I had a strange dream last night where it was around sunset time and the sky was all kinds of red/purple with great thunderclouds building then all this intense pink lighting started shooting from the clouds and I was videoing it. Then for some reason a bright flash of lighting happened and a great burst of fireworks came shooting from the clouds and exploded into loads of pretty colors.
Well- come think about it- fireworks and thunder sound kinda similar...
I love thunder storms. Unfortunately they are very few and very far between around here, and when we finally do get them, they are usually over in 30 minutes or less.
As much as I hated Missouri when I was there (WAY TOO MUGGY!), the lightning every evening was always awesome. No thunder with it, but seeing the lightning was still great!
Having lived in Toronto, Canada and Windsor, Canada all my life, I have seen a fair amount of thunderstorms. The worst I've ever seen in Windsor spawned a small EF1 tornado, but from what I know an F4 also struck in 1947. I've also travelled to Minnesota and Manitoba/Saskatchewan. The true power of the storms in the midwest is truly captivating. The Ontario storms are always slow-moving downpours with thousands of non cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. The only threat they pose there is mostly flash flooding. But out in Central Canada I saw the biggest hail of my life. I stayed for a month and experienced Grapefruit sized hail, straight-line winds above 120 km/h and 3 tornadoes. The strongest of which was and EF2. For all those who live in places with very few thunderstorms and want to truly experience huge storms, I suggest starting out with Storms that happen in the far east. Such as New Brunswick or Maine (I say as watching a video of a Tornado in Grand Lake New Brunswick on the news ). Then Progress to Ontario/Illinois then the big storms that hit the Midwest stretching from Manitoba/Saskatchewan to Texas. For the best chance to see a Tornado definitely Oklahoma. In all my travels no place compares to Oklahoma for tornadoes. Although I didn't get to see one when i was there, there were multiples tornadoes on the ground west of where i was.
I want to experience a big time thunderstorm just to see what they like!
Like this one in north central Oklahoma from June 27th? It mostly had a lot of wind with it, up to 50 mph, when it arrived as it was on the wane. But thunderstorms are only real frightening here when they are associated with a tornado warning or big hail.
The north coast of British Columbia and the adjacent Alaskan Panhandle hardly ever get thunderstorms. That's right, the wettest area of North America gets the least number of thunderstorms.
Some storms roaming around down here in Destin Florida, off in the distances tonight..... I love it!
Almost 6 years ago to the day I witnessed the most intense thunder/lightning storm of my life. The storm of Chicago August 4th 2008 had an estimated energy level of well over 6000 joules per kilogram (which is very intense) and many tens of thousands of lightning strikes over a 60 minute period
Here is the storm report
and an intense video. This guy who recorded it has balls the size of grapefruits. Worth the watch!
That's quite scary - especially the constant and very loud thunder, and those CG strikes occurring within seconds of each other is also rather unnerving!
We Midwesterners are no strangers to severe thunderstorms, but at the time, I lived on the Northside of Chicago, actually not far from where this video was recorded. I had my family in the basement for about an hour because of the high winds, the tornado sirens, and the lightning that almost seemed to hit right on top of us. It was about as intense as thunderstorms can get.
As a side note, Chicago's southwest suburbs have witnessed one of the highest CAPE's ever recorded by instruments, back in August of 1990 which were in excess of 8000 joules per kilogram
Quote:
However, extreme CAPE, by modulating the updraft (and downdraft), can allow for exceptional events, such as the deadly F5 tornadoes that hit Plainfield, Illinois on August 28, 1990 and Jarrell, Texas on May 27, 1997 on days which weren't readily apparent as conducive to large tornadoes. CAPE was estimated to exceed 8 kJ/kg in the environment of the Plainfield storm
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Looks like we may get a thunderstorm on Easter Sunday
). Then Progress to Ontario/Illinois then the big storms that hit the Midwest stretching from Manitoba/Saskatchewan to Texas. For the best chance to see a Tornado definitely Oklahoma. In all my travels no place compares to Oklahoma for tornadoes. Although I didn't get to see one when i was there, there were multiples tornadoes on the ground west of where i was.
