Tornadoes

[CoasterGuy06]

The worst I have had to deal with was a funnel cloud passing directly over my house. It was an F5 tornado that had torn through two neighboring towns before passing over my house as a funnel cloud. It was really loud and at one point it sounded like it was tearing my neighbors houses apart. It touched down less than a quarter mile after passing over my house. We suffered little damage (a few limbs, needed our garage doors replaced but that was it) but many weren;t so lucky. Over 30 people died that night. Actually, it was 10 years ago today (April 8 1998). I was so scared whenever we were under a tornado warning for several years after that.

[coaster05]

When I say things like this, I also want to remind everyone why I like to do these things once. I work in TV news, when severe weather happens, it gets my blood pumping. I live for breaking news.

 

This has actually made it sound worse. Especially since you have not lived through these things that means that your area is pretty isolated from them. So are you hoping that maybe a tornado can go right through the area your niece lives, that way it will really get the blood pumping. Imagine live news and the fear of losing a loved one, should be great for the old heart.

[spaceace12]

It doesn't actually have to happen, it could be just a warning. Especially if I am the only one down in production, it means I get to direct the cut in. I have directed over 20 cut ins and only about 2 -4 have actually been touch downs and only a few have done damage and non deadly touchdowns. We have a weather phenomenon here where I live. A storm can produce tornado warnings all the way through Illinois, once it hits the Indiana line the storm mostly breaks up or weakens. Also, it doesn't even have to be a weather related, it could be news event like when a criminal returns after fleeing town and he arrives via plane and we carry it live and he does something. Plus weather coverage and ratings wise, my station kills the other station. Most of the newscasts ratings are 3 times better than they have. Funny thing too, back a couple years ago they tried this promotion about the radars called the "doppler dead zone". It was so bad it was made fun of on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Here is the promo the other station ran.

 

 

And the dead zone is no more, we got a triple doppler radar now.

[Carnage]

When I say things like this, I also want to remind everyone why I like to do these things once. I work in TV news, when severe weather happens, it gets my blood pumping. I live for breaking news.

 

So you're a vulture then. Getting excited over events causing people serious harm. Kind of like ambulance chaser lawyers, trying to profit off of someone else's pain.

 

I'm sure the families of the victims would love to know there's some guy in the TV station going "Awesome! A tornado!! I can direct the cut in to the story of pain and death!".

[lapseofreason]

I do NOT like tornadoes. Severe weather has always freaked me out to heck and back, and even if there's just really high winds I tend to get a little scared. If there's a storm you'll usually find me close to people checking the weather every 2 seconds to see when it'll stop.

 

I have to say I have been lucky with them though... I grew up in Ohio and the closest I've seen to a tornado was the clouds starting to swirl (it touched down a ways from us). I also managed to not experience an earthquake even though I lived in L.A. for six years.

 

I can't imagine how scared I'd be if there was actually a tornado in my area someday. :shudders:

[KrakenKing]

I've always been fascinated with Tornadoes almost as much as Roller Coasters. I have tons of videos about them.

 

I've seen a funnel cloud once while I was at a park, never touched down but was really scary seeing it right above us.

 

I've been through many Hurricanes, back in '05 we got hit dead on by hurricane Charlie and the other two (Who's names escape me right now). One hit on my Birthday... that was fun But because of Hurricane Charlie we were out of power for 8 days and had to return to school which sucked because I had to take cold showers >.<

 

But yes, that is one thing I wanna do in my lifetime, see a tornado.

[sfotkid]

I would just rather have a basement.

 

I thought you did already

On topic, I've probobly seen atleast 15-18 Tornadoes

[raptor2011]

I remember in the 5th grade I went to a camp called Camp Mohican for school. When I was there sleeping a tornado warning was issued for the county. That was a blast going outside during a huge storm to the tornado shelter. When I got home on the Friday of that week, a tornado warning was issued for the county I lived in. My sister had a show and we were on the way there while we saw a funnel cloud so we pulled over and got in a ditch. Thankfully we got into a house before it hit and thankfully didn't hit my town but the neighboring one, which we were 5 miles away from. I've seen a ton of tornadoes in my area all at the age of 15.

[jerryd]

In most areas there are classes on weather spotting that are open to the public. Often put on by skywarn groups where you can learn about storms and basic storm dynamics. Anyone who is outdoors or has a interest in storms should attend one. Personal safety is one aspect of the training as weather spotting is never 100% safe.

 

These classes are intended for spotting storms, not intended to train you to become a chaser. That activity is discouraged by most groups.

 

In the video what I see is a thunderstorm with some low disorganized scud or junk clouds that are detached and disorganized nothing severe there. The lack of rain and no wall cloud is another big clue there. I ran this video by one of our local skywarn instructors who concurred with this statement.

 

FYI I have been trained as a skywarn spotter, and re certified this spring.

 

Jerry

[coasterdude5]

I believe the room is made out of reinforced concrete. It is usually just a closet where the walls are built to withstand extreme winds and prevent debris from penetrating. These are being built a lot in tornado alley.

 

It's actually made of steel bolted to the foundation of the house. It looks like a normal walk-in closet, except for the massive steel door.

[GriffyTiffy]

I've had one about 2 miles from my house at a high school in my town. It broke a window and caused excssive damage to a local trash can. It was classed as an F-0 tornado. We were lucky it didn't cause injurys to anyone.

[Force 310]

There have been some mild tornadoes around the area where I live, but they don't happen very often. The topography isn't flat enough in most areas and there aren't that many severe thunderstorms, although they do happen. The last nearby tornado that I remember happened in 2002. It was an F1 tornado that damaged over 100 homes, a business, and a middle school. Luckily, it did happen about 15 miles away, and no one was killed or injured to my knowledge.

 

I'd like to see a tornado at least once, provided that it was sufficiently far away from me and from any settlements.

[odene497]

When I say things like this, I also want to remind everyone why I like to do these things once. I work in TV news, when severe weather happens, it gets my blood pumping. I live for breaking news.

 

This has actually made it sound worse. Especially since you have not lived through these things that means that your area is pretty isolated from them. So are you hoping that maybe a tornado can go right through the area your niece lives, that way it will really get the blood pumping. Imagine live news and the fear of losing a loved one, should be great for the old heart.

 

I'm assuming what he's trying to say is these things can be exciting, but if there aren't people being hurt. I mean, there are things I think would be cool to see, it'd be cool to see a plane blow up, or a roller coaster crash. That doesn't mean I want people on or anywhere near them being injured. It's just something alone that would be a spectacle to see. I don't think anyone would actually be fine with people's lives being endangered for a news story, if so then nevermind.

 

Just trying to clarify an assumed point of view.

 

 

-Nick

[spaceace12]

When I say things like this, I also want to remind everyone why I like to do these things once. I work in TV news, when severe weather happens, it gets my blood pumping. I live for breaking news.

 

This has actually made it sound worse. Especially since you have not lived through these things that means that your area is pretty isolated from them. So are you hoping that maybe a tornado can go right through the area your niece lives, that way it will really get the blood pumping. Imagine live news and the fear of losing a loved one, should be great for the old heart.

 

I'm assuming what he's trying to say is these things can be exciting, but if there aren't people being hurt. I mean, there are things I think would be cool to see, it'd be cool to see a plane blow up, or a roller coaster crash. That doesn't mean I want people on or anywhere near them being injured. It's just something alone that would be a spectacle to see. I don't think anyone would actually be fine with people's lives being endangered for a news story, if so then nevermind.

 

Just trying to clarify an assumed point of view.

 

 

-Nick

 

People being hurt, I don't like. But in the recent history of me working at the station, not a single severe storm locally has killed or severely hurt anyone anyone (there was one instance a tree brance fell on a moving tree, person was okay). When I say I want to go out and chase them. I am talking like most of the tornadoes that touch down do, touch down in country and don't hurt anyone.

 

Waht really gets me excited for working at a tv station is the impromptu we need to go on air and now.

[thrillrideseeker]

Speaking of Tornadoes... I went home to Arkansas to visit my mom and we just went through a tornado. Right before the tornado there was heavy hail, and OMG my new car. There are giant dents every where and my back tail light is gone I am so freaking mad. I will take pictures later and show what happened.

 

EDIT: Great... now there is another storm about 20 minutes away and it is traveling at 100-120mph and it has softball size hail. MY CAR... RAWR I wish there was a covered place for my car. Again... I will post more pictures of the damage tomorrow. Hopefully it will not get any worse with the next storm.

~Matthew

My poor tail light

[Mr Stratosphere]

I never have seen a tornado, but I really do like watching lightning.

When I worked at the Stratosphere Tower it was great fun watching summer storms from up there.

A couple of years ago we did have a tornado watch and had to keep an eye out but nothing. If a tornado hit Vegas I don't think many would know what to do.

 

John

[Dailey Enterprizes]

^ While it's not impossible for a tornado to form there I think it's highly unlikely because you need a crap load of moisture and as we all know Las Vegas is very dry.

[canadianfreak]

I was stuck driving through a supercell storm in Edmunston NB. Turned out that there was a tornado.

We actually get a decent amount of tornado warnings and funnel clouds here in Ottawa.

[steel]

We had a "large and extremely dangerous" tornado here in Iowa tonight. There was some damage, apparently. The storm was about forty-five minutes from me, so all I got was a lot of rain.

[PKI Jizzman]

I like this Tornado

[Dailey Enterprizes]

^^ That sucks, I don't think I could live anywhere between Ohio and Colorado. That's the thing I love about Pittsburgh, it's all hills and mountains. Well at least most tornadoes don't touch down except for a few...

 

 

Yeah that's the Cathedral of Learning...

[307]

I've always wanted to go storm chasing, I think it would be a lot of fun and terrifying.

 

The closest I've been to a tornado was when I was in Florida in 1998, we got tornado warnings and there were reports of tornadoes around the area of our hotel. But I never saw it.

[no_brain_er]

Well, about two weeks ago, there were a bunch of tornados (tornadoes?) that went straight through northwest Georgia, which just so happens to be where I live, and it was pretty bad. I was actually in a school when they started coming down, and we were in lockdown for TWO HOURS while we waited for the storms to pass. The worst part of it was that I was working an elementary school Science Olympiad comepition, so I was surrounded by 200 screaming elementary schoolers for almost two hours. My friend and I actually snuck out half an hour before lockdown was over to go see They Might Be Giants. THAT was pretty cool!

Another scary thing is that there was an F3 tornado that touched down about 2 miles from my house. It obliterated a cotton gin and a welding factory, and a house that was on a hill was in the direct path of the tornado, and it's not there anymore. It was really freaky.

 

We also had severe weather earlier this week and today, too! I'm just about tired of it all!

(Fortunately, it went below where I live, so all we got was heavy rain.)

[CoasterNut17]

I share the same interest you do. I would love to go storm chasing with my friend, who is also a tornado fanatic, to see what it is like up close. Whenever a warning is issued, I usually check outside with my video camera before I go in the basement (if I go in the basement at all). We live where there is an almost perfect 360 degree view of the ground and sky, with farm fields to nearly every side. I have only seen one waterspout over Lake Michigan, and came very close to capturing a funnel cloud over our house! I think it is thrilling, and just very interesting! I also own many tornado videos, and do watch nearly every tornado show that I see on TV.

 

About 40 miles south of where I live, a tornado touched down in the middle of winter! I think it was an F-3 or something around there. Also, I got to drive through a town that was leveled when a tornado touched down.

 

If I can find some pictures on my computer, I will post them here.

Here's one. Check it out! This is the storm that spawned the waterspout I told you about. (hey, it rhymes)!

[nagro5]

I was on funnyjunk.com and saw this vid. I just thought that I would post it here.

http://www.funnyjunk.com/movies/1309/Dueling+Water+Tornadoes/