Tornadoes

[Dailey Enterprizes]

^ That's crazy, I don't think I would want to be on the water during a thunderstorm or while there's a tornado coming down on me, haha...

[socalMAN123]

I've always been fascinated by severe storms in general, but specifically tornados. The raw power of them and the storms that accompany them is just amazing. Storm chasing is always been a hobby I've wanted to try, but living in California, we don't get very many severe storms.

Another example of the raw power of a tornado.

---Brent

[timberskara]

I have to admit that I couldn't read this whole thread because I am far too terrified of tornadoes, but wanted to share my experiences.

 

In 1990, a F5 hit Planfield, IL where my extended family lives and where my dad grew up. It destroyed much of the town, including my dad's high school. My family was there the day after the storm to help in any way possible. I was five, and it was by far the scariest thing of my entire life.

 

From then on, when I was in IL, any howling of the wind and I was in the basement. I just had this crazy fear of another tornado hitting. Because I got to see the damage first hand right after the '90 tornado, I think it forever made me scared...and unfortunately that fear hasn't gone away.

 

Luckily, being from Michigan, I didn't have to worry much about tornadoes...but when I worked at Cedar Point we frequently had water spouts. I had heard the park had water spouts on occassion, and I pictured just little "dust devil" size funnels of water in the lake. Umm..noo..these were from the lake to the clouds, half a mile wide or more scary, scary waterspouts. I remember working unload on MF, doing the welcome back spiel, and having all the guests scream at me that there were three tornadoes in the water. Of course, they dissapated once they reached land, but it was sheer panic across the park whenever there were waterspouts.

 

Then, last summer, I made the big move to MN. No joke, the day after I signed my lease the tornado sirens went off (not a drill) while I was shopping. It was kind of a surreal moment for me because I was like "NOW they tell me they're tornadoes here!" In a way I guess I'm happy I learned of the whole "tornadoes in Minnesota" thing after I made the move because, in all honesty, I wouldn't have done it if I had known.

 

Yeah, tornadoes have got to be my biggest fear -- I won't even ride Twister at Universal . I can certainly understand the fascination in natural disasters, but storm chasers are CRAZY.

 

Anyway, if no one has mentioned it, read about the Plainfield tornado. About a million things went "wrong" -- it was actually several tornadoes that came together to form a giant, powerful tornado. Warnings were late because it was difficult to spot. About the only "lucky" thing that happened is that classes were not yet in session at the high school when it struck...they started the next day.

 

Thanks in advance for tonight's nightmares!

[Scaparri]

Luckily, being from Michigan, I didn't have to worry much about tornadoes...but when I worked at Cedar Point we frequently had water spouts. I had heard the park had water spouts on occassion, and I pictured just little "dust devil" size funnels of water in the lake. Umm..noo..these were from the lake to the clouds, half a mile wide or more scary, scary waterspouts. I remember working unload on MF, doing the welcome back spiel, and having all the guests scream at me that there were three tornadoes in the water. Of course, they dissapated once they reached land, but it was sheer panic across the park whenever there were waterspouts.

 

Snap, I missed out during my indentured slavery at CP. I don't think we had a water spout once. That's awesome though, minus the whole 'you being terrified of tornadoes' part.

 

I've had a couple tornado experiences, thankfully nothing too bad. The first was in '92 when I was in first grade. My family was coming back from lunch near Indianapolis when the clouds suddenly became very dark. Out of nowhere, we just drove into a wall of torrential rain and debris. A tornado had dropped a couple hundred yards away and we were stuck in our van as it rocked back in forth. Fortunately, we were fine and were able to drive off. To this day though, you can still see signs from where the twister went through. Number 3 is the one that we encountered.

 

The second was slightly more bizarre. During my junior year of high school, our principal came over the intercom and called everybody to their severe storm positions. Most of the classrooms in my high school where interior rooms that had no windows, and I hadn't heard thunder or anything, so I assumed it was just a drill. We just sat in our positions within the school and talked amongst ourselves. At one point the power went out but again, we hadn't been hearing anything, so we weren't terribly worried. They kept us in our rooms for quite a while though, and eventually, we realized something had actually happened. After about an hour and a half, they finally let us out and we discovered that a tornado had torn through the town. It was just amazing to drive around town and observe all the damage. I always figured a tornado would hit my town at some point, but just couldn't fathom that it had actually happened. A friend of mine lived on top of a large hill in town, and when I went to his place a few days later, I could see the path the tornado had torn up through a corn field. It was unbelievable. There's a couple pictures here, under Ellettsville.

[Dailey Enterprizes]

^^ Aw sorry; luckily for me I was older whenever I experienced those micro bursts.

 

Fortunately for you the F5 you encountered will probably never be compared to anything you might encounter today. F5s are rare and are often seeked by storm chasers, but you have to be lucky or unlucky depending how you're looking at it.

 

Also, most waterspouts I think are F0s or F1s usually, I never heard of a water spout being destructive.

[CoasterNut17]

^Unless it's a tornado over water-like a tornado that happens to come across a lake or something. There is a difference! You probably already knew that, also.

[odene497]

From then on, when I was in IL, any howling of the wind and I was in the basement. I just had this crazy fear of another tornado hitting. Because I got to see the damage first hand right after the '90 tornado, I think it forever made me scared...and unfortunately that fear hasn't gone away.

 

Wow, I totally forgot, I used to be like that too! Anything that sounded like some sort of disaster got me in the basement. One time there were a bunch of low flying jets (I don't remember why, but they weren't supposed to be flying low, thousands of people in my city called 911), but there's my brother who wants to run onto the porch to see, and me who's headed to the basement.

 

And although I did mention it before, now I'm more inclined to explain my story of seeing one. We were hiking Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan, we we had almost made it to the lake when this girl comes screaming down past us from a dune, yelling random things like "A long funnel spout!" and "learned about it in science class!" She was really losing it. It had gotten awfully gray out, so we kind of wonderingly went to the top of the dune where the girl was, and saw the waterspout out over the lake. We continued closer to the shore, and stood watching it until it was mostly gone. I never felt threatened by it, it was a ways off shore, it wasn't raining or anything where we were. There was a tiny boat that looked like it went right through it. It was really cool, being the only ones out there in the silence just watching it.

 

 

 

 

-Nick

[the_rock401]

Then, last summer, I made the big move to MN. No joke, the day after I signed my lease the tornado sirens went off (not a drill) while I was shopping. It was kind of a surreal moment for me because I was like "NOW they tell me they're tornadoes here!" In a way I guess I'm happy I learned of the whole "tornadoes in Minnesota" thing after I made the move because, in all honesty, I wouldn't have done it if I had known.

 

Welcome to Minnesota, where if you don't like the weather, wait a little while and it'll change.

 

I've got a few tornado stories. One of them involved a trip to VF and being bottled up in the Whitewater Country locker rooms for at least an hour, while things blew over and calmed down.

 

Another time, we were at a horse shot at the Mille Lacs County Fair in Princeton. Late in the afternoon, the clouds darkened and a funnel cloud went right over us. Needless to say, the fairgrounds cleared out and we drove back to Brooklyn Park in a downpour.

 

A few years after that, a BIG storm blew over our place. After it was over, we went out to the horse pens and found several steel fence posts looking like something had came along and tried twisting them out of the ground. Officially, there was only straightline winds that night, but straightline winds don't twist steel fence posts.

[sfotkid]

Another Tornado today, this one was real good too, tennis ball sized hail!

Actually caught a glimpse of it!