What's the best thunderstorm you've ever experienced in your backyard?

[Hoosier]

It has to be an event that you didn't chase. If you were eating at a restaurant in a neighboring town, that's good enough.

I've been through a lot of 60-75 mph wind events and very few of those stand out so I will go with a hail event that I experienced back in 1993. The storm struck in the middle of the night (and as I recall, there wasn't even a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast) with hail between golfball and tennis ball size. It was almost 18 years ago but I still remember what it sounded like. Nothing like the calm of night being absolutely shattered by what sounded like a hundred Randy Johnson's throwing baseballs at the house.

[cyclone77]

Easy one for me. August 20 1987. I was only 10 at the time. I was living in the QC at the time. Thunderstorms were in the forecast that night, but I distinctly remember the TV met saying earlier that night that severe weather wasn't expected. It was the typical ring of fire weather pattern, with intense clusters of nocturnal MCS traversing the northern edge of the heat dome.

I was awaken at 2-3am by a very strong thunderstorm. I remember looking out the window and watched very strong winds of 50-60mph blow sheets of rain. It was basically your typical low end severe storm. Suddenly, the winds ramped up to a level to this date I've never seen again. Winds were gusting well over 80mph (probably more like 90-100). At that point everyone in the house was up and we all ran down to the basement. I still remember hearing the sounds of very loud cracking noises as tree branches outside were snapped by the intense wind. Almost sounded like shotgun blasts. The wind lasted several minutes. The next day we spent all day cleaning up tree damage in our yard, as almost every tree was disfigured by the intense winds. I remember the west side of the house being covered in leaf fragments no doubt plastered there by the intense wind. Almost every tree in the neighborhood suffered some type of damage. Many were sheered off half way up like a giant weed wacker hit them. There were also several large trees that were completely uprooted. A mature oak woodland to our east suffered tremendous damage, and the local TV met estimated winds had to be over 100mph there.

[kab2791]

July 2, 1997...Funnel cloud siting in my neighborhood by my neighbor (Keep in mind I was 6 yrs old at the time) F2 tornado in Detroit.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/?n=july2

[Chicago Storm]

That I can remember...

The August 23rd, 2007 Derecho.

That was without a doubt the best severe thunderstorm I have witnessed IMBY.

This derecho featured 70-90MPH damaging winds, widespread tree damage, some house damage and the power was out for 3 days.

I was actually walking home from a friends house when it hit. There was an awesome looking shelf cloud and then the wall of wind, rain and hail hit. Tree limbs and other debris was blowing everywhere. It was a great experience.

http://www.crh.noaa....=13713&source=2

http://mesonet.agron...hour=7&minute=0

[cyclone77]

Had I been living here back in '98 I think this might have given my '87 storm a run for it's money. Everyone here in town always talks about how incredible of a wind storm this was. Tremendous tree damage was seen here in town, and apparently a huge elm tree that used to reside in my side yard was uprooted and landed between the neighbors house and this one. Sounds like 80-100mph winds were associated with this storm. The radar signature is pretty interesting. Looks like a very strong meso-vorticy formed along the leading edge of an intense squall line. This was June 28 1998 BTW.

[wishforsnow]

I would say the worst tstorm I have ever witness was back home in Iowa when I was 10 years old which would be 1980. The wind was blowing so hard that the utility lines that ran through the ally way just south of our house were hitting together causing them spark like fireworks. Then the summer of '93 we had some good lightening shows. We had fork lightening that covered the sky every night along with very heavy rain. Now I live in the Keweenaw and we don't get very strong tstorms here. The stable air coming off the big lake kills them.

[OceanStWx]

Is it cheating if I drove a mile to the beach to get a better view?

It was in my hometown and gave me the image in my avatar. Less than two weeks from when I was set to move out to Iowa (albeit the outer fringe of tornado alley, but still coming from Rhode Island this was a huge step in the right direction). I woke up and (weenie alert) like many mornings I checked SPC's page for the latest outlook. I come to find I'm in a slight risk with a 10% tornado probability contour (a huge deal for New England). I investigate further why this might be the case and temps at 75/70 and a 70 knot southerly LLJ seemed like pretty good ingredients. So now I'm totally invested in nowcasting, and start to track a cell riding the northern shore of Long Island. It crossed Block Island Sound showing signs of weak rotation, and maintain this continuity into southern RI. I made the decision then to drive to the town beach which had an unobstructed view to the west.

I arrived and patiently waited for the storm to crest the opposite shore of Narragansett Bay. It did with some pretty prolific lightning, which was rewarding enough (our standards are so low back east ). I made a couple calls for a nowcast update, and it still maintained rotation, and I continued to watch as the rain shafts approached. As the updraft base was passing less than a quarter mile south of me I finally was able to see cloud motion, a finally rotation, rapid rotation. Enough so that I exclaimed on the phone that it was about to drop something any minute. At this time I noticed rotating spray on the surface of the bay. Shortly after that a funnel drops down (this just made for pretty pictures since technically it was already in contact with the ground). The condensation funnel made it all the way to the water before lifting just short of Rumstick Point. It was at this point I lost sight of it (it did go on to touch down again in Warren, RI and Swansea, MA).

I couldn't believe what I had just seen, considering all the good convection I've seen Atlantic inflow lay waste to. But I had no time to reflect because I was blasted with easily the strongest thunderstorm winds I had experienced in RI. I could easily feel my sedan rocking in the wind, enough so that I was afraid of the wind actually moving the car. Being at the beach there wasn't a lot to go off of, but I would estimate easily 70 mph especially considering what I've been in since. With all this going on I forgot that I had the Taunton WFO's number in my wallet from my internship there, and didn't end up calling it in until 20 minutes after the fact (they did already have the TOR out, but still poor form from a brand new NWS employee ).

After 20 years of marginal wind gusts and pea sized hail at best, I see a tornado (EF1) days before moving to Iowa. And it may never have happened because I requested two extra weeks to pack and move to Iowa, had they not granted it I would've missed this event at home. Though I would've seen the derecho that blasted through the Quad Cities 3 days earlier. But really what's more rare, a derecho in Iowa or a tornado in Rhode Island.

[Jonbo]

June 27th, 2008 when I still lived in Council Bluffs (next door to Omaha, NE). I had been home sick that day and my new (at the time) LG Dare cellphone had arrived either that day or the day before which had much better video recording capabilities (didn't own a "real" video camera since I rarely would use it at the time). I also worked 6pm-6am so this occurred right before I would've had to leave for work (which was near impossible after it passed). I believe the timing was around 5 or 5:30pm (I recall it being close to rush hour)

I still remember the sounds and everything even though I have it to view on Youtube as a reminder. I had been watching the local news that broke in because as it approached the western edge of Omaha, it was reported as clocking winds of 90-100+mph. There was estimated reports as high as 110-115mph! As it passed through Omaha it slightly weakened to 70-80mph. Hail was about marble sized in most areas but the wind really enhanced everything. I initially watched it as they reported it passing through Omaha. Trees down everywhere, leaves scattered EVERYWHERE (it literally looked like Mother Nature dropped a "bomb" stuffed with leaves over the area), and afterwards I found out 2 teenagers died trying to ride out the storm under a tree about a block and a half from my grandma's.

It was definitely something for me to remember since I haven't physically seen a storm that crazy in a long time. I can't imagine how much worse it would've been for Omaha if it had tennis to baseball sized hail with that wind. The storm went right through the most populated parts ("heart") of Omaha into CB and beyond. Omaha even kicked on the Tornado sirens because there was going to be an outdoor concert at Memorial Park and most had already staked their spots. Suffice to say, their towels/blankets were gone. I'm just glad they did sound them because of the severity of the reports coming in before it reached them.

If you're bored and want to check out the videos, here's the links (part 1 is better, just slow build up):

[trapperman]

May 25, 2008. The day of the Parkersburg EF5, and somewhat obscured by this event, the day of the Hugo, MN EF3. This storm had my name on it like a flashing neon sign. I didn't know much back then, and I didn't really "chase" it per se, but I did drive a mile down the road and was perfectly in the notch of this beast. Massive HP, booking it at 50 mph, incredible couplet and hook, first weak tor touched down 5 miles south of me. Like I said, I didn't know much back then but I did know I was about to get crushed by hail and rfd. Quiked booked it home, got the family in the basement and came out after it passed to the most incredible rfd show I have ever seen, like a waterfall on the backside. Drove south a mile or so and found a subdivision with every west facing window blown out by rfd driven hail. Incredible storm and easily the strongest in these parts in many years. The following pic gives an idea of the incredible cascading rfd (which flipped cars). Apologize for the editing job... I did have video of the thing as it approached, incredible inflow tail and wall cloud spinning like a top, but the video is lost forever, alas...

[sojitodd]

A microburst back in summer of 81 I believe. Was sleeping in late, heard thunder, went to the front picture window with my brother to watch the storm, and before long the picture window was shaking so hard we had to back off as we thought it was going to blow in. Before that though, I saw tree limbs and trash cans swirling about 30 feet up. Was done quickly, but the whole house shook, and when we went out to investigate their was damage all over the place. Part of the neighbor's patio roof(which was destroyed in the 77 blizzard) was wrecked again, and we could see part of it in a pine tree about two blocks away, about 25 feet up.

Whole streets in our neighborhood had trees down, windows broken, etc. Some trees had been snapped right off at the base and had fallen onto houses. My other brother was working at a Rinks dept store(anyone remember those?) and they had the doors blow in and a few windows blow out. We only lost part of a maple tree.

Very quick, shocking, and violent wind with this thunderstorm-and it happened early, before noon-when you really do not expect this kind of storm.

*For some reason, I remember watching the news later(when the power was back on) and they were talking about how bad the storm had been in Moraine, Ohio-which I guess got hit badly too.

[Stebo]

It has to be a tie between the May 31st 1998 derecho and a day up in Mount Pleasant, October 3rd 2006.

The 1998 event I woke up around 5am to see we were in a tornado watch with that monster derecho bearing down on Grand Rapids at the time. I live basically in the same area now, and by 7am the storm hit, with some of the strongest winds in a storm I have ever seen. Lots of tree limbs down in the neighborhood, really a great storm.

The 2006 event in Mount Pleasant isn't a day that sticks out for most people as it was just a normal severe weather day. However the storm that came that night was something else with the longevity of it. The storm hit Mount Pleasant around 11pm with gusts to 70mph some modest damage, but the storm continued until 7 am with continuous lightning for almost 8 hours. Probably the best lightning storm I have ever seen, at some points the CG lightning was borderline scary. Really an impressive electrical storm.

Honorable mention to Kab's storm even though where I was at it what meh, that storm is one of the pinnacle storms for the Metro Detroit area.

[Thundersnow12]

I have a few...I will start with this one...4/6/10

big time elevated hailer woke me at 7am

[Stebo]

I have a few...I will start with this one...4/6/10

big time elevated hailer woke me at 7am

I have some friends that live in Batavia, small world.

[Thundersnow12]

I have some friends that live in Batavia, small world.

haha ask them where at?

another one for close to home, this was about a half mile south of my house, 8/4/10, fastest moving shelf cloud I've ever seen, atleast 70mph. looks like a timelapse. fwd to about 1:30.

[A-L-E-K]

haha ask them where at?

another one for close to home, this was about a half mile south of my house, 8/4/10, fastest moving shelf cloud I've ever seen, atleast 70mph. looks like a timelapse. fwd to about 1:30.

that storm generated a ton of good videos and yours is great.

[SEMIweather]

I'm going to go with June 8th, 2008...this is back in my hometown of Lake Orion, MI. This was the day where a long-lived derecho blew threw SE Michigan during the late afternoon. By the time it got to my backyard, it was moving at 70mph. The onset was so fast that some people in my subdvision were still outside doing yard work when it hit. Unfortunately for them...the storm featured 75mph winds that knocked over several trees in my neighborhood. We lost power for 2 days, and I consider that lucky...some people had power out for 5 days I believe. This was the highlight event of the epic month that was June 2008...I believe we had a Day 1 Slight Risk for 16/30 days of that month, which is ridiculous for SE Michigan.

Now hopefully I can see something better before I leave Norman on May 15th...

[Stebo]

haha ask them where at?

another one for close to home, this was about a half mile south of my house, 8/4/10, fastest moving shelf cloud I've ever seen, atleast 70mph. looks like a timelapse. fwd to about 1:30.

near Franklin and Prairie

[prinsburg_wx]

I have many i remember but this one is the most recent best.

Early morning of July 31, 2008 a severe line of thunderstorms developed in ne South Dakota & was haulin ass towards wc MN. I remember it well, i was out early doing chores and it looked like it was going to rain but i didn't think it was anything that serious. Around 6:45am the sky to the west was dark as night & lightning to beat hell so i ran into the house and my weather scanner was going off with numerous warnings.

I got the kids up and we booked to the basement and then around 7am all hell broke loose with strong winds, loud thunder & continuous cloud to ground lightning...we heard the sounds of trees being snapped, hail & heavy rain. Power was out & we stayed in the basement for over an hour as the strong winds continued well after the brunt of the storm passed.

I lost a row of trees in the grove n of my house but other trees on the farm were untouched other than small branches being ripped apart & all over the yard. Never did find the kid's trampoline that was out in the front yard....winds were estimated between 80 - 100mph with numerous buildings, trees and power lines down around the area. I will never forget it as it was a very scary experience.

Here's the bow echo radar image about the time the storm came through the area.

[snowstormcanuck]

They're all the same here: garden variety. I'd say the major flooding caused by the August 19, 2005 training tstorms qualifies those ones as the "best".

[Thundersnow12]

I have many i remember but this one is the most recent best.

Early morning of July 31, 2008 a severe line of thunderstorms developed in ne South Dakota & was haulin ass towards wc MN. I remember it well, i was out early doing chores and it looked like it was going to rain but i didn't think it was anything that serious. Around 6:45am the sky to the west was dark as night & lightning to beat hell so i ran into the house and my weather scanner was going off with numerous warnings.

I got the kids up and we booked to the basement and then around 7am all hell broke loose with strong winds, loud thunder & continuous cloud to ground lightning...we heard the sounds of trees being snapped, hail & heavy rain. Power was out & we stayed in the basement for over an hour as the strong winds continued well after the brunt of the storm passed.

I lost a row of trees in the grove n of my house but other trees on the farm were untouched other than small branches being ripped apart & all over the yard. Never did find the kid's trampoline that was out in the front yard....winds were estimated between 80 - 100mph with numerous buildings, trees and power lines down around the area. I will never forget it as it was a very scary experience.

Here's the bow echo radar image about the time the storm came through the area.

textbook bow right there, beautiful WAA wing.

[Hoosier]

I'm jealous of y'alls winds.

I haven't experienced anything really good since living here, just lower end severe stuff. This county is in one of its longer stretches without a tornado (5 years)...maybe this is the year.

[mnweather]

July 4, 1999 derecho through Northern MN. It was crazy.

[ArmyGreens]

Definitely the derecho that came through west michigan on may 31 1998. I lived in Spring Lake at the time and remember being out on my porch when it came through early in the morning. I have never seen trees literally slammed to the ground like they did that day! They estimated the winds at about 120mph. It tore up the city badly. I remember some condos detroyed from the straight line winds as well as several businesses. Both Grand Haven and Spring Lake lost a lot of large old shade trees that led to massive cleanup assisted by the national guard.

[hm8]

I don't even remember when it was, other then in the summertime 4-6 years ago...I only remember it because I was at a summer camp (in SEMI). The hundreds of kids at this camp were all in the cafeteria...and it started going absolutely crazy outside. The rain was going completely sideways and the noise on the huge roof of the cafeteria was tremendous. It was right by a lake too, and they had one of those water Blob things; we watched it get destroyed and blow all the way to the center of the lake. A tree actually fell on one of the cabins, to thank goodness we were all at lunch.

It was definitely one of the main experiences that got me hooked to weather. Part of what made it great was probably that I was with my friends and hundreds of other kids and everyone was pretty amped up. But even looking back on it today I realize that it was a great storm...I just wish I remember when exactly it was

[Hoosier]

Definitely the derecho that came through west michigan on may 31 1998. I lived in Spring Lake at the time and remember being out on my porch when it came through early in the morning. I have never seen trees literally slammed to the ground like they did that day! They estimated the winds at about 120mph. It tore up the city badly. I remember some condos detroyed from the straight line winds as well as several businesses. Both Grand Haven and Spring Lake lost a lot of large old shade trees that led to massive cleanup assisted by the national guard.

That 1998 event was something else...probably one of the more impressive derecho events in the past several decades. This summary says it all:

The "Southern Great Lakes Derecho of 1998" traveled 975 miles from southern Minnesota to north central New York in 15 hours, with an average speed of 65 mph. It became one of the most damaging North American derechos in history, destroying over 400 homes and businesses and damaging almost 20,000 others. Total damage estimates were close to $300 million in 1998 U.S. dollars. Almost 2 million customers were left without power, some for many days. For some electrical power companies in Wisconsin and Lower Michigan this event was the most damaging weather event in their history. Six people were killed and over 200 were injured by this major derecho on the last weekend in May 1998.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/may30-311998page.htm

[hoosierwx]

May 19, 1982 - Pampa, Texas. Was working a summer construction job on the edge of town when we heard the storm coming in. We stepped outside the house and saw this huge rotating wall cloud. I remarked to another guy that it looked like a tornado was going to drop out of it any second and right on cue it did. One of the guys teenage daughter was home by herself and being before cell phones we decided to make a run for his house. After several minutes we noticed that we could not discern any movement and decided that it was headed right for us and we were not going to make it. We whipped a U-turn and got out of the way and it ended up lifting up over the town. We tried going around another way and kept getting blocked by funnels. We ended up seeing 4 different tornadoes the last one wiping out the Haliburton plant on the east side of town.

Here is some more info: http://www.stormtrack.org/archive/0565.htm

[Thundersnow12]

9/22/06- I saw my first funnel cloud go over my neighborhood which I chased on my bike with a video camera in my hand. We had 3 supercells train across northeast IL this day.

[AppsRunner]

July 8th, 2003. 101mph gust in Bowling Green. I was on the southern edge of the worst of the winds. Airport in BG was damaged pretty badly, and over 100 trees were down. Epic.

[MidwestChaser]

Aug 07 derecho hands down. Massive tree damage; part of the garage roof torn off; broken windows.

[Hoosier]

9/22/06- I saw my first funnel cloud go over my neighborhood which I chased on my bike with a video camera in my hand. We had 3 supercells train across northeast IL this day.

lol