Bob Chill Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Fall weather is usually not too exciting around this time of year. I was talking with wifey today about our scariest weather memories and I thought it might make a good thread. My scariest weather story happened during the July 26th 2010 severe storm. By far the strongest winds I've had IMBY since I bought the house in 2003. I have multiple 60'+ tall trees in my back yard and the 60+mph winds that came with the storm took the tops of 2 of them. When the first blast of wind hit we quickly scrambled to the lower level. The awe of the winds brought me back upstairs and I was standing at my sliding glass door just amazed at the winds. Grass was laying flat and trees were rocking and dropping branches left and right. All of a sudden there was a loud crack and I got showered with insulation and drywall. A branch came through my roof like a missle and missed my head by about 2 feet. This could have easily taken my life and I excercised extremely poor judgement standing by the door. I've replayed the incident in my mind hundreds of times. It really shook me up pretty bad and taught me a serious lesson about protecting myself during events like this. Here's a couple pics to give you an idea on how dumb I was: The branch fell from 60' up and the end was literally 2 feet from my head when it came through the ceiling. If it was a bigger branch I don't think I would be typing this post. I've had about 4 other serious moments with weather but this one takes the cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoMo Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Joplin EF-5 tornado a few block away. It wasn't all that scary until about 15-30 minutes after it happened and I figured out what had actually happened from radio reports, etc. The 'scary' part was masked by adrenaline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H2O Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Scariest weather moment is probably the few times I flirted with heat exhaustion at work during the days when we had HIs in the low 100s. Sometimes I need to do better at taking breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BethesdaWX Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 By far the 7/25 wind-blast, pretty sure anyone in one of the damage swaths would agree. Both Airconditioning Machines on the Side of the house were knocked down and couldn't lift the big one up on my own, I'm still getting used to the new "look" the landscape has over a year later. Though the beginning of the storm wasn't bad at all....First big gust hit in the second half of the storm, and trees bent backward in ways I've never seen, and then a few of them began literally falling apart which scared the flying s**t out of me though I couldn't see much, I backed into the living room and a much stronger one hit the house and made wierd noises in the window panes I never heard before, almost like a loud buzzing but had a "squeaking" sound to it, and felt some sucking in my ear, cussing loudly as I ran downstairs, but glanced back out a window and saw a sideways "tube" of blown rain dancing around as the wind funneled it between the house and the porch awning which I thought was very neat. The real tragedy was waiting until August 1st to get power back... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVblizzard Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 In a storm about 5 years ago, lightning struck a tree about 50 feet away from me. I was in my house and didn't see the strike, but it sounded like an atomic bomb went off. Also, last year I was rushing home from school (I walk to/from school) because a storm was coming. 30 seconds after I got inside, it started hailing. I came close to getting caught outside in a hailstorm but just managed to avoid it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Scariest weather moment... this spring out in SD: (Props to AtticaFanatica for the screen grab) Jason, Ian and I chasing a tornadic cell in the dark on dirt roads. At one point I had gotten out of the car for some footage to see if I could spot the tornado during the lightning flashes. I was E of the hook facing W (cell was moving NE/ENE). Inflow winds were gusting to around 50 mph, with my back to the wind as I leaned up on the car in front of me. All of a sudden the wind shifted dramatically, and I couldn't get into the car fast enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.J Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 This past April when the system that dropped the devastating tornadoes in the South moved up here during the early morning hours. Sleeping with the weather radio and it going off every 10-15 min. with tornado warnings over my area. It was on the second warning that while telling our girls to get downstairs something hit the back of our house. We both heard it and scooped up the girls and tore down 3 flights of stairs. It was not until a few days later that while in the back yard I looked up, and above our window a strip of siding looked like it had been pulled out from the middle, but it was not loose enough to fall off. Now I know several circulations passed over our area and there is a tree line behind our home, but no branches were down. Hindsight we should have just stayed in our safe place from 4:30am on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usedtobe Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 MOne are all related to being in a boat during a thunderstorm. Despite being a met, I've been caught out several times. The latest was this spring on Lake Okeechobee, I'm not sure it was the scariest but since it was the latest it sticks in my mind the most. I did wonder think at the time how ironic it would be if a met perished on a lake during a storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalfy Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Wanted to go for a jog in a heavily wooded area. Didnt bother to check the forecast but apparantly a rogue severe storm was on the way and it hit the area just as I was in the very middle of my jog... wind picked up, cloud to ground lightning, no one insight and at least 30 minutes from my house...... I thought I was going to be struck by lightning because of the frequency of the strikes and the sheer intensity of the rain and wind freaked the hell out of me... i hadnt ran that fast since the time in my childhood when I was being chased by this dog.... anyways I luckily got home save but literally soaked in rain.. Second scary time was during the 'snowmageddon' back in february of 2010.. i decided to take a walk in the snow, and didnt follow my instinct (the snow was WAY TOO DEEP to walk in.. at least 16-17'' but I decided to go on).. I must have walked a mile in it until I realized (in the cranking snow, cold temps, and wind) that it would be hell trying to get back to the house..... Luckily I made it back with some good pictures but it took alot of effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozz Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 In middle school (spring 2002), I was on the bus on my way home, and a giant tree fell onto the road right after the bus passed through where it would have fallen. I was seconds away from possibly being crushed. We were in a tornado warning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CranberryWX Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 I was in the middle of the May 1985 OH/PA tornado outbreak. The F-5 that came through Niles, OH missed my apartment that I was living in at that time by less than a 1/2 mile. The golf ball sized hail blasted my car. It also came close to my future wife's home, though we didn't know each other yet at that time. I can still clearly recall that day 26 years later...sort of like a 9/11 for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 MOne are all related to being in a boat during a thunderstorm. Despite being a met, I've been caught out several times. The latest was this spring on Lake Okeechobee, I'm not sure it was the scariest but since it was the latest it sticks in my mind the most. I did wonder think at the time how ironic it would be if a met perished on a lake during a storm. As an avid fellow fisherman, #2 & 3 both involve fishing. Damn near struck down in the real South Park of CO and almost cooked trying to cross Seneca Lake at a whopping 4mph with the trolling motor maxed out. South Park was the worst. No trees, hills, or mountains for 20 miles in any direction. Watched a cell intensify and make a bee line before making a run for it back to the truck. Truck was in view but 2 miles away. Hair standing up and graphite rod singing as lightening split the air around me. One bolt hit so close that I smelled the burning air simultaneously with the crack of thunder as I was running. When I climbed into the truck I shed a few tears and saw life a different way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ineedsnow Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 enough said in this video im next to the white van in the saturn at the beginning! june 1st 2011 springfield ma just after 1 minute in this video you can see me again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hosj III Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 During The January 2011 snowstorm, a huge branch fell on the power line across the street and exploded. It burst into flames, there was a very loud sound, and the arcing electricity caused flashes of different colors. Not really life-threatening, but it scared the daylights out of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIC_WX Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Mine are aviation related. in June of 2005 I had a DCA-CLE segment on a small regional jet (EMB-145). The pilot warned us before takeoff that we would be crossing a line of wx approximately 3 minutes after departure and to expect turbulence. As ever, those of you who fly from DCA know pilots have substantially less latitude to deviate from course on the approach and departure routes for national security reasons; these rules I believe have been relaxed (a very little bit?) in recent years but not so at this time. In any event, we were probably only a few thousand feet up when we flew straight into basically the most menacing cloud I have ever seen from the air. Shortly thereafter, the plane is experiencing severe turbulence...after about 45 seconds of which the plane is nearly uncontrollable and the pilots audibly give the engines maximum throttle to try and pull up out of the storm...if ever so briefly it seemed as if this might not end well, but after about 2 minutes we popped out of the storm, as if we were spit out of the cloud. Being in a small plane, laden with fuel, at a low altitude and encountering severe turbulence so quickly after takeoff...was about as frightened as I have ever been on a plane knowing that our margin for recovery was extremely narrow should anything go wrong. In another segment, February 2008 from ATL-RIC, it was a late night arrival behind a strong cold front ushering out an unusually warm airmass. I was arriving at the field about the same time as the FROPA, so we had to circle at 10K feet in the storm for about 90 minutes...crossing from the cold to warm sector and back again several times. At one point we dropped out of the clouds on final approach only to pull back up again. At this point I am expecting diversion but unbelievably the pilots try again and we end up landing in a deafening hailstorm 15 minutes later. Once could only surmise that the alternate landing sites had wx issues as well and I can imagine by that time fuel was probably low and landing in the hailstorm was our only option. The pilot taxied to the gate, threw open the cockpit door and immediately charged into the lav....I imagine he was cleaning out his shorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief83 Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 This will probably sound pretty dumb to you, but I got lost in the fog about 10 years ago and did not have a clue where I was. It was in the dark and fog so thick I lost my bearings as to what road I was on. I missed a turn and when I did turn I was not where I thought I was. It went down hill from there. It was out in the country - no road signs, etc. It turned out I had gone several miles from where I thought I was. I guess now it could not happen with GPS but back then I didn't have one. I know - pretty stupid, but it happened. Not sure it was scary, but pretty intense at least. I also got lost in a white out (snow) going to a fire call and had no idea what direction I was going or where the road was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 This will probably sound pretty dumb to you, but I got lost in the fog about 10 years ago and did not have a clue where I was. It was in the dark and fog so thick I lost my bearings as to what road I was on. I missed a turn and when I did turn I was not where I thought I was. It went down hill from there. It was out in the country - no road signs, etc. It turned out I had gone several miles from where I thought I was. I guess now it could not happen with GPS but back then I didn't have one. I know - pretty stupid, but it happened. Not sure it was scary, but pretty intense at least. I also got lost in a white out (snow) going to a fire call and had no idea what direction I was going or where the road was. Fog is effin scary, especially when visibility gets reduced to less than a couple hundred feet while you're driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted September 8, 2011 Author Share Posted September 8, 2011 I was on a 2 week sail in the bahamas on a friend of mines 40' sailboat. We were at anchor in a protected harbor on a deserted island. Bad storm rolled through in the AM. Didn't think it was a big deal because we were totally sheltered in all directions. Mast got struct by lightening and instantly caused $5k worth of damage to the electronics. An arc off the mast in the cabin caught my foot. Weirdest feeling. It didn't really hurt. It was more like a burning sensation inside of the skin. The rest of the crew didn't really believe me because there were no marks. Next day there were bright red streaks all across the top of my foot. Apparently, lightening kinda cooks you from the inside out. The more scary part of the story was crossing the gulf stream at night with no electronics and no engine (we didn't know the charging system was fried until the motor conked out). So, we sailed across the shipping lanes with no power, lights, radar, or GPS. Was pretty damn happy to get to Miami. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MN Transplant Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 I guess both would be winter weather driving. Nothing really scary has happened to me otherwise. Had just hopped onto I-29 North in Fargo, ND. Mid-March or so, so the sun and salt on the roads were doing a good job, but the air temp was very cold (maybe single digits mid-day). Semi suddenly moves over into the left lane in front of me, and the spray from his vehicle flash-freezes on my windshield. Completely blind going 60+. Can't slam on the brakes, so quickly roll down the window and keep my eye on the yellow line while the wipers and wiper fluid do their job. On a road trip with friends in the Montana rockies. Lightly snowing, but roads are wet. Climb a little and hit a patch of ice. Fishtail going 70 next to a nasty dropoff. After I pulled out of it I got many kudos from the passengers about my winter driving ability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheesyPoofs Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Around 10-11 years ago on Mother's day we decided to take a mini "Dinner Cruise" that, if I remember correctly, went down a pretty good portion of the Chesapeake before coming back. It was fine when we departed, but about halfway through we got rocked by a line of thunderstorms. I don't remember if there was a severe thunderstorm warning on it, and I was just in the infancy of my weenieism, so my weather knowledge obviously wasn't as good as it is today. If I had to guess, I'd imagine that there was. The lightning was vivid and constant, and the ship (not the size of a big cruise ship obviously, but not some small boat either) started rocking rather strongly. ...Then water started pouring through the windows on the first floor. It wasn't gushing through like a waterfall, heh, but it wasn't just dripping either -- the carpet was completely soaked. At this point, most of the guests started to head to the 2nd floor of the boat. Meanwhile, the a-hole captain comes over the speaker and starts cracking jokes, saying he apologized for the swaying of the ship and that he "had a little bit too much to drink." Yeah, what we really needed in that situation was a captain joking about operating the boat while intoxicated. Eventually the heavy rain stopped, but the lightning continued for a good portion of the trip. The entire time I was looking around and wondering why no one else was as concerned as I was. Bear in mind I was much younger at the time (elementary school), so I was probably more scared than I would have been today. I think I was right in being concerned though, and I'd still be alarmed if something similar happened today. At any rate, it certainly wasn't a situation to be laughing at, something that the captain and many of the other guests missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregD Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 I lived in Oklahoma about 20 years, so saw my share of good storms. Three stand out as particularly threatening ... In the front yard, watching a NE moving funnel cloud drop to the ground less than a mile SSW from my house. Missed us by 1/2 mile but destroyed 180 homes in the neighborhood. We spent the rest of the night in a closest while tornadic thunderstorms trained overhead much like the storms these last couple days. We were tornado warned continuously for probably 6 hours. A prototypical big plains thunderstorm - 70 mph winds blowing baseball sized hail through the windows. Of course it knocked the gutters off the house, destroyed everyone's roofs and a few neighbor's cars parked on the street. Oh, and one parked in a driveway with the owner inside not daring to get out to open the garage door. Awaken by an absolutely crazy thunderstorm sitting on top of us. Continuous cloud-to-ground lighting. Nearly simultaneous flash !!! BOOM !!! one right after another. I've never before or since heard anything like it. But then things got just bizarre. I'm laying in bed expecting a lighting bolt to come through the ceiling and smite me when I notice a faint beep coincident with each lightening stroke. Flash beep !!! BOOM !!! Years before I had been given a coin bank with a built-in electronic calculator. The kind that beeps when you push a button. Battery powered, not plugged into the wall. Each lightening stroke induced it to beep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1551 Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I went through Hurricane Andrew & Hurricane Charlie. Not just scary but **** your pants scary. My family lost everything in both Hurricanes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BethesdaWX Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Upon reading GregD's post on lightning, brings to memory a storm in 2008, not severe warned and nothing like 7/25, but the lightning was like nothing I can ever remember seeing, (or hearing) for that matter. Anyone else in the Area remember that one? It was in either July or August of 2008, not the June 4 Derecho. For a 45 second period, had to be literally 1-2 nearby CG bolts every second, thunder either came immediately afterward or simultaniously. I was out watching it on the porch and felt frozen/paralyzed, didn't even think to go inside, not sure why either lol, one of those true "holy s**t" moments. It was a little cell maybe 5 miles wide on radar, which is what made it so wierd. I'm not sure what it was doing/tapping into in order to produce that kind of electrical charge, but usually I find when a storm features lightning like that there is usually a strong updraft/convective wind patterns in the storm, so I was surprised we never got a warning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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