What is your most memorable non winter event living in the DMV?

[smokeybandit]

Ah the earthquake.  I was driving down the road to a dentist appointment, I felt like my axle broke in half.  I got to the dentist and didn't even realize the fact everyone was standing in the parking lot since I was looking under the car.  Someone said "there's nothing wrong with your car, there was an earthquake"

[H2O]

8 hours ago, Kmlwx said:

Wow. I forgot I started the quake thread. Probably the most famous thing I'll ever be known for on this website.

Ledo pizza fridays

[Kmlwx]

1 hour ago, H2O said:

Ledo pizza fridays

I gave up finally. I finally figured out I'll be relegated to always paying for my Ledo fix like the rest of the commonfolk. 

[high risk]

1)   9/24/01  tornado.   The tornado that hit College Park then moved northeast, and I happened to be in downtown Laurel and was in a perfect spot to watch it go by 1/2 mile to my west.   My view was similar to this one:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMyTosoYGpc

2)   The derecho.    Was living in south Laurel and got crushed but never lost power.

3)   The 6/25-26/06 deluge.   A slow moving wall of water moved across the area Sunday late afternoon through early Monday with widepsread 4-8" totals and nearly 10" over 3 days at DCA.   Insane rain rates - I ended up with over 8" for a 2-day period.   There were worries that the Pax River dam was going to break.

4)    6/2/97 supercells.    Saw a wall cloud over DC and later got golf balls in Laurel.   A long-track violent tornado after dark tracked through western MD.

5)    Isabel.   Plenty has been said about that storm - I lost power for 3 days.

6)   6/2/08 - Severe line of storms in early afternoon with several weak tornadoes in the area, and a second low-topped line with severe winds in the evening.  The initial line left an outflow boundary across central VA and southern MD where tornadic supercells tracked.

 

 

[yoda]

Must have forgotten about the 9/24/01 tornado outbreak in the area - http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/archive/event.php?date=20010924 :

2050    UNK    SPRINGFIELD    FAIRFAX    VA    3883    7726    TORNADO SPOTTED NEAR SPRINGFIELD METRO AT FRANCONIA PARKWAY. (LWX)

Thats pretty much a few miles from me... didn't remember that

[yoda]

30 minutes ago, high risk said:

1)   9/24/01  tornado.   The tornado that hit College Park then moved northeast, and I happened to be in downtown Laurel and was in a perfect spot to watch it go by 1/2 mile to my west.   My view was similar to this one:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMyTosoYGpc

2)   The derecho.    Was living in south Laurel and got crushed but never lost power.

3)   The 6/25-26/06 deluge.   A slow moving wall of water moved across the area Sunday late afternoon through early Monday with widepsread 4-8" totals and nearly 10" over 3 days at DCA.   Insane rain rates - I ended up with over 8" for a 2-day period.   There were worries that the Pax River dam was going to break.

4)    6/2/97 supercells.    Saw a wall cloud over DC and later got golf balls in Laurel.   A long-track violent tornado after dark tracked through western MD.

5)    Isabel.   Plenty has been said about that storm - I lost power for 3 days.

6)   6/2/08 - Severe line of storms in early afternoon with several weak tornadoes in the area, and a second low-topped line with severe winds in the evening.  The initial line left an outflow boundary across central VA and southern MD where tornadic supercells tracked.

 

 

Do you mean 6/2/98?  http://www.weather.gov/lwx/events_19980602

[high risk]

7 minutes ago, yoda said:

Do you mean 6/2/98?  http://www.weather.gov/lwx/events_19980602

    Oops.   You are correct!   I was a year early - thanks!

 

[jacindc]

On 8/12/2017 at 2:55 AM, nw baltimore wx said:

I remember both of these events. 

Ad a side note, my best non-weather event in Kettering was when Ronnie Bryant and I were walking through the cornfield from your house to the underground fort that we had built with your brother in the middle of the same field, and we saw him running at us with eyes the size of saucers screaming, "Copperhead!!!"

Man. Good times!

These descriptions of the 1971 tornado sent me to the Post archives to see, and Kettering is actually mentioned!

It happened on Sunday, Sept. 12, 1971.

(not pasting the whole thing--copyright, blah blah)

[George BM]

3 hours ago, high risk said:

1)   9/24/01  tornado.   The tornado that hit College Park then moved northeast, and I happened to be in downtown Laurel and was in a perfect spot to watch it go by 1/2 mile to my west.   My view was similar to this one:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMyTosoYGpc

2)   The derecho.    Was living in south Laurel and got crushed but never lost power.

3)   The 6/25-26/06 deluge.   A slow moving wall of water moved across the area Sunday late afternoon through early Monday with widepsread 4-8" totals and nearly 10" over 3 days at DCA.   Insane rain rates - I ended up with over 8" for a 2-day period.   There were worries that the Pax River dam was going to break.

4)    6/2/97 supercells.    Saw a wall cloud over DC and later got golf balls in Laurel.   A long-track violent tornado after dark tracked through western MD.

5)    Isabel.   Plenty has been said about that storm - I lost power for 3 days.

6)   6/2/08 - Severe line of storms in early afternoon with several weak tornadoes in the area, and a second low-topped line with severe winds in the evening.  The initial line left an outflow boundary across central VA and southern MD where tornadic supercells tracked.

 

 

6/4/08  

[ldub23]

Isabel no doubt. IT was fun seeing the storm come  in from the SE with the high clouds followed  by the  lower cloud deck.

[ldub23]

Being  older than everyone else here another memory  i have  is  of Doria  1967. It wasnt  much but  it was heading  ne out to sea then stalled. I remember going to school in the morning and seeing the last  clouds of doria way out  in the distance and when i came home  i noticed the clouds had gotten closer. I told my dad without seeing any weather report that Doria had turned back west and was going to hit  us. Sure enough a hurricane watch was put  out that  night though it ended up just being windy with a few showers.

[ldub23]

Another memory was Betsy  1965. Looked  like it was headed right for  us. My dad and  uncle decided to cut  down a  pine tree next to the house just  in case. They tried to do it themselves and  have  it fall into an empty  lot. Me and a  bunch of friends were watching  on the covered porch. Turns  out the tree fell right  on the porch and  just  missed killing  us. Needless to say Betsy turned around and hit New orleans.

[nw baltimore wx]

On 8/15/2017 at 0:47 PM, jacindc said:

These descriptions of the 1971 tornado sent me to the Post archives to see, and Kettering is actually mentioned!

It happened on Sunday, Sept. 12, 1971.

(not pasting the whole thing--copyright, blah blah)

That's awesome! Thanks for finding this. I lived on Bennington Dr at the intersection of  Belton Dr. The MacGregor's lived just up the street from us. Our house was undamaged but two houses away had severe damage.

[09-10 analogy]

Has anyone mentioned the NW DC/southern Montgomery county microburst of ... I think it was 1990. Lived at the south end of the damage swath at the time. Winds easily matched those of the dread-o, as I recall, and the worst was to my north. Friendship Heights, Chevy Chase, that area was absolutely blasted with what were estimated to be 80-105 mph winds. Poles, lines, trees down everywhere. As I recall, more structural damage up there than with the derecho; it really did look like what you'd see after an F1 or F2 (at the time) tornado. But it was clearly a downburst. I was on my first job, working the night shift, I'd get home at noon, get some sleep. Woke around 4 PM to a green sky, though I don't remember any hail. I remember seeing an umbrella and other debris being blown across Wisconsin. It was a localized event, much more so than the derecho or June 2008, which are the other two great thunderstorm events I remember around here. Probably why it doesn't get much notice, but if you were there and experienced it, you'd probably never forget it.

So mine are:

1. Aforementioned microburst.

2. Derecho. (Gets a boost because of the heat that day, though the storm was awesome. Didn't like dealing with the next five days of HHH w/out AC, though.)

3. June 2008. Not only the first (and most severe) storm, but there were two or three afterwards, all of which were pretty potent in their own right, as I recall. Action didn't really stop until 10 that night or so.

4. College Park tornado. We got some good inflow winds into the supercell here in upper DC (maybe 50+) but the big thing was the flanking line I saw. My wife, working in Crystal City at the time, thought she might have seen the rope tornado that showed up in photos of the mall. 

5. Isabel. Just because, as someone mentioned, the lead up and the overall impact to the region. The winds weren't really much worse than with Irene or Sandy IMO, though. Sidenote: our block in upper NW was one of the very few that didn't lose power, for some reason. 

6. June 2006 flooding. Lots of t&L with a couple of those storms, not to mention the torrential rain. 

Honorable mention: There was a hellacious thunderstorm sometime sometime in the early 90s --- I was still living in AU Park, where I'd experienced the microburst -- and there was an overnight thunderstorm, in August I think. There was just a tremendous amount of lightning and thunder, and it went on for hours. Maybe it's just the fog of memory, and it wasn't as impressive as I remember it being, but I remember the lightning was so constant, my little studio apartment looked like it contained a strobe light that had been possessed by Zeus or something. 

 

 

[gymengineer]

1 hour ago, 09-10 analogy said:

Has anyone mentioned the NW DC/southern Montgomery county microburst of ... I think it was 1990. Lived at the south end of the damage swath at the time. Winds easily matched those of the dread-o, as I recall, and the worst was to my north. Friendship Heights, Chevy Chase, that area was absolutely blasted with what were estimated to be 80-105 mph winds. Poles, lines, trees down everywhere. As I recall, more structural damage up there than with the derecho; it really did look like what you'd see after an F1 or F2 (at the time) tornado. But it was clearly a downburst. I was on my first job, working the night shift, I'd get home at noon, get some sleep. Woke around 4 PM to a green sky, though I don't remember any hail. I remember seeing an umbrella and other debris being blown across Wisconsin. It was a localized event, much more so than the derecho or June 2008, which are the other two great thunderstorm events I remember around here. Probably why it doesn't get much notice, but if you were there and experienced it, you'd probably never forget it.

 

 

June 14, 1989. ~150,000 power outages and $50 million damage. IAD recorded a gust to hurricane force, IIRC. Yes, the worst hit area was in that Bethesda to Chevy Chase corridor. 

[jacindc]

My family lived on Western Avenue near Rock Creek Park during that 1989 storm (I was out of town that month). My mom described it as a tornado coming up the hill out of the park. Our golden retriever was totally traumatized - she got into the bathtub at the first crack of thunder in every storm afterward. I think they were without power for a week.

[jacindc]

My family lived on Western Avenue near Rock Creek Park during that 1989 storm (I was out of town that month). My mom described it as a tornado coming up the hill out of the park. Our golden retriever was totally traumatized - she got into the bathtub at the first crack of thunder in every storm afterward. I think they were without power for a week.

A photo on Western Avenue from that storm.