Tornado warning yesterday for us!!

[Ziroc]

Well, for those of you that couldn't get to the site yesterday for a while, well it was because I turned EVERYTHING off, and unplugged it. We had a severe storm with loads of lightning, and then, the wind came, and we're talking 50-60MPH, and 3 large trees (bottlebrush tree) and the trees width was about 3ft, and 3 of them cracked off like someone snapped them.

(That was in the back yard) and in the front, we have one large tree, and like 40 small branches were broken off (some dead, most were living). Then, I see a swirling motion waaaay at the top of this clump of huge oaks--I was looking at the tips of them and the tips of the branches were moving in a circle to the wind. EVERYTHING else was quiet. No wind anywhere else. I started to worry, THEN small hail started falling, and wind picked up crazy again, then I got the weather band radio out, and they said there was a Tornado Warning for Polk County. A Tornado was seen moving east at 10mph. It will effect Highlands City in 10 minutes. Okay, well I have a map of our city, and ran a line from highlands city west. Guess who's house is DIRECTLY on the line?! Us.

So I got Choc, and Told Donna where we would go if a Tornado comes--EVERYONE that is in areas that get Tornados should have a plan before hand. Anyway, nothing hit us--no tornados, but then I remembered the swirling motion at the tip of those trees, and our winds and damage and wondered if it jumped over us!

Totally freaking nuts. The roads and our driveway were all littered with leaves, grass and moss from trees.. made a mess, but today we cleaned everything up.. That is the closest I've come to a Tornado (probably a small F1) since 1974 in Louisville, Ky.

Choc even started meowing weird.. you hear about how animals go nuts before weather and earthquakes, like they know it's coming?? weird stuff! I'll take some pics of the damage and post them here tomorrow--I have to borrow the chain saw from Donnas Dad since the thing split down the trunk of the tree, and its huge. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, if you ever see that the server is down during the afternoon (2-7PMish) that is when we get the offshore winds from the Gulf of Mexico, and that creates storms in the summer. BTW, Central Florida--where we are-- is the lightning capitol of the world. YEY.... [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Gangrell]

You're just now getting those kinds of storms? They've been plaguing us for the last two weeks.

On the first week, there was nothing but lightning and thick dark clouds just a few hundred yards off to the side of my apartment. I was suprised my power never went out. Anyway, when night time came around, I saw white clouds start dancing around and whipping up around the sky. Tornado touched down a couple of times, but not too close to me.

The second tornado, ohh, I'd say an F3, came around last Sunday. I went to sing for the senior graduation at my school. Right in the middle of the senior speech, the principle came up and said there was a tornado warning, and one might be right on the way (which was obvious because everyone could hear and feel the gym walls shaking). I peered out the window and saw a huge funnel cloud start to come down. Didn't all the way though, but a small funnel came from the ground up into the clouds, then all of it came down. It was about a mile away, but you could've sworn it was no further than two hundred feet. If it did come, we would've hid in a storage room made out of solid concrete, no windows or anything. It didn't hit us, but it did in another part of the town, and ripped two one hundred year old trees clean out of the ground.

Scary stuff, glad to hear you're alright.

[ 06-05-2004, 09:59 PM: Message edited by: Gangrell ]

[Stormymystic]

yeah Dan, sounds like it was on top of you, you are lucky it did not land, and I agree everyone should always have a plan, you never know when one will strike, unlike a hurricane, torandos are more unpredictable, but glad you guys are safe [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-05-2004, 09:58 PM: Message edited by: Stormymystic ]

[Ladyzekke]

Oh lightning capital of the world eh? fun fun!

Am glad you, Donna and Choc are OK and nothing actually touched down where you lived. Where I live we usually don't have to worry about tornados, but in past 5 or so years I'd say, we seem to get them popping up now and then. Most remain in the sky and do not damage anything, but I've gotten to hate and dread thunderstorms coming. We keep getting warm, then cold, then warm, which is just a frikken witches brew for thunderstorms. We had marble sized hail about a week and a half ago one evening, with high winds, it sounded so loud hearing the hail hit the house. Knocked out our front light altogether, frame, glass an all. I swear I saw a mini tornado in the sky at one point, luckily it just went up and seemed to dissipate in the clouds.

Do you have a basement Ziroc to go to?

[Sir Goulum]

I *hate* thunderstorms. I remember one time last August, me and my brother were watching tv, and then we get the lovely warning beeper thing, saying a tornado touched down about 30-40 mins away from my house. I was just like "oh, yeah..." [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Luckily it went North over Edmonton.

[Nerull]

We usually end up with a tornado warning at least 3-5 times a year where I am at. Any time you get a powerful thunderstorm in San Antonio, it seems like almost every time there is at least a tornado watch.

It does sound like at least the cell went over your house (the super cell that is). The tornado may have dissipated before it ever reached you, so that would have just left that one strong cell with heavy winds. Also, it could have "jumped" over your house, but I doubt it; if it jumped, you would have heard in the news how it damaged areas past you (i.e. it would have set back down, thus the term "jumping").

Either way, a scary experience. Every time we get a heavy thunderstorm in the area, I immediately start checking the news waiting to hear about whether there is a tornado warning or not.

[Ziroc]

Nerull, it was actually a super cell! I watched it on radar, and it came in from the west--a long tightly band of storms, and the strongest part went over our house (dark pink in color for the radar). Now when radar 'detects' a tornado, it is guessing somewhat. It computes that the 'hook shape', and calculates the wind patterns. So it might have just been VERY bad winds. crazy..

We don't have a basement, but in the center most part of our house, we have 2 small closets that have thick wood and some pipes in the walls. (I saw a house nearly exactly the same design almost--same builder too, and saw that the 2 small closets had loads of wood tightly woven around the small structure.

Another good location if you don't have a basement is a bathtub. And cover yourself with a Mattress. But I don't think I'd have time to pull a mattress, so takes tons of blankets and if you can, tie yourself to the tubs faucet with a belt or something.. sounds silly, but it could save your life.

And yea, the storms just started a few days ago.. It's true that we usually get into the rainy season much earlier (March) but as everyone knows, the Planets weather is getting weird... Did anyone else see the Jetstream last week? It jumped way north, and caused tornados to be much more north for a time. Quite odd.

BTW, Tornados do jump--by that, I mean go back into the clouds kinda, and come back down. You ever see tornado damaged neighborhoods, where some folks houses are fine, then 1 block away theres total devastation?. I think it was forming over us or maybe trying too.. Today, no one in Highlands city saw a Tornado, but got some BAD wind too.

BTW, this cell went east to us, then stopped, and went back west. VERY weird...caused by storm gusts. some other went north, south... Rain was blowing on our windows SO hard that it sounded like someone with a pressure washer was hitting them! [img]smile.gif[/img] Truly scary.. Normally, I love thunderstorms--as long as the lightning and other bad stuff doesn't hit around us. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Ziroc]

BTW, what sucked was that I tried to check the local channels, but we have a satellite, and its signal couldn't get through those high dense clouds, so I went on the internet (risky with the lightning) and saw the band of storms coming, and turned off all the PC's, and got the weather radio...

I was SHOCKED our power didn't even blink! But we do have underground lines around here--atleast till the main road, and those are on poles.

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Ziroc: Nerull, it was actually a super cell! I watched it on radar, and it came in from the west--a long tightly band of storms, and the strongest part went over our house (dark pink in color for the radar). Now when radar 'detects' a tornado, it is guessing somewhat. It computes that the 'hook shape', and calculates the wind patterns. So it might have just been VERY bad winds. crazy...BTW, Tornados do jump--by that, I mean go back into the clouds kinda, and come back down. You ever see tornado damaged neighborhoods, where some folks houses are fine, then 1 block away theres total devastation?. I think it was forming over us or maybe trying too.. Today, no one in Highlands city saw a Tornado, but got some BAD wind too.

Yep, the super cell is simply an extremely strong thunderstorm that has the potential for hail/damaging winds/tornado. That's why a good number of times hail will precede a tornado. However, you are right that they are just guessing; they look for the signature rotation on the radar, then throw out the warning. They really aren't sure if it is on the ground or not (and you figure after Helen Hunt and company threw a bunch of sensors up there they'd have a better time tracking tornadoes... ). And I've actually been around a jump before; I left a grocery store because of the warning issued in the area (and supposedly heading towards the store), went up the street, realized I left something back at the store, so went back. The tornado had hit the store, and had vanished right afterwards. I got back to the store, just to hear that it had touched back down right on the road where I was when I turned around. It literally missed me in both places (lucky I turned around).

[Megabot]

Good that we dont have weather like that here i have never seen a tornado in my whole life anyway good that you are all okay Dan [img]smile.gif[/img]