I am ok---tornadoes

[Nathan]

Well my county of Pa has had a tornado warning. I ahd to call my mom to tell her there was word of a tornado in her area. It was confirmed her road was on the news! She said she heard a whistle! Scraed the crap out of her. Areas of Pa are getting baseball size hail! ITs raining bad here very intense storms. Never seen it get so dark and black out. The sky was black AND purple. Had to call my family members to get in the basement. No idea if indeed a tornado touched down. But it was rotating thunderstorms. Its the biggest red cell I ever saw. Covering almost a 1/4 of Pa. We live in the hills so this is odd. But I am ok.

[muddyboots]

glad to hear it.

[JOHN MILLER]

keep safe, all of you.

[daveymac82c]

I'm glad to hear you're alright. Hearing the reports on the news from down there is frightening to say the least. Stay safe.

Peace,

David M

[tom d. friedman]

this is the most f'd up weather i've ever seen!! the most rain since 1950!!! you can't do anything!!! take care of your yard, fishing, golf. it's killing countless businesses including mine!!!

[RyanShort1]

this is the most f'd up weather i've ever seen!! the most rain since 1950!!! you can't do anything!!! take care of your yard, fishing, golf. it's killing countless businesses including mine!!!

Yeah, but we're in a drought down here in TX...

Ryan

[K5DH]

It's been a very rough year for severe weather. Huge numbers of casualties in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, and other places from tornadoes. Seeing the TV news video of all of the destruction just tears your heart out.

Tuesday night we had bad storms here, with 9 confirmed tornadoes around the DFW metro area, including an EF2 that touched down about 7 miles west of my home, and a funnel that didn't quite touch down about 2.5 miles northwest. Baseball-size hail was common, and hail up to softball size fell in some areas. One area was reportedly THREE INCHES DEEP in hail by the time the storm passed. It's a scary feeling when the sirens go off, even for a trained storm spotter with over 30 years of experience. Listening to the Skywarn net on 2 meters got me the real story, which eased my fears somewhat. Still, it's quite unnerving knowing that something terrible may be about to happen.

Be safe, folks. If you live in an area where tornadoes are possible, have a plan to protect yourselves. Identify your safe room. Make sure your family knows where to go and what to do, especially if you're not there. Stock your safe room with the necessary items (flashlights with fresh batteries, a good first aid kit, a change of clothes and shoes, battery powered AM/FM radio, battery powered weather radio, some basic hand tools, etc). If you don't know what to do, contact your local emergency preparedness office and find out. Your life is yours to save.

[Bear]

I watched a Tornado go about 1/2 mile south of my house last Sunday.

http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=U0&Dato=20110523&Kategori=SPJ01&Lopenr=105230814&Ref=PH

[fritzthefox]

I grew up in Indiana before moving to Ohio, and I have been surrounded by tornadoes my whole life. Warning sirens induce more annoyance in me than any other emotion now. (Especially in Cincinnati, where until recently it was customary to sound a siren if the groundhog sees his shadow, or rolls over, or farts in his sleep. Anything.) I have yet to see a tornado. They seem to pass north of me or south of me or over me or annihilate the homes of people who live next door to someone I know, but I never see them. I have seen the sky turn all kinds of scary colors, and hastily evacuated a fifth floor apartment once because the sky had become uncomfortably black at three in the afternoon (never take the elevator in a thunderstorm, btw)...but you won't get an eyewitness account from me. Nada. I am pretty sure if one passed by my house, I would be in the shower.

It is very similar to my experience with bears. I worked in Grand Teton National Park for a summer and never saw a bear. Not one. Everyone I worked with saw a bear. Everyone who was in the car I was dozing in when a bear cub ran across the road saw one. Tourists who are just passing through the park for a couple hours on their way to Yellowstone havve bears walking up to their cars begging for food. The park is crawling with bears. But I am human bear repellent. Five months of living there, and I never saw a single bear.

If you are worried about tornadoes, hang out with me. I am probably the safest person to be with during a storm or camping trip.

[Tulio]

A couple of days ago, we had hail and lightning storms in the St. Louis area. And, yes, I saw funnel clouds hanging from a dark and ominous CB cloud, although they did not fully develop into tornadoes. When I saw this, the cloud was fast moving by the Arch area.

I have been lucky enough to avoid tornadoes although I have seen a few, in Texas, in Oklahoma and in Missouri. Purple skies, greenish skies, dark skies and I have also seen a few times, CB mammatus. Scary stuff.

Saludos,


Tulio

[airnutz]

Luckily the effects of the latest La Nina is in decline...doesn't help our drought, but hopefully next year will be more normal.

[davidbray]

I've got a great solution to the Texas drought... Illinois needs money, lately Illinois has had way too much water... See where I'm going with this? Lets not wait for the Mississippi to take it to the Gulf. Send some trucks up here we can pump water off of our fields and send it down there to you, deal?

[Chris Brame]

My cousin's son and his family had to take to the basement when the last batch of twisters hit Huntsville - stripped most of the siding off the house and tore a hole in the roof but they're all OK.

Grew up in Illinois near NAS Glenview and only had a couple close calls - in April of '67 some pretty bad ones hit the Chicago area; my dad had been a weather observer in the USAF and saw what was coming and herded us to the basement. A couple trailers blew over at the base but the town was OK. Another passed a mile south of us in '72 late at night after we were all asleep.

I thought moving to L.A. would mean no more tornadoes, but in '83 one hit the Convention Center a few miles south of me, and now that I'm out in the high desert, the Tornado History Project website shows we've had several in this area since the '70s !

[phil65]

http://www1.whdh.com/video/player/