question for Amercan board users

[Mandeigh Wells]

anyone seen a tornado?

Mandeigh

[Jay Bell]

I sure have. I lived in the midwest for a spell in High School and in 9 months time, was in 3. Also dealt with a couple visiting Indiana and Minnesota.

[Webmaster]

I grew up in Oklahoma which is tornado central. Seen lots and luckly have never been too close to one!

[Sgathak]

Yup...

Had one in Denver, and just barely missed getting caught in one while driving through Oklahoma. (Storm pattern produced F3 - F5 twisters that stretched from Oklahoma City to Wichita Kansas.

Ive never seen the sky turn so black, so fast.

http://www.disasterrelief.org/Disasters/990504Oklahoma/

[Jeff Burger]

Yeah we started to drive to get a better look...but you dont have to get too close to know its a dangerous thing.

It was very impressive, and locals sai that was a small one.

Jeff

[Mandeigh Wells]

well surprisingly enough we actually get them in the UK...apparently up to 33 a year.....who knew....even 40 miles up the road from here there was one in the paper last year. We don't get the real big ones though...but I would just love to see one ( from a safe distance). I don't like the really big ones that just look like the clouds on the floor.....but I do like the thinner ones (like in the Wizard of Oz).....

what did it feel like watching them?

m

[Jeff Burger]

I was in awe...curious but cautious.

I cant imagine living somewhere that has these regularly.
I think Id be afraid to sleep during tornado seasons.

Jeff

[Jay Bell]

what did it feel like watching them?

Well...one in-perticular (KC, Missouri) ..amazingly peaceful. Just before the spiral began all of the wind stopped to a dead stall. The trees weren't blowing at all. The sky turned into pea-green color.....and everything was just still.

Another was when I was in Bloomington, Indiana visiting my girlfriend at the time at college. The funnel started...and girls were running through the halls of the dorms screaming bloody murder (many from New York...never having experianced a tornado). It was comedy

[John Bennett]

I've seen several.

Mostly I've seen small, skinny ones. You can tell when one is about to drop out of the sky because the bottoms of the clouds will be dark and take on a very specific "lumpy" appearance.

Some of my cousins got jobs in Norman, Oklahoma a few years ago cleaning up after that big one they had there. They had interesting stories about finding body parts like thumbs and feet among the wreckage. Blyech.

[riku]

"---Mostly I've seen small, skinny ones.--"

So there is something small in Texas...


Riku Ylönen

[Cliff Hargrave]

I have seen several small ones too. In east Texas they are usually very small and don't last long. Not like in the panhandle where they can be a mile wide at the base and travel for several miles (ever heard of Jarrell, TX?)

[mac]

33 a year ?? We had more than 33 last month!
I live in Kansas... 'nuff said.

[Oz82]

Just saw one a week or so ago. It didn't touch down, and we weren't really sure it was an actual vortex, until I turned on the TV and they were freaked out about a TVS (Tornado Vortex Signature). When they showed the map, it was exactly where we were looking.

I was in one as a child; it passed directly over the school while we were all huddled in the hallways. It did minor damage; windows and other small stuff.

I've lost family to them, here's a link to the description. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/march_27...h_27_1994.html quote,"The storm entered Cherokee County at 11:35 am CST. At 11:39 am CST the tornado destroyed the Goshen United Methodist Church located 1 mile north of the Cherokee/Calhoun County line on County Highway 9 killing 20 people and injuring 92."

A nearby tree stand that I've used was taken by one a few years ago (it took most of the tree, too, by the way).

I've personally seen more than 4 or 5 that did touch down (here's one that I saw just a couple of miles from my house http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/signific...unt/index.html), and I've helped people clean up after three of them. One of the efforts I helped with was an F4, and it literally picked up 8 foot by 12 foot section of concrete. No shelter was safe; if it hit you straight on, you had no chance. Link: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/signific...02/CarbonHill/ (this says F3, but it was called F4 at the time. I'm not sure why it was downgraded to F3 on this site.)

We have two tornado seasons in the southeast. One is winding up now, and the other starts aound mid-August and runs through November. I remember plenty of "off-season" tornados as well.

Around here, it's just something you live with and pay attention to. Unless it actually does some real damage or it's still going on at airtime, it doesn't even make the evening news.

[Jeff C.]

I spent a lot of time in the basement as a kid in Ohio. I occasionally still have bad dreams about them.

Florida sounds pretty much like eastern Texas; lots of tornados, most of them "small skinny ones" (by the way Riku, that WAS funny!). Every year I at least see plenty of funnel clouds, and an occasional tornado. We've had a few pass pretty close to the house.

What's really cool to see is a water spout - a tornado that has touched down in the water (Gulf of Mexico is where I see them).

After being on duty in south Florida after Hurricane Andrew, I GREATLY fear hurricanes. Everyone should.

Jeff Cook
Wabujitsu

[nosh276]

Tornado's are cool, I prefer hurricanes. They destroy with wind, water, and lightening. Plus they spawn tornadoes. Anyway I've only seen small tornadoes and from very far away.

[Ewok85]

I've seen a biggish water spout about 10 years back. Only seens tiny little tornadoes here.

[Dennis Monk]

I still remember the day in fifth grade. I was standing at the window in school and asked my teacher, "Mrs. Green, do you see that tornado out there?". She calmy said, "No there is no tornado, get away from the window. Now!" I then asked if it wasn't a tornado what types of clouds stretched out and attached to other clouds. Ten minutes later all of the students in the school were in the middle hallways while the Nederland/Pt. Neches/ Pt. Arthur areas of SE Texas were pounded with baseball sized hail and strong winds. But there was no tornado according to Mrs. Green.

[Sochin]

We were driving east from Regina on hiway 1 when we saw a tornado off to the south. I was about 10, then.

We get a few up here, but not many...not enough trailer parks!