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Worst storm you have ever personally experienced...

dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
Describe the worst storm you have ever personally experienced...

We have some very bad storms roll through Chicago all the time. One of the worst I can remember was a combination torrential rain/extreme wind/electrical storm that blew roofs off houses, flooded streets, started my friend Sam's house on fire, and filled the streets with a lot of rubbish.

It was fun sitting through it though. Very intense. That was about two years ago. I saw a tornado once from a distance too. That was exciting too.

I love storms.
 
huge one a couple years ago.. 2, i think - power went out, friends roof was torn off and a tree went into there house.. our trampoline flew into a tree... it was bad! :eek: :eek:
 
When I liked in OK, there was an F5 tornado that ripped through the southcentral part of the state, it was the biggest one in what was a multitude of swirling storms reaching speeds of 318mph, one of the fastest if not the fastest ever recorded for a tornado. Normal speed ratings of tornadoes go from F1 to F5 being the most severe. This one would have been an F6 has the dscales gone high enough. I lived in a relatively small rural area then and it passed right through the centre, devastating everything in its path, destroying several of my classmate's homes. My school's gym became a sort of emergency room/morgue for the people who were injured. I don't think many died in this community but there was certainly years of reconstruction to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oklahoma_Tornado_Outbreak

One thing that was weird about it is when it passed within a mile of my house (didn't hit it thankfully) the light changed. Right across the street there was a white house, as in really white. When the storm came it turned blue. Not a deep blue but more of a royal blue colour. It was weird.
 
vniow said:
When I liked in OK, there was an F5 tornado that ripped through the southcentral part of the state, it was the biggest one in what was a multitude of swirling storms reaching speeds of 318mph, one of the fastest if not the fastest ever recorded for a tornado. Normal speed ratings of tornadoes go from F1 to F5 being the most severe. This one would have been an F6 has the dscales gone high enough. I lived in a relatively small rural area then and it passed right through the centre, devastating everything in its path, destroying several of my classmate's homes. My school's gym became a sort of emergency room/morgue for the people who were injured. I don't think many died in this community but there was certainly years of reconstruction to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oklahoma_Tornado_Outbreak

One thing that was weird about it is when it passed within a mile of my house (didn't hit it thankfully) the light changed. Right across the street there was a white house, as in really white. When the storm came it turned blue. Not a deep blue but more of a royal blue colour. It was weird.
Click to expand...

Yikes, well those aren't the *fun* type of storms I was talking about. It's never fun when people are hurt.
 
In Illiniois, a tornado jumped (literally) over our house, totaling one across the street and leaving a path of destruction down the block.

I was in Memphis when Hurricane Elvis hit with 73-80 mph straight line winds.
 
Hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jeanne, all within a few weeks of each other. They were all equally bad, and my house was in the eyewall of all three of them, so it was a combo shot. Charley took out my shed and most of the trees, Francis took most of the roof, then Jeanne took care of the rest of the house. It would've been about a year before there were any available contractors to fix the house because the entire town was decimated, so I took a total loss from the insurance company and moved to Tallahassee...
 
Well I was in Greeley CO and saw a funnel cloud when I was about 9, but that was about the worst I recall.

We do have some pretty bad flash flooding here in Vegas though.

news.jpg
 
Probobly the time when a couple tornados hit ground just to the east here by the airport in Milwaukee. Another time was when 60 tornados were spotted in Wisconsin.
 
I was in my car once, back in the summer of 1987, when during a thunderstorm, lightning struck about 10 feet behind the car while I was parked.

And I was on the Outer Banks of North Carolina when Hurricane Fran came through in September of 1996... the OBX were spared, but driving back to Charlotte was like going through a war zone. My mom's neighborhood in Raleigh was FILLED with downed oak trees.
 
Born and raised in the Bay Area, CA. No such horrid storms... well, other than the fact that anything w/ thunder and lightning freaks me out. That and power outtages.

Although I did live through the big '89 earthquake. :eek:
 
TheEdisonEffect said:
Hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jeanne, all within a few weeks of each other. They were all equally bad, and my house was in the eyewall of all three of them, so it was a combo shot. Charley took out my shed and most of the trees, Francis took most of the roof, then Jeanne took care of the rest of the house. It would've been about a year before there were any available contractors to fix the house because the entire town was decimated, so I took a total loss from the insurance company and moved to Tallahassee...
Click to expand...

Ditto... that was a rough season for us down here...:(

and only a week to go until hurricane season...:eek:
 
Probably one time when I was at my grandma's house in florida. We were driving down the road in a hurricane, you could hardly see there was so much rain- and my grandma can't see anything anyways. We were hydroplaning in a giant cadillac deville that my grandma can barely drive. I don't know what was more frightening, the storm, or my grandma's driving.
 
vniow said:
When I liked in OK, there was an F5 tornado that ripped through the southcentral part of the state, it was the biggest one in what was a multitude of swirling storms reaching speeds of 318mph, one of the fastest if not the fastest ever recorded for a tornado. Normal speed ratings of tornadoes go from F1 to F5 being the most severe. This one would have been an F6 has the dscales gone high enough. I lived in a relatively small rural area then and it passed right through the centre, devastating everything in its path, destroying several of my classmate's homes. My school's gym became a sort of emergency room/morgue for the people who were injured. I don't think many died in this community but there was certainly years of reconstruction to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oklahoma_Tornado_Outbreak

One thing that was weird about it is when it passed within a mile of my house (didn't hit it thankfully) the light changed. Right across the street there was a white house, as in really white. When the storm came it turned blue. Not a deep blue but more of a royal blue colour. It was weird.
Click to expand...

Was that the one that was near Norman, OK a few years back that was almost a mile wide? I think there was another one like a year later that followed the same path or something. My sister's in-laws, who live there, were telling us about it once. They talked as if it was just another "silly" tornado, but when they mentioned the size and amount of destruction it did my jaw just dropped. :eek: Maybe if you see enough it just becomes another every day occurrance, like earthquakes and seasoned Californian earthquake veterans....
 
Counterfit said:
Er, wait, I was alive for Hurricane Gloria, but I don't remember any of it.
Click to expand...

Gloria was by far the worst storm I can remember.

When it hit Hartford, winds were only 85 mph.

I can't imagine what a real hurricane must be like. Because 85 mph was really ... scary.

At least when you're 8 years old.
 
I guess I'd have to say the worst storm I've ever experienced was the one that shut down my high school and pretty much all the businesses in town when I was a junior. I think we got on the order of 2-3' of snow. Not a whole lot compared to some areas, but it came down so quickly that they couldn't get the roads cleared fast enough. It was a mountain town and around there there's nothing scarier than driving down a long windy unplowed road that borders on the edge of a cliff. I didn't complain though. Rather enjoyed having the day to build snow creatures and throw snowballs. *shrugs*

Other than that it's just been the usual torrential rain, a few cool thunderstorms, the "wintry mix" storms, and a couple of moderate blizzards/snowfalls.
 
here are the top three in no particular order

ice storm in south arkansas in 93 (this one shut most of the entire state down) I was a junior in high school and we were one of the only houses that had power, my girlfriend got to stay over though ;), i spent most of my time pulling electrical trucks with tractors so they could replace broken powerlines.

tornado spring of 96 in central arkansas. i got stuck outside little rock with a buddy and we had to book it under an overpass, it was some wild scary stuff. we were heading to benton at the time and ended up helping with the clean up there was a lot of dead people, it looked like a war zone.

ice storm in december 2000. i was flying back home from visiting some relatives and was stuck in the memphis airport for a few days. it was not fun. on top of it i had a trip planned for vegas two days after i was suppose to go back home. i ended up taking three flights to get to vegas and had nothing with me i was going to take. it was a nightmare. vegas was fun though.
 
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