I love stormy weather, but tonight was rough.

It's tornado season and I live right in the middle of "Tornado Alley," and we got our first dose of the season tonight. A few small tornadoes (nothing too extreme) came through around 8:00. All the windows are broken in my house and water is everywhere. Lots of hail and it pretty much destroyed my car. I took a few pics:

Jesus Cristo... Is this a yearly occurrence? How do you keep up with expenses if you have to replace your windows that often?

That's really too bad, but the best of luck to you!

Jesus, is it like that every year?

Once, when I was on holidays in Switzerland, the weather was exactly like that . It's impressing...

There's not a tornado every year, but usually it's normal for very heavy storms to roll in throughout April and May. This is my third tornado to go through. Only one was major. It's crazy to see how one house can have massive damage and the house next door is completely fine. I was one of the lucky ones this time.

Weather is a very impressive thing. The sound a tornado makes is unmistakable, if you've ever heard one you know what I mean. It's a very scary feeling, but also my adrenaline was pumping like crazy.

Damn dude...that's crazy. Where do you live?

We got sick amounts of rain a couple weeks ago and I got about 3 inches of standing water in my basement I had to clean up. And earlier in the winter we had a freaky storm that was about as close to a tornado as you can get without actually being a tornado....I had one piece of siding blown off the house, but we had neighbors who lost shingles, siding, had trees fall into their porches, etc.

I live on the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma. About an hour or so east of Tulsa.

This was a very, very small storm by comparison. I kid you not...this is the last tornado I went through about 8 years or so ago. This is/was my neighborhood.




...pics are from a local news website, not my own.

wow thats insane. tornadoes i think are underrated by people until they actually experience them. The midwest is full of them.

I'm in Nebraska, so I know what you're talking about. Theyre scary business. Though I think it's funny how people have misconceptions about them. My mom used to watch Desparate Housewives, and I guess they had an episode with a Tornado. They were "preparing" all day long, stocking up on gallons of water, canned food, everybody was talking about the tornado on the way.

It was pretty ridiculous.


They hit basically without warning. Sometimes, there's no warning at all..they just come down from the clouds and land on your house.


Looks like you guys got it pretty bad though Pete.

Rivers Cuomo wrote:
My mom used to watch Desparate Housewives, and I guess they had an episode with a Tornado. They were "preparing" all day long, stocking up on gallons of water, canned food, everybody was talking about the tornado on the way.


tmmlol

sorry to hear about the damage pete...that hail is HUGE!

Holy moley! Glad you're OK!

I live in Southern California, so I'm in earthquake country. Though I've never been in a neighborhood that sustained lots of damage (knock on wood) I've experienced quakes as big as 7.6 - ones that killed dozens of people and destroyed major freeways. We haven't had a "big one" since 1994. I'm really scared that we're going to get walloped with an 8-pointer someday.

Yeah there's at least some kind of threat everywhere you go in this country. You've either got tornadoes (midwest/south), hurricanes (on the coasts), earthquakes (Cali), blizzards (north) or extreme heat (NM??). I guess earthquakes can sneak up on you the most...that's pretty scary.

Holy crap. . . thanks for the pics (I think?!). I used to live in IL, so I am familiar with tornadoes. East Coast doesn't have them very much (at least in the DC area), but 3 years ago I was driving home and a tornado crossed the interstate less than 1/4 mile right in front of me. It was creepy. Took out a bunch of houses near where I live and a golf course. Occasionally we have hail that accumulates and looks like it snowed in the middle of summer.
Mostly we just have to worry about hurricanes / tropical storms or their aftermaths (heavy heavy rains and winds).

Head up to the Rocky Mountains. All you've got to worry about there is bears, mountain lions, and when yellowstone explodes.

Of course, we'll all be screwed when that happens.

Aww, sorry, thats a real bummer =/

Yeah there's at least some kind of threat everywhere you go in this country. You've either got tornadoes (midwest/south), hurricanes (on the coasts), earthquakes (Cali), blizzards (north) or extreme heat (NM??). I guess earthquakes can sneak up on you the most...that's pretty scary.

Yeah, where I live in Colorado there's almost nothing. The worst natural "disaster" thats ever happened since the time I've moved here was a 4 foot snowstorm that blocked the streets for a week.

Trillian wrote:
Holy moley! Glad you're OK!

I live in Southern California, so I'm in earthquake country. Though I've never been in a neighborhood that sustained lots of damage (knock on wood) I've experienced quakes as big as 7.6 - ones that killed dozens of people and destroyed major freeways. We haven't had a "big one" since 1994. I'm really scared that we're going to get walloped with an 8-pointer someday.

I know the feeling, I live up in San Francisco. My biggest fear is being on one of the bridges and getting hit with a quake.

In January we had "Hurricane related weather."
My cousin had two trees smash into his house and he's just now moving back into it, I had no power for about four days when that hit.

So how long do you have to hide out in a shelter when the tornado hits?