Has anyone here ever seen or been in a tornado?

[CutestPaddedFemboy]

I grew up and have lived much of my life in tornado alley. I've seen two and been close enough to one that I was quite scared. Afterward, a found a piece of straw that had been driven into a tree, which was quite something to see.

Storm chasers are a special breed ... not that you can't do it, but the activity certainly carries a significant risk.

questions: where? and when?

 

[babyjoe698]

can you tell me where you live and what year the tornado was? I wanna try find it

Fort Worth texas this was 2011 I think ef0 or ef1

 

[bdale]

Living in Oklahoma and Kansas, I have seen numerous tornadoes. I had a commercial building that was destroyed by an EF2. Fortunately, it was early in the morning and there were no injuries.

 

[Kirisin]

Montana while I was home one day. However I can't take credit for the video I just took a screen shot of it I wasn't close enough to get a good picture I could see it though the photo below is from this spring
Couple years ago they called it a mini tornado but it picked up 2 of my sheds an 8x8 and a 10x10 and moved them to my neighbors hay field.
Had one chase me out of Salt Lake City, UT once I got into the mountains just before it did when it hit the mountains it died.

 

[Kirisin]

Erm. I live in the UK so we don't have tornados as such so I have never experienced one. I have seen them on TV though and in movies. People must be crazy to want to chase these things. Aren't they rather dangerous to life and limb?. Too scary for me even in adult mode. lol.

They chase these behemoths to get a better understanding of how they form this helps forecast tornado threats and worn those in the path of storms capable of spawning them (Tornado Warnings means tornados are emanate and Tornado Watches means the storms are capable of spawning them) better forcasting saves lives

 

[dogboy]

I had an F1 tornado go by my house several years ago. When it hit Elon Virginia, it was an EF3. It twisted the light on my lamppost, something I still haven't repaired. Every day I look at my poor, leaning to the right lamp. The post is still straight. I was at my son's house when it hit and all our cell phones went off at the same time, alerting us of the tornado. We immediately went into the basement and turned on the news on the widescreen in the basement. It leveled some houses in Elon.

 

[LaLoneDigi]

We had one come within 5 miles of the house. I was a baby so I have no memory of it. We have footage on VHS somewhere.

 

[Angelapinks]

So I'm really into extreme weather and i really want to go storm chase tornadoes. I'm wondering if anyone here has seen, been near or has been caught in a tornado?

Was spending time in my parents winter home in Fort Myers Florida and shelling on the beaches of Sanibel Island when I spotted a storm over the Gulf heading inland. I jumped in the car and headed back to Fort Myers but only got part way when the Tornado hit with pelting rain and hail and high winds. I got to the first causeway bridge but had to pull into a parking lot as I could not see and trees were blowing down all around, blocking the roads. This lasted about an hour before moving onwards and I slowly tried to make it back to my parents place.

 

[CutestPaddedFemboy]

I had an F1 tornado go by my house several years ago. When it hit Elon Virginia, it was an EF3. It twisted the light on my lamppost, something I still haven't repaired. Every day I look at my poor, leaning to the right lamp. The post is still straight. I was at my son's house when it hit and all our cell phones went off at the same time, alerting us of the tornado. We immediately went into the basement and turned on the news on the widescreen in the basement. It leveled some houses in Elon.

do you know which year?

 

[CutestPaddedFemboy]

They chase these behemoths to get a better understanding of how they form this helps forecast tornado threats and worn those in the path of storms capable of spawning them (Tornado Warnings means tornados are emanate and Tornado Watches means the storms are capable of spawning them) better forcasting saves lives

Tornadoes can be easy to track and chase only when you know how to do it. Reed Timmer, Pecos Hank, High Risk Chris, More Pi, Jayjack Stormtrak, Tim Marshall. There all chasers who have the knowledge and experience and who can do it safely. The only chaser to have ever died from a Tornado was Tim Samaras and that was during the May 31, 2013 El Reno, 2.6 mile wide, 302+ MPH wind tornado. It was wild and unpredictable. Its shear size and lack of condensation funnel ment no one could see the actual tornado.

 

[Labrador]

I wanna try find it

Forgive my stupidity, but I assume you mean you want to find pictures of it? Or look for signs of the damage that are left behind?
It sounds like you want to go chase the tornado he saw, and that tornado lasted a few minutes at most. It hopefully isn’t still terrorizing his hometown like a horror movie monster.

Somebody should make that movie: the tornado that wouldn’t die.

 

[CutestPaddedFemboy]

Forgive my stupidity, but I assume you mean you want to find pictures of it? Or look for signs of the damage that are left behind?
It sounds like you want to go chase the tornado he saw, and that tornado lasted a few minutes at most. It hopefully isn’t still terrorizing his hometown like a horror movie monster.

Somebody should make that movie: the tornado that wouldn’t die.

Theres a website called Tornado archive and it shows the path of every tornado to date. I use that to see its path and f/ef rating

 

[Edgewater]

Theres a website called Tornado archive and it shows the path of every tornado to date. I use that to see its path and f/ef rating

That is great, but they have only been cataloging tornados since the end of WWII. So that would not be the path of every tornado. Even that will cover the time of those of us still alive, To what end purpose, short of confirming it? Plus that would more than likely confirm only those tornados that where captured on weather tracking radar, that even today, that type of radar does not cover all segments of North America.

 

[Tundra1975]

I haven’t experienced a tornado but I have experienced a hurricane and several earthquakes over the last 15 years.

 

[Angelapinks]

Was spending time in my parents winter home in Fort Myers Florida and shelling on the beaches of Sanibel Island when I spotted a storm over the Gulf heading inland. I jumped in the car and headed back to Fort Myers but only got part way when the Tornado hit with pelting rain and hail and high winds. I got to the first causeway bridge but had to pull into a parking lot as I could not see and trees were blowing down all around, blocking the roads. This lasted about an hour before moving onwards and I slowly tried to make it back to my parents place.

Just re-read this and NO it was a Hurricane we were in, not a Tornado. We did have a tornado come through Southern Ontario a few years ago and it did a lot of damage close to where I live.

 

[BobbiSueEllen]

Several, the worst being EF2...and there were loads of them in Kentucky, from whence I moved recently. Unless you have good software & access to weather data beyond average access, it's difficult to chase twisters.

Best things I do:

1. Gauge storm intensity well. Don't assume a weak funnel will stay that way. It can ramp up in a heartbeat. There is usually lightning present in tornadoes, too! And so, that brings us to:
2. Distance & angle. Try to keep in the western half-circle of a tornado. And keep distance, about a mile or more. That way, if you have to reposition because a funnel shifts, you have time to assess & move with far less danger & fear. And since we're talking distance...
3. Use your zoom feature. That alone will keep you safe enough, and the farther within limit, the better. And if none of this works and you're caught in a bad spot with no time to run...
4. Find the lowest spot in your immediate terrain, lay flat, face-down and cover your head. Any low spot, even a mucky ditch. Forget your car as shelter. Get down, get flat as you can. Ride it out, keep your head down from speeding debris. You'll know when it's all over.

Tornadoes never go west and rarely go due north or south, but I had one exception: in June 2010, I chased an EF0 near Marysville, WA, got ahead of it, parked, got out to intercept it. Its course was 357 degrees...fading west of true north. Extremely rare direction. Even though it was EF0, I walked into the funnel...and got knocked over a time or two. It'll do it. Plus the field debris it was churning up could put out an eye, a misjudgment due to my rookie mistake. Within a moment or two, the funnel passed by. Then...a 15-second shower of dime-sized hail..."hook-hail". It hurt!

3 miles to the WNW, the intersection of 4th & State in Marysville was inundated by extreme rain, heavier than Marysville had ever experienced. The intersection & adjacent parking lots were deluged by up to 18 inches of water. Never happened before, hasn't happened since.

Then Kentucky. Oy, Kentucky. In the 19 months I was there, too many stories to tell. And the storms there were fierce enough. Kentucky gets more tornadoes than any state in the US...they're rarely above EF1 or even EF2. But regardless, they can damage, hurt & kill. So use good judgment, use a good zoom, plan an escape route...and be careful! Good luck!

 

[MudPuppy]

Back in '75 (I was a kid) we had a small one come through our neighborhood. My dad hustled us to our basement. It twisted a bunch of trees apart, knocked down a couple basketball hoops, and exploded a couple sheds and a kid's walk-in doll house. Most of the homes on the street needed to reshingle.

 

[Angelapinks]

Back in '75 (I was a kid) we had a small one come through our neighborhood. My dad hustled us to our basement. It twisted a bunch of trees apart, knocked down a couple basketball hoops, and exploded a couple sheds and a kid's walk-in doll house. Most of the homes on the street needed to reshingle.

My neighbourhood and the houses around me were spared any major damage but some needed roof repairs. A little further west of me there were many trees and Barns damaged, some of them beyond repair. The county cleaned up and cut the trees into smaller sizes so people could use for firewood over the winter months. I only needed a few shingles replaced and as I had the roof done about a year or so before, there were still some extras in my garden shed. My mothers house was quite large and on a hill but she only lost one large tree at the bottom of her garden and friends of mine came and cleaned it up for all the firewood. It was a very large tree.

 

[dogboy]

do you know which year?

I can't remember exactly but it was somewhere around 1978. It was several years after the Zenia tornado. After it passed over us, I immediately called my wife and she laughed because she thought I was kidding.

 

[Labrador]

Theres a website called Tornado archive and it shows the path of every tornado to date. I use that to see its path and f/ef rating

Ah, that makes sense.
To answer the question, I have had to shelter for a tornado warning while in Michigan (waterspout) but never been in one.