shape
carat
color
clarity

Storms last night

packrat

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 12, 2008
Messages
10,614
Anyone else have incredible storms last night? The system reached from Iowa clear back to Colorado! Talk about coming out of nowhere-we were forecast for "light rain"-and I tell you what, I've *never* been in a storm like that before. I managed to get a few hours sleep last night somehow.

I got up w/Trapper about 1am b/c he has a slight ear infection, so I took him out for some Tylenol. Chicken is only allowed in the kitchen, but she was in the hallway, making cooing sounds and panting, so I let her out, thinking she had to pee. I noticed it was raining and lightning. There was a bit of crackling, and then a HUGE clap of thunder, so I figured a transformer got hit. I grabbed a flashlight, let Chicken in, who wouldn't leave my side, and we went to the bathroom, planning to go back to bed. The lights kept flickering and I heard a funny noise, so I went to the living room to look out the front door. As I was walking, the lights went out, my skin started to feel tingly, and it started to feel really warm in the house. I opened the door, looked out, and everything looked blurry and it seemed like the clouds were right on the roofs of the houses. I've never heard a sound like that-like a siren/wind/howl, and all that popped in my head was *tornado*. It felt like my stomach hit my toes and my heart lodged in my throat. I was SO scared and shaky.

I yelled for the kids to get up and get downstairs and we made it downstairs w/Chicken. London asked what that noise was, and I said the sirens. She said no, the other noise, and that was the horrible wind. I've never heard anything like it. I ran back up for JD's police radio so we could hear what was going on. Trees uprooted, power lines down everywhere-the roof of a big building came off, a woman had a tree fall in her house but she managed to hook her oxygen dependent husband up to a generator. The officers were dodging trees falling in the streets. It was crazy.

And this whole time, I'm thinking "Where is my husband?" He was still at work, but did they make him stay? Did he get stuck somewhere trying to get home? After about 30 minutes, I heard the front door crash open and him yelling, so I shined the flashlight upstairs and he ran to the door way, and when he saw we were ok he put his arms out to the sides of the doorway and just slid down to his knees. I about started crying. He said it looked like a war zone outside. The truck kept going sideways b/c of the wind, and he had to backtrack all over to find streets that weren't blocked by trees. One tree uprooted right in front of him and he barely got stopped before it landed on the truck. He ended up driving thru someone's yard to get around it.

That was definitely something I don't want to go thru again. I felt so bad for London-she's old enough to know what was going on, and she said the storm was making her tummy hurt. "My tummy doesn't like this storm".

Anyone else that got hit by this last night, I hope you're all safe and sound!
 
My sister lives in Georgia and she said they has some wicked storms! Lots of black, scary clouds full of lightning and thunder. :errrr:
 
OMG, Packie! I'm so glad you're OK! Sounds like it was really awful! :errrr:

We had severe thunderstorm warnings until about 1:00 a.m. this morning, but nothing ever came of it. I was actually hoping we'd get some storms . . . we REALLY need the rain! :blackeye:
 
We had a tornado here in the Michigan thumb Sunday night about 10pm. It was a "slow revolver"-only 80mph. A couple roofs were torn off and lots of trees down but thankfully no one was hurt.
 
Yikes, very scary experience! Glad to hear you and your family are okay. I hope all others affected by the stormed fared well, also.
 
Thanks guys! It's been a crazy summer for weather for everyone seems like. We just got things cleaned up in town after the biggest flood in 50 years or however long and we were declared a disaster area for that. Just keeps coming. We went out and drove around this morning-wow. All we had in our yard is a couple big branches and our fence was tilted. Took a bunch of pictures of damage in town that I'll post later. Nobody is coming out yet and saying it was a tornado, so I'm not sure. Mom said it could've been "shear winds" or something.

Those that have been having bad storms/tornadoes, stay safe!
 
Irishgrrrl said:
OMG, Packie! I'm so glad you're OK! Sounds like it was really awful! :errrr:

We had severe thunderstorm warnings until about 1:00 a.m. this morning, but nothing ever came of it. I was actually hoping we'd get some storms . . . we REALLY need the rain! :blackeye:

You didn't miss the rain by much Irishgrrrrrl. I left Frederick Tuesday around 5pm. Just cloudy. As I headed home, the sky got darker and darker. Before long, I saw wet roads... then rain drops... then I drove into total downpour. You know the kind... some people decide to pull over, some don't think they need headlights, and some turn on their hazard lights and keep driving (illegal) very, very slowly. Certainly in the top 10 for the hardest rains I've ever seen. I know there were tornado warnings for north of Baltimore but I don't think there were any.

Packrat, glad to hear damage wasn't any worse than that for you.
 
So far, tornado watch until 4am, so fingers crossed that's all it amounts to.

Some pics from the storm. Most are the trees by my Gramma's b/c the one is a monster.

100_10131.jpg

100_10211.jpg

100_10271.jpg
 
more

100_10281.jpg

100_10291.jpg

100_10311.jpg
 
:eek: :errrr: :eek: :errrr: :eek:
 
last

Never did hear any verification that it was a tornado. I've heard straight line winds, and that there was a tornado that kept touching down and bouncing back up, never actually staying on the ground.

100_10321.jpg

100_10341.jpg

100_10351.jpg
 
Gah, I don't like that it puts the pics in the opposite way I upload them.

Isn't weather crazy?? Doesn't matter how sophisticated our equipment is, weather can change at the blink of an eye.
 
I was flying back from Chicago last night and we got put in a holding pattern because of a nasty storm over the ATL airport. We held long enough that they said if we weren't released to land when the next update came thru, we'd have to be diverted to Birmingham for refueling. That happened to me a couple weeks ago and would have been the icing on my crapcake if it'd happened again. Fortunately, it let up and we could land. When I got home and asked DH how bad it was, he had NO idea what I was talking about. We live 12 miles northeast of the airport and didn't get a drop of rain! Weird how weather can be so isolated.

I heard Milwaukee got crazy rain Thurs and Fri. The airport was shut down Fri morning? Or at least all flights were cancelled. I had a architect trying to get home after meeting me at a job site and I ran into him in Chicago after his flight was cancelled... twice. Once out of ATL and then he was diverted to Chicago and it was cancelled there too. Sucked to be going to Milwaukee yesterday.
 
Wow we have been lucky, thats some scary pictures packrat, I am glad you all are safe!!! my youngest son is terrified of storms, we have never had one this bad!! we had what we think was a very weak tornado hit in our back field (2 1/2 acre field) but it was never confirmed and there was very little damage.
 
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Top