Ever been in a tornado?

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Living in NY, we don't really see very many tornadoes. Even when we get them, they are small and nothing like an F5 that would be seen in the midwest.

There's a tornado watch for today, which makes me wonder if anyone on here has actually physically been in a legitimate tornado?
 
Nope, closest I came was watching one go by on a nearby ridge in 1974...the impressive part was delivering food and whatnot to those folks the next day and seeing that all of their homes were just GONE. I have a healthy respect for weather events like that and would much rather be an observer than a participant.
 
They were around me and above me one night I spent in Texas. I was in a restaurant about 1/4 mile from my hotel and couldn't leave. The funnels just kept forming and forming. I was just lucky only a few of them touched the ground and those weren't near me. The color of the sky is unworldly.
 
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Originally Posted By: CincyDavid
Nope, closest I came was watching one go by on a nearby ridge in 1974...the impressive part was delivering food and whatnot to those folks the next day and seeing that all of their homes were just GONE. I have a healthy respect for weather events like that and would much rather be an observer than a participant.
I was 9 years old that day, I still have a healthy (unhealthy?) fear of tornadoes & tornado warnings since then, after having seen what that F5 did to downtown Xenia-like a half mile wide bulldozer.
 
In retrospect I realized I had been in a tiny one. A few months ago we were driving in Edmonton just before a rain storm hit. Suddenly a large whirl-wind appeared on one side of the road, threw gravel at the car and came across the road, right "through" our car.

At first I put it down to a strong dust devil. But as I thought about it realized you don't see dust devils associated with rain storms; they appear on almost calm, hot and dry days. And they don't throw gravel; they're just not that strong. So most likely it was a very small tornado.

About 20 years ago we were chased by a larger tornado for close to 1/2 hour but it eventually crossed the highway behind us. On the news they said it demolished a farm yard - overturned a combine, and picked up granaries and threw them long distances. That one was much bigger, but, in the scheme of things still fairly small. That was one of the most frightening experiences of my life.
 
Yes, one passed in front of me when I was young. Downed lots of trees in its path, but not a ton of home damage despite being a suburban residential neighborhood. The yellow sky was the thing I remember the most. Was very weak but still did a lot of damage.
 
Yeah as a kid in Georgia a large one landed in my back yard at 2 in the morning. It l knocked over two pine trees one fell in front of the house in behind. It was the loudest roar you could imagine. My neighbor was on national news as a chunk of pine tree was snapped off and shot like a nail through their roof then the kitchen hardwood floor and into the basement.
 
I've been through three different tornadoes:

1 - I was about 14, in our house in Naperville, IL, and a tornado came through near us. Mom took me down to the basement and we hid under a mattress. Turns out it came very close, but did not actually hit us.. Call this one a near miss

2 - I was about 15, a boy scout, and we were coming back from a camping trip somewhere in central IL. The scoutmaster was driving, and there were 4 of us in his station wagon. We were driving along a very straight, very flat section of highway.. you could literally see for a good 10 miles in all directions. I was sitting in the far back, sitting in the wagon section, along with another scout, and we were goofing around, when I happened to look out the back and saw a tornado that had been traveling perpendicular to the highway, to our south (behind us), hit the highway and suddenly turn, and head straight up the highway in our direction. I yelled forward to the scoutmaster and told him about it. He looked in the mirror, said something a scoutmaster would not normally say in the presence of his scouts, and punched it. Problem was, there was NOTHING but straight highway for a few miles. Up ahead, there was an overpass, but it was miles away.. I don't know how fast he got the car going, but he was going for it. We made it to the overpass with maybe 30 seconds to spare. he pulled it as far in as he could, we got out and rushed up the side to the little wedge area at the top, where it met the road going over top, and grabbed on to the crossbeams. The tornado went RIGHT overhead.. and the wind/suction was insane.

3 - I was about 23, and my girlfriend and I were in a bank in Naperville with our daughter. This particular bank had a lot of large windows, and it was raining pretty good when we got there.. while we were inside, we could clearly see the sky turning green.. and while I was watching out the window behind the tellers, I literally saw a tornado drop RIGHT in the intersection behind the bank, and start churning in our direction. They quickly ushered us into the basement (lucky for us they had one), and we waited it out for about 45 minutes. When we finally came back up, multiple windows were broken, and things were a mess. There was a large building next door that had its metal roof about 3/4 pulled off by the tornado. They really do sound a ton like a freight train.


... It's funny.. My wife, who grew up on costal Australia and has never seen a tornado anywhere except on TV or in movies, will sometimes say that she wishes she could see a tornado up close.

I always just tell her "Trust me - No, you really don't"
 
Yes, I was parked under an overpass in Lubbock TX. during the May 1970 Lubbock tornado. I stopped there because the rain and hail was so bad I could not see the road anymore. Pulled out after the storm passed and everything around me was destroyed. That tornado took out the north end of Lubbock.
I was in big trouble because I could not get back to Abernathy TX. with my date that night. Her dad was about to kill me since I wasn't supposed to be with her to start with.
I was scheduled to leave for basic training in the Air Force five days later, so I stayed out of sight until I left town.
 
Live in the middle of Iowa...so yup!

Seen several of them, and used to chase them in high school and college. I have never personally had damage to my property because of them...although some of the larger odd branches I often wonder after a good storm. Living in the midwest I won't own a house without a basement, but I certainly am not scared of them. Every time the sirens go off, I head outside to see what I can see. Unless it develops right on top of you, you can see them coming and take cover. The hard part is to not get mesmerized by them and lose the ability to take cover when needed.
 
I've seen a couple of funnels form in the sky,but never touch down. I have pictures of them somewhere.
 
I lived approx 8 miles away from where the Palm Sunday 1965 tornado stuck Toledo. We had only one broken window, but before I made it to the basement I remember seeing three 55 gallon oil drums flying 30 ft in the air in front of our house. For the next six hours it felt like we were being bombed. In 2010 many trees were knocked down 2 miles from where I live now.
 
I got involved in one in Pennsylvania when I drove truck. The radio said it was headed our way we were in tri-axle coal trucks 4 of us and we were in a strip cut loading. We all loaded and parked the trucks side by side between two D11 Catapillar Bull dovers. The sky turned purple and it rocked the trucks so hard they were about touching. It got pitch black in the middle of the day. You had to turn your headlights on to see anything. Big rocks blowing across the road.
I am not really sure we were in the actual tornado but it was really close. Thing about there it jumps from mountain top to mountain top so you never know where it's going to land. The colors the sky changes are unreal. If you see pink/ purple Haze you know there is one brewing.
Been through 5 hurricanes in Florida and I still fear tornadoes worse.
 
My house was 75 yards from the 2013 Moore Oklahoma tornado. I was at work and was watching the weather on my computer. I called my wife to see if she was watching the TV? She got irritated and said "no, I'm working out" and I asked her where our daughter was. "Asleep" she says. I told her to turn on the TV grab our daughter and get in the shelter, that's in our garage floor, and call me as soon as she did. At this point the tornado was about an 1/8th of a mile from her. I could see all of this on my computer from the local broadcast. She never called.

I watched as the tornado went towards my house and I could do nothing about it. I couldn't tell what the tornado was damaging and I just assumed and prepared for the worse. As soon as the tornado passed I-35 I got in my car and headed to my house. The whole time I can't get a hold of my wife or any one of our neighbors. I only worked 10 miles from my house and as I got within 1.5 miles to my neighborhood it was gridlock. I ditched my car and ran towards my house. Worst feeling in my life. As I got closer to my neighborhood I could see the roofs still intact and was relieved. As I am coming down my street I see my wife holding our daughter in the front yard while insulation and debris floated in the air. It hit 75 yards north of us and decimated everything in it's path. It was a very traumatic and sad day. I felt extremely lucky and guilty all at the same time. This was the tornado where those beautiful children were trapped in the school and died. Mother nature is merciless.
 
Funnel clouds (like a tornado that doesn't reach the ground) are quite common - I saw them often in thunderstorms on the prairie.

On the day that tornado followed us, my wife was driving initially - we were going a very long way that day. When I woke up, the sun was behind us and I could see purple and greasy green storm clouds ahead and off to the South. My sailing partner had warned me to always watch the trailing edge of storms. That's where the bad weather often lives. I was just explaining that, and that the droops on the back edge of a storm can develop into a tornado, when one formed and slowly came down to the ground.

Another thing my sailing partner taught me is that if a ship is always on the same bearing, you're on a collision course. And wouldn't you know it, every time we saw that tornado it was on the same bearing, only bigger than the last time we saw it. There were trees along the sides of the highway so between the hail and heavy rain and trees you'd only see it every few minutes. And always on the same bearing and bigger than last time.

The highway of course was perfectly straight with no major roads off on either side. So all you could do is keep going and hope you won't cross paths. There were small dirt roads off the highway but good luck heading up one of those. They're very likely to peter out within a few miles and in any case you could get stuck.

Eventually we decided we'd have to pull off the road and shelter in a farm yard. So we pulled off into a farm yard and wouldn't you know it, no outbuildings, only a trailer (the worst of all possible places to be in a tornado). So back on the road, and to get away from the crossing paths problem we headed back (with me driving now). But the hail and rain became much worse so we decided we must be getting closer so we turned around again and headed back in the original direction. Only much faster now. That Volvo 740 Turbo was even steadier at speed.

It was 10 minutes or more before things started to brighten and we realized that the tornado had crossed the highway behind us. Whew, we'd made it.

My most frightening experience ever!
 
In 1967 one went through Oak Lawn IL, my hometown. Our house was not hit but we saw the top of it go by. My father was sitting at a stop light by the local high school when it got hit. It picked up his pick up with him in it and threw it into a house after it bounced off a few trees on the way. He escaped with 4 broken ribs, but there were 5-6 people killed in the pile of cars under where he landed. A photo of his truck was on the front page of the old Chicago American newspaper the next day. We still have a copy of the original photo that the paper sent us. He is still alive at 87 and is doing good. Years later I was just outside Plainfield IL when one hit that city. I was in a pick up from the same company that my father was in when he got hit. I never saw the tornado but it was close enough I got out of the truck and laid in a ditch. I`ll never forget the green color of the sky and the sound of it when it went by. Do you think the first person who heard a freight train go by said, "It sounded just like a tornado"?
 
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