Ever drive under a tornado?

[warbirdlover]

I did last summer. Was going home from golfing with sssmokin in center of Wisconsin. I live down below Milwaukee. I'm only about 20 miles south and there is this WALL of black clouds ahead (before a corner coming up to a four way stop sign) with three "points" coming down. I thought I'd better keep an eye on that. Well, I got around the corner and it looks like a huge grass fire ahead. Smoke pouring off the ground and swirling. I figured I'd have to wait for fire trucks etc. I got up to the stop sign and there was no fire. It was clouds and dirt swirling around and I was in the middle of a 300 yard swirling circle. Now the light went on (3 points coming down from black cloud). Oh shit!! I just drove under a tornado!! And I DID!! I was tooling along and the road curved right which is the path this tornado (which hadn't "touched" down yet) wanted to go. So I'm driving down the highway in the middle of this swirling mass for about a mile not knowing what the heck to do. If I would have had a camera in the car I could have sold pictures to National Geographic that NO ONE has seen before!! Here was a fast moving WALL of debris and clouds and dirt ahead of me so I just floored the car and burst through it (car was on two wheels)!! I looked behind me and there was the tornado finally touching down!! There was later a police confirmation of a tornado touch down at exactly that four way stop intersection (village of Poy Sippi, Wisconsin). Talk about an adrenalin rush!!! Here's the police report....

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREEN BAY WI
737 PM CDT SAT JUN 04 2005

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..

0237 PM HAIL REDGRANITE 44.03N 89.09W
06/04/2005 1.75 INCH WAUSHARA WI LAW ENFORCEMENT

0255 PM TORNADO AURORAVILLE 44.04N 89.00W
06/04/2005 WAUSHARA WI LAW ENFORCEMENT

CONFIRMED TORNADO

0303 PM TSTM WND DMG 2 N POY SIPPI 44.16N 89.00W
06/04/2005 WAUSHARA WI AMATEUR RADIO

EAST SIDE OF HWY 49. TIME APPROXIMATE - BASED ON RADAR.
4-5 INCH DIAMETER TREES WITH 30 FOOT HEIGHTS

0314 PM TORNADO 2 NW BORTH 44.11N 88.93W
06/04/2005 WAUSHARA WI LAW ENFORCEMENT

CONFIRMED TORNADO NEAR 35TH AND HIGHWAY D.

0340 PM TSTM WND DMG NEW LONDON 44.38N 88.75W

 

[spankdoggie]

That is really cool.

I loved that movie that ... forgot the name... it was a few years ago

Nice story, dog.

 

[Dorkman53]

"Twister", with Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and Cary Elwes.

 

[spankdoggie]

"Twister", with Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and Cary Elwes.

Exactly. Thanks.

I loved that movie...

 

[JEFF4i]

WBL, you are crazy.

 

[mont86]

wbl next time you might want to get too the nearest low lying area!

You know the drill.

 

[warbirdlover]

It's amazing how your mind does not put two and two together sometimes. I've seen brush fires so my mind told me it was a brush fire and didn't connect it to the three "points' coming down from the black cloud. I really scratched my head on that. I think it was so quick after seeing the "points" that I wasn't expecting anything from them right away.

 

[Eracer]

That's pretty intense. I'd call you Dorothy, but you, ssmokin, and that Razor fella' would probably come down here and take turns smackin' me with a G5.

I remember those "black walls" from my days growing up in Wisconsin. We don't have those strong frontal storms down here in Florida. Our T-storms are slow-moving air mass storms. Not that they aren't intense - they are. But there's nothing quite like that black wedge coming at you. Scary.

I did have a waterspout go right over the top of my boat once. I was anchored about 20 miles out and below deck when I heard this rushing sound. The wind started howling on deck - and I do mean howling. It got real white, which was really strange. The boat moved around some, then it calmed down and I went up on deck to see the spout moving away from the boat. That was pretty wild.

 

[Bravo]

I've never driven under one but I have flown over one...or very close to flying over one.

About 20 years ago, I was boarding a flight in Atlanta bound for Memphis. It was March and it was a very very warm humid day in Atlanta for the early spring - the high 70's.

We are getting into our seats and the captain announces: "If you need to go to the bathroom, go now before we close the door and pull away from the gate. Once we are airborne, nobody will be permitted to leave their seats, including flight attendants and of course there will be no beverage service on this flight"...kind of ominous but I have flown a ton and in lots of bad weather (I still don't like it though).

So we take off and climb really steeply. We are in an MD-80...about ten minutes into the flight, I see lots of lightning and the sky is dark...then about 15 minutes later the plane starts pitching really hard. Then it starts hitting huge gusts and the plane goes up and down hundreds of feet at a shot. The plane is performing very powerfully but the up and down is literally like a massiver rollercoaster.

Well this continues for about 25 more minutes and the plane hits a HUGE downdraft...I could sense the nose pitch down deeply, but the pilots pulled it back up really fast....

So then, we start our Memphis approach. The skies have brightened somwhat but we are in a heavy crosswind and I can feel the pilots struggling with the plane...the left wheels go down and then the right wheels slammed down hard as the pilots corrected it back...then the left wheels came back up! Once they got the plane firmly on the ground we had used over half the runway and they hit the thrust reversers full force...we used up the entire runway...at that point - I was sweating like the proverbial pig....

When I got outside the terminal it was about 45 degrees (a 30 degree drop from Atlanta). My sales rep picked me up and said, "Did you hear about the tornado that just hit Huntsville? I killed about 40 people".

I said No...I didn't hear about it - I just flew right over it....

 

[smileyrose]

Bad Wind

Ever drive under a tornado?

No, but I drove next to a passenger who had really bad wind once, does that count?!

 

[warbirdlover]

Eracer,
It wouldn't have surprised me to see the witch on her broom and a couple cows fly by!! I was really expecting to end up meeting the "munchkins"!!!

 

[JEFF4i]

That's pretty intense. I'd call you Dorothy, but you, ssmokin, and that Razor fella' would probably come down here and take turns smackin' me with a G5.

At least you know you won't go that far.

 

[mont86]

No, but I drove next to a passenger who had really bad wind once, does that count?!

It does if it matters too you. Have you ever been caught in a dutch oven?

 

[smileyrose]

Aga?!

Have you ever been caught in a dutch oven?

Not sure, is that the same as an Aga? Somethings stewing!

 

[mont86]

Not sure, is that the same as an Aga? Somethings stewing!

I believe it is.