Check out these fantastic photos of twisters and the people who chase them, their comments are really interesting. The last guy, a 'professional storm chaser' has a great photo of a police car and an oncoming twister.
I wonder what people's experiences of these things have been we don't get them here on the coast.
http//www.cnn.com/ and click on 'Gallery the storm chasers'
Their photos are really spectacular - especially the ones that show buildings - you can see the scale of those things - they're enormous!
I have never seen or been near anything like that, but it must be terrifying.
When we lived in Wisconsin, I got to experience tornados at first hand. Its a pretty unforgettable experience. Could be that it was a perfectly sunny day, blues skies and all that - then you hear the warning siren and in about ten minutes the sky changes dramatically, clouds build, its goes almost green and gets really hot and still.
Then the wind comes in, really strong, tree bendingly flag tearingly strong, and all the tv station weather reporters get ridiculously excited. Old people go to the basement, its not a novelty to them like it is to an ex-pat, then the winds get stronger until stuff starts to blow over, the clouds go all weird and ripply and if you're lucky the twister will pass over you.
By all accounts, the storms I witnessed were pretty mild, there was still alot of damage and some pretty spectacular skies, but they were nothing like the power of the recent storms in Iowa and Indiana.
The one thing i did notice is the compulsion, if you have a video camera, to stand outside waiting for the funnel cloud. Stupid, i guess, but its not something you see every day.
Isn't poster Karen Rhoden a storm chaser?
Isn't poster Karen Rhoden a storm chaser?
Yes, she is. I visited her profile once and read some stuff she had written about it. It was really interesting.... I enjoyed reading it a lot. Btw, Mango here, not Mr Snuggles. Too tired to log 'im off and log me on. :neutral:
While I agree the pictures are spectacular, I've had quite enough of seeing the wrath of Mother Nature for the time being. :evil: On Tuesday our town was issued its second Tornado Warning in 10 days. We were fortunate last time that the town was spared a direct hit, however this time we weren't so lucky. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries and our house and immediate area weren't damaged, however two other areas of town were impacted. 12 tornadoes in total swept through middle TN that evening. I can tell ya........it was terrifying! :o We have no basement in our home, so my son, our dog (a large Golden Retriever), our cat, moi, comforters and pillows, gallon bottles of water and various nik-naks were all squished into a closet in our spare bedroom. The dog kept stomping on the cat and, in his haste to escape being turned into a frisbee, the cat freaked and ran amock, screeching and scratching to get out. My son and I were jammed in the middle, like two sardines. What a fiasco! There was debatably less commotion outside the house than inside! :grin:
I wonder what people's experiences of these things have been: we don't get them here on the coast.
I went through the big F5 that hit OKC and Wichita in 98. I am never going to deal with tornadoes again. Missed our apartment by like half a block.
/still have the stained undergarments from that