Support NeoGAF

[F0rneus]

I know that there has been very heavy weather through the US and that is no good. Tornados....the worst shit ever! But up here in CanadaLand, there was no such thing....until now. In my 36 years I had never seen a real tornado. All I had was Twister....but no. Now I know. Quebec got rammed by 3 tornados that ripped through everything in their paths. Just down the street, a neighbor's entire lawn is just a fallen and uprooted tree. A massive 50 foot tree, laying dead on the lawn.

The electric shocks that blasted through the grid, blew up my goddamn fibre connection modem. 5 days of no landline, TV and most importantly....Internet.

Tornado we got. formed near St-Lawrence river and just plowed through everything. It's like a fucking biblical being. A column of wind that you can see with your own fucking eyes. A sucking vortex of literal doom that can drag you in, or spit you away in seconds. Overturned cars? Oh yes. Upside down crushed cars with all the fliers for a new barber shop, all laid out in the streets. Hundreds of flyers, lining the fucking streets.

It was an incredible moment in a sense. To see that happening. A column of sheer unstoppable power.

Now I got my landline, TV and Internet back BUT the damage in terms of power sources is omnipresent. Shit will stop working on the fly if it wants too. Good lord. 36 years, and my first tornado...I saw enough. Don't need another one....ever!

 

[gow3isben]

Yeah I was in bowling green Dec 2021 look that shit up 30 deaths in town

 

[0neAnd0nly]

As someone who follows tornados (and has been in a few), Canada actually has had many.

This years weather is weird, somewhat surged from the Super El Niño that is now not? Going to be “super”.

Canada actually had an EF5 in recent history, the Elie, MB ef5:

 

[Dirk Benedict]

F3 on the side of my truck, while I was exiting Oklahoma, on route to Texas. Heavy rains, truck was wobbling back and forth, my ex crying her eyes out, driving us at about 8-10 miles per hour. The sky looked like it was covered in mud with black and greys... this was at around 4-5pm, air raid sirens blaring. IT was some surreal shit alright... as soon as we got to a point where the truck stopped wobbling, we started going faster until we cleared the worst part, then started driving like normal.

Man, thinking back... there was so much rain, we couldn't see past the windshield, but I didn't want us to just sit there, so I asked my ex to drive in the straight line, keep focused and don't push the pedal too hard...

My first and only, but it was crazy. Before anyone asks, I would say this Tornado was about a quarter mile or so away.

 

[BossLackey]

Lived in Kansas and Missouri my whole life. Have had quite a few scares.

 

[gow3isben]

F3 on the side of my truck, while I was exiting Oklahoma, on route to Texas. Heavy rains, truck was wobbling back and forth, my ex crying her eyes out, driving us at about 8-10 miles per hour. The sky looked like it was covered in mud with black and greys... this was at around 4-5pm, air raid sirens blaring. IT was some surreal shit alright... as soon as we got to a point where the truck stopped wobbling, we started going faster until we cleared the worst part, then started driving like normal.

Man, thinking back... there was so much rain, we couldn't see past the windshield, but I didn't want us to just sit there, so I asked my ex to drive in the straight line, keep focused and don't push the pedal too hard...

My first and only, but it was crazy. Before anyone asks, I would say this Tornado was about a quarter mile or so away.

Dude...imagine if you were near the center and this is F3 not even 4 or 5

How did you know you were driving away form the thing?

 

[CGNoire]

Its funny when I first moved to Texas (Tornado Alley) everytime the Tornado Siren would go off I would scamper to the closet and curl up waiting for the worst all while saying prayers for myself and my family. As the years went bye I more and more kept putting off going in there unless I could actually hear things getting worse outside. Now a days if I hear a Tornado Siren I just roll over and go back to sleep. Not safe I know but I just cant get myself to give a shit anymore. Im just so numb at this point.

 

[Nobody_Important]

I was 11 and just got to my Grandma's after school in Oklahoma.


Watched a tree go past the sliding glass window in the back like it weighed nothing. I'll never forget it.

 

[THE DUCK]

As climate seems to be shifting, I fear this may be more common in many new places.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Dude...imagine if you were near the center and this is F3 not even 4 or 5

How did you know you were driving away form the thing?

It was always to our right side. And.. when it somewhat aligned with our position, the wobbling was so fucking intense, I felt that we would either tip over and get fucked.... or make it out.
So, I took initiative, and funny enough, my best friend was with us, and he usually takes the initiative, shit was instinctual for me. He was absolutely frozen.

You know when you are driving away from it when the intensity of everything that is happening, dies down... the wobbling subsides, the rain stops all of a sudden once you get far enough away. FWIW this was like 2009. I think there was some bad shit that went down that year.

Edit: When we were leaving there were like 2-3 other Tornados forming or have formed within Oklahoma, I remember that much.

 

[0neAnd0nly]

F3 on the side of my truck, while I was exiting Oklahoma, on route to Texas. Heavy rains, truck was wobbling back and forth, my ex crying her eyes out, driving us at about 8-10 miles per hour. The sky looked like it was covered in mud with black and greys... this was at around 4-5pm, air raid sirens blaring. IT was some surreal shit alright... as soon as we got to a point where the truck stopped wobbling, we started going faster until we cleared the worst part, then started driving like normal.

Man, thinking back... there was so much rain, we couldn't see past the windshield, but I didn't want us to just sit there, so I asked my ex to drive in the straight line, keep focused and don't push the pedal too hard...

My first and only, but it was crazy. Before anyone asks, I would say this Tornado was about a quarter mile or so away.

Went through something similar!

I have had non rain wrapped, all weaker tornados hit my house or within a couple of miles. Only one was EF2+

I was driving though when a rain wrapped hit. You always wonder how people get caught in that crap. We were driving, notice hits the phone “tornado warning”. We were just passing an exit, could see the approaching wall of rain, thought we’d be ok…

Thing closed on us like a cheetah. Insane speed. We were swamped with like 0 feet visibility.

One of the scariest moments of my life, honestly. Just you have no idea what is around you, what is about to happen to you.

Crazy helpless feeling.

Lasted about 3 minutes, rain lightened up, we drove away with debris everywhere.

Not a super strong tornado, but still crazy scary situation.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Went through something similar!

I have had non rain wrapped, all weaker tornados hit my house or within a couple of miles. Only one was EF2+

I was driving though when a rain wrapped hit. You always wonder how people get caught in that crap. We were driving, notice hits the phone “tornado warning”. We were just passing an exit, could see the approaching wall of rain, thought we’d be ok…

Thing closed on us like a cheetah. Insane speed. We were swamped with like 0 feet visibility.

One of the scariest moments of my life, honestly. Just you have no idea what is around you, what is about to happen to you.

Crazy helpless feeling.

Lasted about 3 minutes, rain lightened up, we drove away with debris everywhere.

Not a super strong tornado, but still crazy scary situation.

Yeah.. when we drove off, we saw a bunch of shit tossed all over, more trees than anything, as it hadn't hit any structures, yet.

 

[0neAnd0nly]

Yeah.. when we drove off, we saw a bunch of shit tossed all over, more trees than anything, as it hadn't hit any structures, yet.

Same! Tree debris everywhere!

 

[Aesius]

My parents' house got hit during this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Super_Outbreak

Luckily, they were unharmed, and the house incurred only moderate roof damage. But it wiped out almost all of their trees, which was a shame, because they were great mature shade trees.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

I’ve seen one in my life, at about age 10, before I was dragged back inside and down into the basement of my grandmother’s house. I felt like Egon when he says “sorry Venkman, I’m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought,” but my dad was there to get me. Didn’t get close enough to damage the house, but ripped up a field a few hundred feet away real good.

My same grandmother was also discharged from the hospital in Joplin the day before this one hit:

2011 Joplin tornado - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

…I’ll take the mountain west snow over the Midwest tornadoes all day long

 

[V1LÆM]

we don't get tornados here

edit: yet

 

[Lunarorbit]

Had a tornado 5 years ago in eastern massachusetts. Never in my life had I heard of them by me. Connecticut gets them apparently but I was really surprised when it happened

 

[AJUMP23]

I was in a town where we had about 6 in a row on the same day. It knocked out power for a week. All the tornados missed my house, but I had friends that lost their houses. I remember driving 20 minutes to get gas in my Tahoe due to there being no nearby power. The area I drove through was like as close as I will come to a warzone. After a day without power I took my wife and mom and baby to my sisters house.

 

[Bry0]

had many sirens including last week, saw a funnel once on a road trip. Very fortunate to have never been in the path of one. As I kid it was one of my biggest fears. At my age now I just carry my dog into the basement and think “hope my gaming pc survives unscathed”. Nothing you can do but try to protect yourself and those you care about and hope your stuff isn’t obliterated.

 

[Trogdor1123]

They are super scary things that people rarely respect until they learn the hard way. Had few here out west this year and I watched one tear a house apart in seconds. They are terrifying for the noise alone, let alone the fact they come fast and can kill

 

[0neAnd0nly]

Had a tornado 5 years ago in eastern massachusetts. Never in my life had I heard of them by me. Connecticut gets them apparently but I was really surprised when it happened

There isn’t a state in the US that is exempt from Tornados.

I think this is how poor of a job weather media and potentially school science classes have done, that people don’t know basic weather facts about the U.S.

Not your fault at, hope you aren’t inferring that from what I said. I mean the populace is so uninformed. 90% probably don’t know the difference in “watch” and “warning”. I theorize it is because the American news media has become so incredibly inept at reporting on serious issues, that people are now ignorant to it.


I can just about GUARANTEE you that more people, if polled, know more about the Kardashians than they do about simple weather terminology like mentioned above.

Craziness.

 

[Badlucktroll]

Can we defeat the tornados or even stop them from forming

 

[AJUMP23]

Can we defeat the tornados or even stop them from forming

Can you control the wind?

 

[jshackles]

I grew up in Missouri - we had our fair share of tornados. My grade school got hit with a bad one (while I was inside) and my jr high school got completely obliterated by one (thankfully, at night when nobody was there).

Tornados are the reason my wife and I packed up and left for the West Coast. In 2010, our apartment building was hit by three different tornados that did increasingly more damage (first one blew the windows out, second one did a lot of damage to the roof, third one took out an entire wall). That was in 2010.

Then in 2011, this happened in my hometown:


Absolutely devastating. Many family members lost their homes (thankfully none were hurt). Several of my graduating classmates were killed.

Tonados suck.

 

[Brian Fellows]

I saw the aftermath of the 1990 Plainfield (Illinois) tornado. Somehow my aunt's sub-division was relatively untouched while everything around it was obliterated.

 

[swaffles23]

A F-3 missed us by like half a mile in 2020. It sounded like the roof of my house was fixing to rip off and it was night time, which is the scariest shit ever. The neighborhood at the end of my street was annihilated. It looked like Fallout 3

 

[Cohetedor]

Had a warning while I was at work last Thursday in Michigan, it touched down about 2 miles south of us. Had to shut everything down for an hour and everybody just hung out in my lab(it's the designated shelter).

 

[0neAnd0nly]

I grew up in Missouri - we had our fair share of tornados. My grade school got hit with a bad one (while I was inside) and my jr high school got completely obliterated by one (thankfully, at night when nobody was there).

Tornados are the reason my wife and I packed up and left for the West Coast. In 2010, our apartment building was hit by three different tornados that did increasingly more damage (first one blew the windows out, second one did a lot of damage to the roof, third one took out an entire wall). That was in 2010.

Then in 2011, this happened in my hometown:


Absolutely devastating. Many family members lost their homes (thankfully none were hurt). Several of my graduating classmates were killed.

Tonados suck.

Joplin was an absolute monster.

Twisted the hospital on its foundation. Nuts.

Not even one of the “strongest” ever, but it’s such a monstrous Tornado for so many reasons.

Read on the “butterfly people of Joplin”. Kind of cool phenomenon.

 

[sendit]