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Possible funnel cloud near me!!!

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:40 pm
by angelwing
I got off early to go to the doctor, got home and around 3PM it got really really dark and the heavens opened in Blue Bell :eek: My neighbors lawn furniture went flying across our lawn and I had to chase down my pepper plants, the container they were in went flying and I was listening to KYW at the time to see how bad it would be for my ride to my other job and they mentined that there was a possible funnel cloud in Hatfield, PA :eek: THat's only about 10 miles from me! The last tornado I was near was one we had in Philly about maybe 10 years ago, it took the roof off a building about a mile from me! We never get tornados!

Anyhow, here's the link to the story:

http://www.kyw1060.com/PHOTOS--Funnel-C ... co/4708391

and the pic:

Image

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:00 pm
by brunota2003
Looking at that, it certainly does appear to be a funnel, and a well developed one at that. Obviously in a pic, you cannot tell if it is rotating, but...if I were in the area and identified that as a funnel, I would certainly let the NWS know I cannot see the bottom of it due to trees, but that the visible funnel itself is at least half way to the ground.

Re: Possible funnel cloud near me!!!

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:06 pm
by WeatherLovingDoc
I'd head for the basement, or I guess, the hills!

Re: Possible funnel cloud near me!!!

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:18 pm
by angelwing
If I had a basement I would head for it! Renting a townhome with no basement, but tornados are very rare here, that's why I was astonished!

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:42 pm
by brunota2003
Anddd I'd be the dummy you'd see on the news standing outside taking photos and video of it, then at the last second deciding "maybe I should head in now"...except I would probably leave the camera out somewhere to record it pass over (and pray I could find it afterwords)

Re: Possible funnel cloud near me!!!

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:44 pm
by WeatherLovingDoc
Yikes! No basement-that's a tough one. Bathroom door frame then? We did have a tornado and bad storm here in NoVa about 10 years ago. Knocked down a 50 or so year old Oak, took out electricity on our street for 10 days (with two young kids), and brought down our tall stove pipe to the wood burning stove. The worse was the no electricity: power company said we were low priority on our street.

Like yours, it got very black in late afternoon. My friend gave me a heads up, so my 4 and 5 year old and I headed for the basement. Pretty amazing damage. Had a big all you can eat meat neighborhood BBQ the next couple of days at folks emptied out their freezers and frige.

Hope your o.k. That looks like a decent funnel.

WLD.