Jeanne, you scared the #$^*#@#$ out of me

[hurricanefreak1988]

Well, I can tell you that from now on I won't take remnant TDs lightly again. Last night at about 3AM, I was woken up by my NOAA radio, and I thought "Oh, probably just a severe thunderstorm." Well, I peeked around the corner and saw the red light, so I knew it was a warning. But still, we've gone through severe t-storms before so I was ready for it. But then I walk in and hear "Tornado Warning", but I still wasn't worried (have you noticed it takes a LOT to get me worried ), because so many times before Cumberland County has had tornadoes, but they've always seemed to miss me here in Fayetteville. But then they said "Tornado Warning for Central Cumberland County", and that's when it became serious. Never before had I been this close to a tornado threat. Like I said before, the Cumberland County tornadoes of the past had always hit places like Hope Mills, Eastover, and Gray's Creek- places OUTSIDE of the city. But this time, it was me. So I turned on News 14 Carolina, who I now appreciate a LOT, because even at 3AM, they were still giving me up-to-the-minute info on the storm. They zoomed in to county level on the radar, which was crucial because that's how close it was. So for 20 minutes I was nervous, waiting for something to happen. But I kept noticing the storm was moving at an angle away from my house, only miles east. It turns out that's what happened. At about 3:45 AM, I could finally take a sigh of relief, as the storm had pretty much moved out of Fayetteville. It was moving at 40 mph, so that was a good thing, because at least it was a quick event. It turns out the I-95 corridor was pretty much right in the path of the storm. But, I don't know yet if there actually was a tornado, because it was doppler-indicated. Plus, I haven't seen anything in the news yet. But still, what a scare. Jeanne, you ended up bringing Fayetteville some action after all, but not in the way I expected.

[hibiscushouse]

Yuck, a night time tornado threat. That must have been really scary. Night time anything is no fun.

[hurricanefreak1988]

Yeah, that made it worse. Especially at 3AM, meaning I slept LATE this morning... thank goodness I didn't have school

[Josephine96]

Jeanne didn't exactly scare me.. but she did fray my nerves a little bit because I was up all night Saturday night

[inotherwords]

Do you get big tornadoes there, like they do in the midwest? Or are they like the ones we get in FL where they're usually pretty small and touch down a small area before dissipating?

Any time there's a tornado watch or warning in my county, I barely pay attention, because usually it takes out one or two pool cages and that's pretty much it.

[Josephine96]

After what happened to me in 1998.. I have a new appreciation and approach to the words "tornado warning" eek:

[Sanibel]

Try an Andrew-type super-cell eyewall tornado. One that would level even a concrete house...

[hurricanefreak1988]

Do you get big tornadoes there, like they do in the midwest? Or are they like the ones we get in FL where they're usually pretty small and touch down a small area before dissipating?

You know, I couldn't tell you. That's how little the risk is for tornadoes here. I've never seen any to know. I've never heard of big tornadoes here, though. But they're probably not like the midwest tornadoes, because those suckers are the real deal.

[Wacahootaman]

A lot of the tornados that prompted warnings here in north Florida from Francis never hit the ground and were only seen on doppler radar.

Still, it is a little unnerving to hear no less than 3 tornado warnings zeroing in on your neighborhood in one night as happened here.

You are lying in your bed, with your flashlight handy, listening to the winds roar with the occasional clunk of small limbs hitting your roof and your radio goes baslistic with the tornado warning alarm, telling you that a tornado is comming at you, moving 60 miles an hour out of the SE!

At least I dont live in a mobile home!

[Stormsfury]

After what happened to me in 1998.. I have a new appreciation and approach to the words "tornado warning" eek:

John, I take it that you're referring to the F4 that hit Kissimmee, FL in February during the monster El Niño early in the 1998 season ... just before El Niño became La Niña, on May 10th, 1998 (and on Mother's Day), Summerville, and Ladson was in the path of an F2, multiple vortex at times, tornado, which produced heavy damage in the Sangaree Subdivision ...

SF

[tronbunny]

Stormsfury..
Bingo!

[Windy]

Welcome to what it feels like living in Nebraska!

[baygirl_1]

Oh, my! I cannot imagine living somewhere with those tornado sirens! We evacuated to Auburn for Ivan and ended up with three tornado warnings up there. I had no idea what I was hearing when those sirens went off. My sister had to tell me what it was because we don't have those things down here on the coast. We heard the roar of the wind, but it was just funnel clouds. No reports of touchdowns. Scary stuff, nonetheless.
Nope, I don't think I could be a Nebraskagirl or Kansasgirl!

[Terry]

Hurricanefreak1988 - I feel your concern.

I don't mind the canes (four threats here/three cane crossings), but I truly fear the tornados.

During Frances (was that "two FLA storms ago?") we lost cable and then power. The mets on my trusty battery radio with TV band started talking about a tornado... with the path heading right toward me. A friend even called on the phone to alert us.

I had to wakeup husband, daugther upstairs, grab the five hurricane refugee cats to put them in downstairs safe room, grab my own 3 dogs, cats, daughter's cat, and 3 birds and get us all into safe room ASAP.

I saw a low cloud bank (no funnel) pass just south of us. Yikes. In prep for Jeanne, I moved the critters to the safe room early on. (Left hubby on his own.)

[Seele]

Not tropically related at all but I went through the 1979 Wichita Falls, TX tornado. A mile wide tornado that didn't skip over things like most do, and was rated an F4(although from much of the data I've read, it should have been an F5. I remember riding with my family while we tried to outrun it, then had to veer off to a grocery store and hide in the meat locker while it passed through. Had to live in a mobile home for a year while my dad and grand-dad rebuilt our house. Luckily I was 4 at the time so I got over it pretty well. It's probably what gave me my fascination with the weather and why I lurk here often

Look at this sucker.

[Scorpion]

Wow! . I think that would be the scariest thing ever if it was a mile from me. I would be writing my will right there, though it wouldn't really make much sense doing so. There is no way you could survive if that thing comes right at you. I would take 10 Cat 5's any day over an F5. F5= everything dead and destroyed in its path. Except maybe concrete bunkers if you're lucky.

[Seele]

Wow! . I think that would be the scariest thing ever if it was a mile from me. I would be writing my will right there, though it wouldn't really make much sense doing so. There is no way you could survive if that thing comes right at you. I would take 10 Cat 5's any day over an F5. F5= everything dead and destroyed in its path. Except maybe concrete bunkers if you're lucky.

When it was close, it was impossible to tell the difference between the cloud deck and the tornado. This is why my parents decided to stop running and take cover, a decision which probably saved our lives. Although the only true protection from something that severe is a undergroud shelter, if people take precautions, most likely they will live through it. In this storm, although around 3,000 homes were destroyed, only around 40 peple died, and over half of those were ones that tried to outrun it. This storm was a testement to the value of the warnings the NWS provides.

[SouthernWx]

Do you get big tornadoes there, like they do in the midwest? Or are they like the ones we get in FL where they're usually pretty small and touch down a small area before dissipating?

You know, I couldn't tell you. That's how little the risk is for tornadoes here. I've never seen any to know. I've never heard of big tornadoes here, though. But they're probably not like the midwest tornadoes, because those suckers are the real deal.

Friend, on March 28, 1984...a massive killer tornado outbreak roared through your area of the Carolinas. The path ran from Winnsboro to Bennettsville, South Carolina to Maxton and Red Springs, NC....then toward Faison, Clinton, Mt Olive, Greenville and Ayden, North Carolina. Several of those tornadoes were F3-F4 intensity, and the McColl, SC - Maxton, NC was two miles wide...a monster tornado rivaling anything seen on the Oklahoma prarie; several other violent tornadoes that night in North Carolina were a mile-wide.
There was a nearly solid damage path across southern North Carolina over 200 miles long. There were also killer tornadoes across NE North Carolina...east of Rocky Mount toward Albemarle Sound. Total fatalities that horrible evening totalled 57 dead (42 in NC, 15 in SC) and over 1200 injured.

There have been other violent tornadoes in area you live in over the years (April 8, 1957 near Lumberton; Feb 19, 1884 in the Rockingham area), but March 28, 1984 was record breaking tornado outbreak....and PDS tornado watches were out for the Carolinas and Georgia all afternoon and evening (as well as under a SPC "High Risk" for severe storms/ tornadoes). I watched it all unfold on The Weather Channel, and it was frightening...even though my area west of Atlanta was lucky (only a couple funnel clouds, 60-70 mph wind gusts, and hail the size of ping-pong balls

[SouthernWx]

Here's a slideshow by SPC forecaster Greg Carbin regarding the 1984 Carolinas tornado outbreak. It was one of the most amazing storm systems I've ever seen (barometric pressure fell to 28.85"/977 mb in Atlanta as the intense meso-low passed over...the lowest pressure ever recorded in Atlanta. The same mesoscale low pressure area was responsible for most of the killer tornadoes in the Carolinas later that evening).

March 28, 1984 tornado outbreak website:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/staff/carbin/ghd3/sld001.html

[themusk]

Oh, my! I cannot imagine living somewhere with those tornado sirens!

On the other hand I'm always just a little bit irrationally ill at ease knowing that I'm no longer living somewhere with tornado sirens. Growing up in the midwest, those sounds meant protection to me. But, like most natives of tornado alley, if I could see the sky I knew what I was looking at. I once took shelter first, then turned on the radio to check the weather, when downtown in a city that "didn't" get tornados. A tornado was touching down at the other end of downtown at about that moment (though my view of the actual funnel cloud had been obstructed by buildings).

People learn to live with the hazards that surround them. My California friends think earthquakes can be lived with, but tornados are ghastly. My mother thinks nothing of spending time every other week or so hiding in her basement from tornados, but absolutely lost it with fear when she learned that I was in the path of 1996's Hurricane Bertha. Where it floods, they fear wildfires, and where it's warm, earthquakes are survivable but my tales of living without heat for days at 30 below during a record cold snap sound life threatening. We all just adapt to what we've got, and reason that the other guy has it worse.