STORM2K

I remember in the spring of 1998, I was a sophomore in high school at the time. I woke up at 6:00am for school, flipped on the television news, and find that a massive and intense squall line (with 90 mph winds) was moving northeast out of Kansas at a fast rate of speed, too (5o to 60 mph).

Left for school at 7:00am with severe thunderstorm watches starting to be issued. Man, it felt like a sauna outside for 7:00am. Very humid and warm just told me, "oh, oh, I think we are in trouble!" The sky was mostly cloudy with some obvious lighter colors to the east with the sun's rising. However, there was still no visual sign that storms were on the horizon.

Got to school at 8:00am. Study hall was my first period of the day. Then, they held study periods on the cafeteria which had a bank of windows facing to the west-southwest, perfect view of the horizon from where the storms were coming from.

I had pass to go see a speech therapist towards the middle of the period, so I went to the other side of this large high school to work with the therapist for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Upon my return to study hall, the sky had become extremely dark to the south-southwest. Whatever was coming was coming while I was at school with 2000 other students and 150 or so staff members present.

At 8:50am, it was time to head over to my Algebra class, on the other side of the building, second floor. Around this time, it begin to rain lightly.

I got to my algebra class 3 minutes later. That day we were taking our second to last test of the year, being that 2 weeks remained in the school year. The instructor passed out the test as the rain intensified and some lightning and thunder entered the picture.

I was not more than 1/4 don with the test and I noticed that it was getting rather windy rather quickly, and also I heard the very faint pitch of the civil defense/storm sirens. I just put that back in my mind and continued testing.

Not more than 2 minutes later, one of the assistant administrators comes over the PA to mention that we are to take our tornado safety measures. Darn, I was on a roll with the test! We all went for the stairwell to the first floor and one of the restrooms.

The sky, well, it was downpouring so hard, I could not make out the sky. It was very windy, destructively windy up to 90 to 100 mph! After about 45 minutes, it was clear for us to return to normal activities.

Looking out east, I could see a small wall cloud. Up until I got home, I thought a tornado had come through. I found out that it was just a very destructive severe thunderstorm (with sirens being activated). There were isolated tornadoes with the line, though, so that was not ruled out either in areas near my location.

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May 4, 2003: Anyone who lived in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas or Missouri knows this day to heart most likely. That day up here in Omaha, I was working at a grocery store. Customer assistance was my position, helping them find items to providing assistance to their cars if desired with the purchases.

Around noon, two tornado watches, both PDS I believe, were issued within an hour. One for areas just west of the immediate Omaha area, and the second for the Omaha area and southwest Iowa, Northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas. It was cloudy, remnants of the overnight/early morning storms, and I was beginning to wonder about the reasoning for the tornado watches, particularly PDS. However, one step outside, and it sure felt like things could go nuts!

I was not happy that I had to go to work that afternoon from 3:00pm-8:00pm; with severe weather, I prefer to be at home in my ground level room monitoring it on the Internet and weather radio, plus things are ALOT less hectic in a private dwelling.

About 2:30pm, it was off to work. Storms were already going Tornado Warning out near Hastings and Grand Island, NE, and they were moving east! It seems that people had the idea to get home before the storms arrived because going near one of the malls out in my area, it was abuzzing with activity. Sundays can be busy, but not this busy.

The same scene was found at the grocery store I work at. Very, very busy. I noticed weather radio setup in the customer service booth, so it was a "yep, they know" situation.

The first 30 minutes was extremely busy. Several times managers were paging back and forth over the PA system. I think this was some sort of coordination for severe weather procedures.

The sky did not look really threatening, just overcast. IT was humid and sticky, though, with south winds of 30 mph. Talking with the customers, they were talking about storms not far to the west, so I was beginning get a little excited to get home. Nope, no can do, very busy!

Anyway, about 3:30pm, 30 minutes into my shift, I was out on a carry out, and on my way back in, the sirens decide to switch on. Still, though the sky just look blah, nothing to exciting. I guess that was from my perspective, because my parents told me when they crested the hill west of my store, the sky sure looked like something nasty was coming.

Believe it or not, normal operations continued with the tornado warning out and the sirens blaring. I helped about 3 customers out with their groceries before the following occurred:

The sirens had been going off and on for about 10 minutes, probably confusing the management to pieces about wehter to inact procedures or not. On what was to be my last customer for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, I re-entered the store, told one of the customer service managers about the fact they are going off again! He immediately got into contact with the store manager about the current happenings. About 1 minute later, we made an announcement over the intercom for all custumers to either leave the store or take cover with the associates in the back of the store in the walk-in cooler.

Some of us associates went around the store explaining to customers of the warning and their options of either staying in shelter or leaving the building before we locked the front doors.

Most, if not all, made the bright idea of staying and hunkering down for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I took a peak outside on my way back to the cooler. It certainly looked like a wicke sky now!

That day, Gretna, a southwest Omaha suburb had a small F0 tornado touch the ground briefly with little or no damage reported. Large hail to softballs smashed Bellevue's (another suburb) auto row.

When I got home, I found out about Kansas City's killer tornadoes and felt fortunate that we did not have to endure that severity and prayed for the folks down that way.

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So those are a couple of my experiences. What are your sever weather experiences while in a public setting (say an outdoor concert, in a mall, stadium, schoo, etc)? What actions were taken? What was the end result from the storm?

Hmmm.. I have several different ones here..

But several notable ones..

We begin back in 1996... I was an 8th grader { I believe}.. Tropical Storm advisories were out as Josephine was getting ready to come on shore. Despite repeatedly being offered to be driven to school.. I hopped on my bike shortly before 7:00 am.. No trouble yet. Around 7:05.. I stopped at a local news stand to pick up a newspaper.. I needed one for class. The winds began to pick up.

I was riding down the block less than 5 minutes from the school.. Being pelted by winds easily to moderate TS force {50-60mph} getting blown off my bike at 1 point. But I kept going.

Just as I had reached my middle school.. The squall lines began coming in 1 by 1.. I happened to still be on my bike during the 1st 1 and got soaked.. No jacket, no jeans.. just shorts and a t shirt.. and now a soggy newspaper lol..

Teachers offered to send me home so I could put on dry clothes.. but I told them I rode my bike to school.. So I spent the rest of the day trying to dry off and avoid being sick lol..

I have one that happened a few days ago...

I am a teacher at Accotink Academy, which is a school for ED and LD students. I teach a class of meteorology and earth science. It was in the afternoon and I was watching the weather on the computer before I had to go and teach. It was 1 PM and I was hyper. I had just found out a TORNADO WATCH had been issued for my area. I quickly informed the Director of the School, who is a avid weather fan herself. Since I am the "meteorologist" there for the summer, I am "on call" for severe weather. I am technically the "Weather Commander" at the school. I get to say whether or not if students can go outside to get on the bus if heavy weather approaches. Approx. at 2:05 PM.. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued for our area/county for winds to 70 mph and nickel size hail. Since the kids get out at 2:30.. and the warning is in effect until 3 PM... so.. I and the Director implemented the Severe Weather Plan.. which is that we keep all students inside until the severe weather is over. Unfortunately.. some one started saying that there was a Tornado Warning for our area... so some teachers began lining up students against a wall that goes down a hallway. Well, this hallway has huge glass panes above the wall.. so I had to go out there and tell them that it was NOT the place to take cover. I told them to take cover in the classrooms next to the blackboard.. which have NO windows except near the door... then I had to rush back to see if the Tornado Warning included us. To my dismay, there was NO TORNADO WARNING!! Someone had made a mistake in reporting the warning, and this caused panic and a lot of confusion on all levels. Then, I got a call from the Director saying to come upstairs to her room. I went up there and found out that DC Transportation Director felt that the students would be better on the bus on the road than at the school. After much arguing, I and the Director gave in and had all students board the buses. Since it was pouring like hell and the winds were gusting over 50 mph.. i had to put on my jacket which was a bright orange over my Storm Chaser Rain coat so people could find me if needed. We took the students out two at a time for their buses. After getting all of the students in the bus.. my weather radio said that there was now A STW for DC and Alexandria. We let the buses go anyway. After that, some of the teachers began leaving as well, but it was pouring so hard you could not see. I stayed in the school till 3:30.

It was much fun and also very interesting. I hope to have another day just like it. Although it was very confusing, and I was getting calls and questions every minute, it was fun and cool to get to be the person in charge and make decisions.

We went to school and had to be sent home multiple times for Hurricane Georges, Earl...then sometimes in middle school when Hanna and Isidore hit we stayed in school but Hurricane Watches and TS warnings were going on since lunch...stupid Resource Officer didnt let us go home....anyways.

Then in 6th grade, i woke up one morning, got dressed and was ready to leave, when we stepped outside it was an AWSOME scene. Big clouds gorwing across the sky and the whole sky wa a bright orange color...it was amazing. The radio station kept getting calls from people wanting to know why the sky was orange. So went advisory began, the teacher had The Weather Channel going..the local radar going. On the radar was a small but intense looking cell heading straight for Ft. Walton...i mentioned to her how it didint look like a regular storm...she just laughed and told me we will just get rain....uhhh yeah right... About an hour later in 1st period we are under out desks, ducking for cover. A waterspout formed over the water and came ashore just about 3 miles from the school, ripping through Shalimar and Ocean city. It was quite and experience since the tornado lasted for a long tim, it got really dark out, it was crazy.

I was at work and looked out the window as a tree got hit by lightning, not even 100 feet away. The entire tree trunk lit up and the bark literally exploded right off the tree. To top that, about 1 minute later, the SAME tree got hit again.

LOL Bet your teacher looked to you for weather info the rest of the year..

Couple of incidents

Back during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta we went to a soccer game at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama(in fact, it was for my birthday which is Saturday BTW ) A huge squall line came through about an hour before the game started while we were sitting in the parking lot. The sirens went off and everything It POURED rain. The game started after it let up some, but it rained a good part of the game.

Second one was in school in April 2000. There were quite a few tornado warnings that day(actually had been a tornado that killed an elderly woman in the other part of the county from me at 2am that morning ). It was the Monday after Spring Break(meaning the day sucked anyway). For the first time ever, we had a REAL tornado situation! It started RIGHT BEFORE we were supposed to get on the bus right at 2:40pm. The weather sirens started blaring. We went into the hall like you do during a tornado drill and sat there for a good hour. The tornado signature was on the other end of the county from us(we were in the southern part, the storm went 30 miles to the north, and it was a weak signature). We finally were let go right before 4pm.

Later found out that the tornado warning was actually issued at 2:00pm and EXPIRED at 2:45pm, so we were actually sitting in class during 95% of the tornado warning and could have gone home a little later, but not much later than normal.

My most memorable happend a 2 years ago when I was in 8th grade. One May afternoon some very violent Thunderstorms came up. We had to rush in from trailers and get into the main school building. A tornado had been spotted and was moving are way. Man and there was intense lightning and gusty winds. And while everybody else was freaking out and running for cover. I stayed outside a little while longer. And just at the last second before my teacher grabed me and pulled me in I saw a Wall cloud with a hanging funnel about 1 mile infront of me in Briscoe Park. I went inside and to my suprise the storm weakend and we were allowed to go back to class. The only problem was it was we were stuck in the school till 9:00 pm!!!!!!! It was very long and boring stuck inside that god-awful school. But I will never forget that funnel.

Funny this topic is coming up. Just this past Sunday, my wife and I were at the Marlins/Pirates game in Pittsburgh. Game started off sunny with a few clouds in the sky. By the 3rd inning, clouds were beginning to build and by the beginning of the sixth inning, cloud to ground lightning strikes were seen around the all park. The game was put under a rain delay right before the bottom of the 6th inning started. We were just under the roof for the upper deck and we moved up 7 rows to be fully under the roof. It just poured and poured and poured for about 30 minutes. The lightning strikes dwindled...but you could hear rumbles of thunder coming from somewhere. They put up a message on the score board for ppl to take shelter under the roofs and in the concourses because the Weather Service was prediciting severe weather to hit. We just sat under the roof while the weather pass. The rain delay lasted for 1 hour and 13 minutes and after the delay we moved up about 10 rows from where we started the game from because people had left the game. The Pirates went on to win the game 4 to 2 and extended their home winning streak to 10 games.