Worst thunderstorm you have ever been in.

[ammmyjjjj]

I grew up in missouri & can remember my mom waking us up and dragging us across the yard to the underground storm shelter many times. I'm still terrified of thunderstorms.

[Cyclenall]

I was looking for this topic and I was glad to have found it before I made another topic!!

I have been through many powerful thunderstorms and "storms" in general but there is one I will never forget for the rest of my life.

On May 12, 2000 in Ontario Canada:

In the morning there was a light thunderstorm at around 6:30 am EDT and lasted for a while. I thought nothing of it and the day was hot and muggy. At around 3:45 pm EDT I saw the clouds getting dark in the distance and the TV showed warnings and watches posted in my area. At around 5:30 pm there was nothing at all but still air and I felt odd. It was so peaceful. It was indeed the calm before the storm.

The thunderstorm began soon after and intense lightning was occurring with heavy rains. I went for a drive around the area and the clouds everywhere were quite dark and bolts and sky-lightning were occurring often. The winds weren't bad and there was no hail. When I got back home there were red lightning streaks and heavy rains. The rain kept falling at such a heavy and long rate until I found that all around the house was water! Flooding was starting to occur and the winds started picking up. The storm just continued non-stop and then the wind starting picking up like crazy until I got ready to go down into the basement to take cover. A loud, roaring sound for 30 seconds and the wind gusts were around 50 mph at least. Not enough to do building damage but it could rip huge tree branches off easily. This was at 7:30 pm. The storm continued for 3 more hours until 10:30 pm. Longest lasting storm ever for me and caused flooding everywhere for miles and miles. I heard whole parking lots had cars drifting away, getting carried away.

The power didn't go out for a long period of time amazingly. It just flickered 130 times in 30 mins . But at 7:30 pm it went out I think for a longer while. When I went for a drive again, there were tree branches all over the place and some good thick ones about 1 meter long. The ground was soaked for days and there were reports of tornadoes, large hail, major flooding in local areas, and straight line winds that ripped off big barn roofs and snapped huge trees down. One town reported that a river formed downtown because the rain didn't stop!!

This was just a amazing storm and this also affected the USA earlier so if anyone has a radar image of the day or something like that on May 11 to May 13 2000, I would thank you!!!

[george_r_1961]

There was another one I remember. When I was a child my parents took me to an airshow at Langley Air Force Base. About a half hour before the Thunderbirds were scheduled to take off a low hanging, ugly greenish tinged storm cloud approached. Air Force personell ordered all of us inside and I believe we took shelter in the pilots lounge (sorry its been about 35 years lol) Worst hail I ever saw..no tornado though and no show by the Thunderbirds that day.

Steve werent u stationed at langley???

[Cyclenall]

I will tell another story.

About 8 years ago maybe 9 years it was in the middle of the night and I woke up at 3:16 am to a powerful thunderstorm and I mean powerful. What happened is the fire alarm went off for some reason during the storm and everyone got outside except me! I was still sleeping. Then the power went out I think but I can't remember. It ended around 4:05 am. The lightning must have been super nasty because it made a fire alarm go off, fried the phone, TV antenna, clock, and a few other objects! Just killed them all.

Another short story:

Last year (2005) around August 16 or near that date there was a thunderstorm system in Ontario. The clouds got dark and such and then some people were saying it's tornado weather because the clouds didn't act right. I did not think it was tornado type clouds so I went outside and the wind started picking up and the calm before the storm was occurring. All of a sudden, these dark clouds starting racing towards me and they were so fast that I got in the house and looked out my back window and thunder and lightning started. The trees started blowing hard in the wind and the hydro went out. There wasn't even a storm yet and the darn hydro went out! I thought this would be a bad storm so I got everything ready and it turned out the storm was very light and weak. Nothing big. Then I heard there was a tornado 2 miles away from where I was!!! I could have chased it!!

That's all for now.

[BayouVenteux]

The worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced was out in a remote part of west Texas in May, 1987. My wife and I had been on a driving vacation to New Mexico and Colorado and were on our way back home to Louisiana. We drove southeast from Albuquerque on the trunk highways and backroads headed toward I-10 in far west Texas. If you've ever been out there, you know the landscape is almost similar to being out on the ocean in terms of the expanse: a vast, gently rolling, sparsely vegetated or populated landscape. Well, the sunny High Plains skies began to change, growing darker and more ominous as the afternoon wore on. As we passed out of Carlsbad, NM toward the NM/TX border, the sense of being small and insignificant on that huge expanse was only magnified by the rolling, boiling inky black clouds that were increasing in size and number. Off in the distance, which was viewable 10-20 miles to the horizon, you could see numerous small funnel clouds drop, roll, and jump back into the clouds. Fortunately, the worst of it seemed to be moving away to the east as we were still heading southeast. We finally got to the interstate at Fort Stockton, TX and stopped for gas before heading toward San Antonio. The attendant at the gas station told us there had been a very bad tornado that had touched down earlier in the day in a town about 50 miles west of there called Saragosa and up to 30 people were possibly killed, and urged us drive carefully as the bad weather had moved east. It was now getting toward dark and we had a lot of ground to cover. While it was a calm, albeit warm west Texas night where we currently were, we could see the sky lighting up "heat lightning"-style off toward the eastern horizon as we drove. As we moved further east, the lightning display became nothing short of jaw dropping -- horizontal and vertical bolts seem to stretch aross the entire horizon, repeating without end. But we had to keep driving, as I was going to be home Saturday morning come heck or high water. Well, in about 15-20 minutes, out there in the middle of nowhere between Fort Stockton and San Antonio, we got both. The rain began, sprinkles at first, then heavier and heavier until it was like being stuck in the middle of an automated car wash line. You literally couldn't see two feet in front of your windshield. The wiper blades were totally useless in coping with the wind-driven deluge. Being in a remote area, there were no radio stations available to find out if we were into something REALLY bad, plus there were absolutely no lights except those from the remaining vehicles on the interstate. With a deluge that seemed to be of Biblical proportions and almost constant lightning, 80% of the vehicles on the road were pulled off to the side to wait it out...but NOT ME! Even if it meant a blind, 20-30 mph crawl on the interstate, we were gonna keep pushing on! The wind, the rain, and lightning were now at their peak. It was about 8 p.m. when we hit the worst and it didn't begin to let up until after midnight as the storm line finally moved off to our northeast. We had basically caught up with the line of severe weather we saw earlier in the day, then managed to drive in tandem with it eastward -- for over a hundred miles -- until we mercifully parted ways as it veered off toward the Dallas Ft. Worth area. I was totally exhausted after that and still seven long hours away from the LA/TX border. I could have saved us a lot of trouble and supremely awful driving conditions if I would have just stopped for dinner and waited it out a couple hours in Fort Stockton. Oh to be young and foolish again!

[dean]

Sept. 21, 2005, a series of tornadic HP supercells. no tornadoes in my city, but about 7-10 miles north of me 3-4 tornadoes touched down. hail up to 1" fell along with 70+ mph winds. this storm lasted atleast 2 hours with rain from 3-5 inches, many areas flooded. day after the storm was cancelled for me (i know, bummer ).

[mempho]

Definately the Mid-South derecho here in Memphis...I remember the morning well...I woke up about 6:40 to the sound of thunder and turned on the television to see what was in store. The morning weathercaster said they were expecting some high winds...around 65mph or so. I thought, "this should be interesting and walked out to the living room and turned on the television so I could further track the storm. I lived on the river in Memphis and the television station sat just to my south. The storm was coming directly across the river from Arkansas. Then, the television station went off the air and I thought, "that's odd, I don't see anything going on out there." It took about 20-30 seconds until it roared in and, when it did, it came it with full fury. I immediately saw large metal garbage cans and large tree branches flying through the air and all of the little trees laid down and got stripped of their leaves (leaves were flying everywhere). I said to myself "that's way stronger than 65 mph, that's blowing somewhere in the 90's...it looks just like a bad hurricane that you see on television." I saw the wind in its full fury as it crossed the river and, though mesmorized by the power of it, I backed up from the glass and protected myself in case the glass blew out. I continued to watch as the severe winds continued for 15-20 minutes. It was like the eyewall of a hurricane. Needless to say, I lost power within 30 seconds of the intial blow. It is referred to in Memphis as Hurricane Elvis and it did immense damage, causing major structural damage to some buildings and causing long-term power outages.

You can read the write-up from the SPC here (below the KC writeup):

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerecho ... wrpage.htm

[mempho]

By the way, we're expecting a possible MCS derecho situation to move through tonight or tommorrow morning. Maybe we'll get another nice event to document. I just don't want the power loss.

[CrazyC83]

By the way, we're expecting a possible MCS derecho situation to move through tonight or tommorrow morning. Maybe we'll get another nice event to document. I just don't want the power loss.

What is it with derechos this week???

[mempho]

By the way, we're expecting a possible MCS derecho situation to move through tonight or tommorrow morning. Maybe we'll get another nice event to document. I just don't want the power loss.

What is it with derechos this week???

Way too hot...I guess

[all_we_know_is_FALLING]

Definately the Mid-South derecho here in Memphis...I remember the morning well...I woke up about 6:40 to the sound of thunder and turned on the television to see what was in store. The morning weathercaster said they were expecting some high winds...around 65mph or so. I thought, "this should be interesting and walked out to the living room and turned on the television so I could further track the storm. I lived on the river in Memphis and the television station sat just to my south. The storm was coming directly across the river from Arkansas. Then, the television station went off the air and I thought, "that's odd, I don't see anything going on out there." It took about 20-30 seconds until it roared in and, when it did, it came it with full fury. I immediately saw large metal garbage cans and large tree branches flying through the air and all of the little trees laid down and got stripped of their leaves (leaves were flying everywhere). I said to myself "that's way stronger than 65 mph, that's blowing somewhere in the 90's...it looks just like a bad hurricane that you see on television." I saw the wind in its full fury as it crossed the river and, though mesmorized by the power of it, I backed up from the glass and protected myself in case the glass blew out. I continued to watch as the severe winds continued for 15-20 minutes. It was like the eyewall of a hurricane. Needless to say, I lost power within 30 seconds of the intial blow. It is referred to in Memphis as Hurricane Elvis and it did immense damage, causing major structural damage to some buildings and causing long-term power outages.

You can read the write-up from the SPC here (below the KC writeup):

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerecho ... wrpage.htm

That's what I was going to write about!!!
I was staying the week with my cousins in West Memphis..
My mom called from MS to tell us some nasty storms were on the way, and within 5 minutes the winds hit.. Wow. They were unbelievably strong. The power went out within a minute of the onslaught and trees just started snapping. Part of the roof peeled off to.

A supercell I went through in Cross County, Arkansas on April 2 is a close second though.. I missed the tornado but it was an incredible storm. The hail was massive..

[Extremeweatherguy]

I have a new storm to add to my "worst" list tonight.

Today in east Florida a storm came through and produced wind gusts over 60mph for a ten minute period. This was caused by a combination of a strong downburst and a confirmed waterspout within a mile of my area! In my vicinity MANY branches, palm frawns, etc. are all over the place. Also, a large tree has bent over into a roof and a palm tree bent into a powerline and caught on fire in my neighbor's yard. A 25 lb. umbrella was also lifted and thrown over 10 feet during the height of the storm! It was quite a scary (and un-expected) experience. The sad thing is the NWS never issued a warning for this storm (even though there is video of a waterspout and widespread minor damage).

This storm probably rates within the top 5 for the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced and within the top 10 for the worst all time storm (which includes hurricanes and snowstorms). This will be one to remember for sure. My top all-time storm is still Hurricane Charley with it's 100-115mph wind gusts in my area on Aug. 13th, 2004.

[Houstonia]

Very recently - last week - I was driving from Houston to Miami and Miami to Houston. I've never driven this route before and I was unprepared for the constant rains coming off the Gulf. Although my hands were clenched around the steering wheel and I was gritting my teeth - I made it through many storms and torrential downpours on the stretch from Houston to Tallahassee, where I stopped for the night. And there wasn't much in the way of storms from there on to Miami.

But coming back, we got wiped out somewhere near Titusville, Florida. The rain was coming down in sheets and flooding I-69. I couldn't see to the front end of the car. The wind was blowing me out of my lane. The water was piling up on the road. Weather-Mom was calling me on my cell, telling me "there's a storm headed towards you - get off the road". The semis weren't helping - they would race by bringing waves of water towards us. The lighting and thunder were constant and instantaneous - meaning the storm was right on top of us. Cars had pulled off one-by-one and were parked dangerously close to the Interstate. Those of us stupid enough to keep going had our emergency lights flashing. I finally pulled off right near an exit - unable to continue. After realizing it was dangerous to be sitting on the edge of the Interstate so close to the exit - I crept along toward the exit - finally pulling off into a McDonalds parking lot. There we reclined our seats opened the sunroof cover (NOT the sunroof) and watched the storm batter the area. The lightning was SUPER-close. The scary thing was seeing the giant McDonalds sign swaying directly above my car!

We went in and out of rain until we hit about Beaumont where the cooling of the night stopped the Gulf rains.

[Cyclenall]

This date is the 7th anniversary of the worst thunderstorm I have ever been through. The date was May 12, 2000.

You can find the image of the huge event here. It's a large image from a GOES sat and you can clearly see a very long line of intense convection across the US and parts of Ontario. A radar image would be fantastic.

The US is back into thunderstorm season so more stories can be told.

[windnrain]

Well, I don't mean to one up everybody or anything like that, but the absolute worst weather event of my life was Hurricane Katrina, experienced 45 miles south of New Orleans. Nothing like it in my life... it was such a dreadful feeling knowing what was coming, and the winds were stronger than anything I had ever experienced. Good thing is, though, we didn't get the flooding like New Orleans did.

[TampaSteve]

Well, I've been through a few hurricanes, and those are definitely bad news, but the worst thunderstorm I've been through has to be the one that hit Bowling Green, KY on the evening of May 24, 2000. A group of friends and I had driven our Corvettes down from Northern VA to visit the National Corvette Museum and attend the 1st Annual Memorial Day Cruise In. We had been at the hotel for about an hour or so, when the most vicious thunderstorm I can remember hit Bowling Green head on. The winds were gusting to hurricane force and then some. The windows in our hotel room were being pushed slightly inwards by the winds (fortunately, they didn't break). The rain was so heavy, we could barely see across the courtyard. There was nickel-sized and quarter-sized hail. The lightning was the most amazing display I had seen since I was a kid. The whole sky was lit up by streaks and bolts of lightning, and the thunder was deafening, echoing off the building around us. After a while, the hail stopped, and the wind and rain started to let up a bit. Just when we thought the worst was over, we heard the warning sirens. We turned on the radio...TORNADO...on the ground...headed our way. My wife and I hunkered down in the bathroom and waited until the sirens stopped. When we came back outside, the storm had passed, and everything was okay. We later found out from the police that the twister had passed less than a mile south of the hotel. That was plenty close enough for us!

On a side note, Corvettes have fiberglass bodies, so our cars were the only ones left out in the open without hail dents!

[snoopj]

Simple one for me.

05.04.03 Tornado Outbreak. The longest track tornado producing supercell came within 3/4 of mile of my apartment. At the time, it was only producing F1 type damage, however, it had roared up to F4 before it cross the Missouri River. I remember being outside (stupid, I know) and watching this huge black wall cloud coming my direction. Knew it was time to hunker down when insulation and splintered wood were starting to fall in the courtyard around my apartment building.

I went inside, literally ripped my mattress of my bed and jammed into the bathroom and hunkered down with the mattress on top of me. Had a radio with me and waiting for the all clear.

Seems I got lucky. When looking at the track of the tornado, it was headed my direction. It lifted and regenerated and dropped a very intense short track tornado in the suburb of Gladstone. Roared up to F4 damage almost immediately. It inspired me to start researching severe weather more and more and since I've slowly become more knowledgable in that regard.

--snoopj

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

Worst Thunderstorm:
June 1, 2006: Thunderstorm gusts to 60 mph along Tampa Bay Canal in Pinellas County
Late July 2006: Severe Thunderstorm: 70 mph gusts...It looked like a tornado outside..

2006: November 16, 2006: Strong Thunderstorm, gusts 44 mph,

September 26, 2004: Hurricane Jeanne: Anemometer Hits 78 mph before breaking
September 5, 2004: Hurricane Frances: Anemometer Hits 59 mph before breaking
February 1998: Severe Thunderstorm, 75 mph wind gusts on official clearwater station
September 2001: Tropical Storm Gabrielle: Gusts 55 mph, 5 inches of rain

1993 Severe Missouri Hailstorm: Columbia, Missouri, 2 inch diameter hail, a ton
of it in my backyard!!! Windy gusts over 40-50 mph

[Opal storm]

Considering all the thunderstorms I've been through in my life, that's a TOUGH question.

Well, I remember when I was 13 years old here in Pensacola one late night. I think it was a strong squall line from a cold front that came through around 1am, I woke up right before the storm was about to hit. The wind outside started to really pick up and lightning started to hit in the area. Before the rain even fell it began hailing like crazy, I'm talking golf ball size hail falling everywere! And then the winds suddenly kicked up and the power went out, and this all took place within 5 minutes! Me and my parents started to freak out so we went into the hallway and ducked down with blankets. Soon after, the core of the storm came through and it sounded like hell outside. While laying in the hallway all I could hear were these incredibly loud bangs of thunder and hail beating the windows. I was scared to death and started praying!lol

Around 3am the line of storms had finally passed, me and my dad ventured out into the backyard to see everything. We had two HUGE pine trees completely uprooted and our shed was flipped over. Our cars also had dings all over them from the hail, the neighborhood was a disaster. We didn't get the power back until the next afternoon.

Like I said I've been through a lot of bad storms but that one really sticks out.

[Rainband]

I think it was 1999. It was a Backdoor Cold Front. Tony and I were sleeping and his sister was in town. We lived in a Mobile home and I swear I thought it was going to blow away. I looked at the 10pm news and saw the line by Jacksonville....Little did we know that later that night it would hit. I swear...I went 2 feet in the air when the thunder woke us. I will NEVER forget that. I will never live in a Trailer again. I swear I thought we were done for. Keep in mind this was an older mobile home.