Tornadoes

[TheFugitive]

Depending on where you live in this country you may or may not have had any experience with them.  Living in Michigan we were good for about 3 close calls per summer.

Once I went to pick up the wife from her job at a Hills store.  I was sitting at the snack bar having a cup of coffee when some of the lowest, blackest clouds I had ever seen rolled in.  They were like a low-hanging curtain stretching across the road from our roof to the roof of a mall across the street.  She clocked out and wanted to leave.  I told her we should probably wait a bit because the weather outside was looking very dangerous.  She cribbed at me, "my back hurts, my feet hurt, I want to go home..."  So against my better judgment we left. 

Immediately after I started down the road a wall of hail descended.  I could not see ten feet in front of me.  Then the alert siren came across my radio, with the announcement that "A tornado is on the ground at Bishop Airport".  That was about four miles directly south of where I was. 

Despite having no visibility I floored it.  Trying to pierce the driving hail and rain in a four cylinder Ford Escort that was badly in need of a tune-up.  I kept looking in the rear view mirror for any signs of a funnel.  I pulled into the next available building, which was a Kmart.  We were the only customers in the store.  The employees were wandering around asking "why is it so dead in here?"  I had to tell them "Because there's a tornado on the ground outside!"

Years later I saw another one in Pittsburgh (they are fairly rare here due to the rugged terrain).  I was working in an office on the top floor of a building in Downtown Pittsburgh.  We had a little balcony outside.  For hours ominous dark green clouds had been building.  A co-worker who had grown up in Austin, Texas told me that was a sure sign that a tornado was coming.  I was on the balcony and saw it come down from the north.  It crossed over the river about 1/4 mile from where I was, proceeded along the Monongahela and then moved off to the south.  It was the most awesome sight I had ever witnessed.  I really should have been inside under my desk, but was too awestruck to move.

[giantsfan2016]

For the most part tornadoes don't get very big here in Connecticut. I don't remember it, but when I was 2 or 3 in 84 or 85 a small tornado caused some damage about a mile or so from where we lived. We lived in Bristol off of Stevens Street and there was some houses damaged off of Jerome Avenue. Jerome Avenue is off of Stevens Street further up Stevens Street from where we lived. Then the day of my 6th Birthday Party (I turned 6 on May 23, 1988) there were nasty thunderstorms. I don't recall if there were any tornadoes that day. There was a larger outbreak in the summer of 89. Did some damage down in the Hamden (New Haven) area more in the Litchfield Hills.

Then Summer of 2010. I was living on my own in an apartment on Pleasant Street in Bristol. That's downtown/The West End. They broke into programming on Channel 3 (as is the norm whenever a tornado warning is issued anywhere in CT) and they said the tornado was heading for Terryville (Next town over from Bristol) and then heading for Bristol. I remember the wind and the rain. For like 20 minutes. The Imagination Museum was located next to the building where I lived. They have a daycare program. I remember looking out my bedroom window. A woman was loading her kid(s) into her vehicle and about 5 seconds after she took her kid out of the stroller it blew off down the street.

The storm like skipped my street. There was some minor damaged on North Main Street. Only one tree fell and blocked traffic on my street. The next street that runs parallel to mine - Upson Street had heavier damaged. Trees and power lines down. Memorial BLVD had several trees down. South Street which runs parallel to The BLVD (as it's known to the locals) didn't have damaged, but George Street and Union Street and a couple other streets off of South Street had heavy damage.

Chasing one of these m-fers is still on my bucket list. I don't know if it will be possible to do now. A friend of mine who is an amateur weather geek who was going to take me and maybe another friend or two is now an enemy of mine.

[Whoser]

Chasing one of these m-fers is still on my bucket list. I don't know if it will be possible to do now. A friend of mine who is an amateur weather geek who was going to take me and maybe another friend or two is now an enemy of mine.

Another CT Weather Geek here, sign me up for Storm Chasing! ha.