Tornado Warning woke me up and now can't fall back asleep !@$#

[Decon Blue]

Originally Posted by robbiels7

We had 4 touch down Friday afternoon within 25 miles of my house. The cold front brought in a nasty storm but only lasted a short while. This was In FL.

Yep, it was nasty for a while.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by BandJCarm

Michigan has no claim. Not sure where some of that comes from.

Maybe not during the month of April of 2011...

But southern Michigan gets it's share of tornados!

Matter of fact, about two months ago three tornados went through the western side of my hometown back there, about 1/2 mile from where I was when I visited in July.

[Teetime]

Back to the original post...

Originally Posted by NJKris

Anyone else have a NOAA All Hazards Radio? Tornado Warning alert went off just before midnight here. Got out of bed after being sound asleep for 2 hours and studied radar for about 15 minutes until I was pretty sure there were no storm cells about to make a direct hit (which is rare here in NJ). Now can't fall back asleep!!! For the record, I used to have recurring nightmares involving tornados, which is weird because I've never experienced one.

As a park manager, do you have a way to alert your campers?

I've been thru this also and it is a life threatening situation...too many things are going on at the same time in your head. As a full time storm watcher for over 40 years, I understand how you could not get back to sleep!

[dbledan]

Originally Posted by robbiels7

Don't forget about the new presidential alerts.

Presidential alerts are not really new. They have been there since they started the broadcast messages but they just tested them in production for the first time since launching the systems.

You can silence all but the presidential alerts. Those are mandatory.

For OP I live in KS and use a weather radio. I have lived here for 40ys and never saw a tornado in person but I have seen the aftermath. Stay safe!

[NJKris]

My palms begin to sweat just looking at those pics y'all posted. Maybe I watched the Wizard of Oz too many times growing up.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by NJKris

My palms begin to sweat just looking at those pics y'all posted. Maybe I watched the Wizard of Oz too many times growing up.

I used to be a newspaper photographer, so when the weather is bad...I'm out there with cameras!

First shot is another tornado I saw at the intersection of I-25 and 104th. Ave. in Thornton, Colorado a few years back:

Second shot I took looking straight up from my driveway in Thornton, Colorado (120th. & Colo. Blvd)...it touched down a few miles to the east:

Third shot, if you look at the right side of the photo you can see a horizontal circular shape in the cloud...that was the bottom of a tornado as it passed over a gas station in Pueblo, Colorado...saw it coming while on the highway and ducked for cover in this gas station just in time:

Forth shot is my camper sticking out from under the gas station canopy as that tornado went over...it hailed for 30 minutes and beat the heck out of that old Coachman and shattered the roof vents and touched down about five miles to the east.

[JohnD10]

And out here in the desert southwest...dust devils!

I took a direct hit from one of these in my 5'ver this past April in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.

Shook the heck out of the 5'ver, plus I didn't get the windows shut fast enough and got a layer of dust on everything inside and scared my cats!

This shot was taken about 20 miles west of Tombstone, Arizona...

[tlspencer]

Originally Posted by JohnD10

And out here in the desert southwest...dust devils!

I took a direct hit from one of these in my 5'ver this past April in Elephant Butte, New Mexico.

Shook the heck out of the 5'ver, plus I didn't get the windows shut fast enough and got a layer of dust on everything inside and scared my cats!

This shot was taken about 20 miles west of Tombstone, Arizona...

Those have flipped lightweight campers down there, especially canvas side popups. Tents go flying!

[Life Without Whine]

4 tornadoes here around Tampa Bay yesterday, one just 1 mile away. Fortunately no serious damage. I always respect those tornado warnings - have seen too much damage.

DH says he wouldn't but if I saw a tornado I would hit the nearest ditch - really pretty safe if you can get below the rest of ground level as tornadoes generally 'skip' across the land... was in one of those 'tornado alleys' when I learned that one.

[cavie]

Originally Posted by NJKris

Well, I ended up getting sleepy again after 2 hours and fell back asleep after perusing the forum and Weather Underground. The vortex signatures passed by to the East of me. As much as I don't like being waken up at night, it is not often, and better safe than sorry, that's why I got the damn thing. Cavie asked about my plans to make things safe? Run like hell down into the basement and hunker down in the corner where the furnace is and hope the furnace helps us from being squashed like bugs if the roof is ripped off and debris starts collapsing down.

While traveling, my plan would be getting the hell out of the trailer I was in there, and finding a more robust structure, like a concrete block bathhouse, culvert, ditch, anything but the trailer.

I assumed you were in a trailer[emoji12]

[RFSims]

Originally Posted by cavie

Turn off the radio at night. What are your plans for a tornado during the night to make things safe if there was one in the area?

I don't really have any inside walls, so basically nowhere to go. If a tornado is going to kill me I want it to be while I'm asleep.

[NJKris]

I don't know. The idea of being caught by surprise by ANYTHING while I'm sleeping I find more disagreeable than having a fighting chance to take some sort of action, however futile. The spookiest thing must be a tornado at night, you can't even see it, just hear it getting louder....