Tornadic Weather here in Alabama today.

Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Luckily, no tornadoes in my county that I live in.
Hail in many locations today however with strong straight line wind.

Here is a photo taken of hail in the Anniston , AL area.
Car windshields taken out in this area of the state today.
There were reports of baseball size hail today.

THuU4Qd.jpg
 
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Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Probably the same storm system that went through just south of here a couple of days ago. Was supposed to get us but we basically got a rainy day out of it.
 
oscarflytyer

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
In Huntsville, north of Ben. They cancelled schools, etc. We missed it all, or nearly. Wind is gusting occassionally here now. Living in tornado alley can SUCK!
 
Brad

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I think of tornado alley as going north from mid Texas to lower South Dakota.

Y'all keep those storms down there, ok?
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
I lived in North Texas for a few years, that was enough for me. We had a small twister hit about six miles east of us here early Sunday morning, no major damage but it did touch now and tear up a few things. Tornadoes are a rarity in this area, but they do happen.
 
RicinYakima

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
I really really like Nebraska, Ft Robinson is my favorite park in the US. However, your summers are too damp, winters too long and there aren't any snowcapped volcanoes to look at from my front picture window.
 
Pistolero

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
That is an amazing picture. An engineer at work was the last in his family down the stairs to the basement when
the tornado sirens went off in the evening years ago. Just at the head of the stairs, he saw his family Bible on a table a few
steps away, and turned and stepped over to get it. Just as he moved from the stairs a ~15 ft long ~8 inch diameter branch
from a tree crashed through the window above the stairs, moving horizontally like a huge spear. It would have nailed
him like a bug on a pin if he hadn't turned and moved towards the Bible. You can't tell him it wasn't a miracle, and I don't
disagree.

Big chunks flying at high speed are pretty dangerous. Many newer homes in places without basements are putting in "ballistic
panels" around a closet so people can shelter inside and the panels will stop flying debris. A builder friend in Fla said that they
tested them with an air cannon firing long 2x6s and they will stop one at something like 120 mph.

They needed ballistic panels on their palm tree.

Bill
 
oscarflytyer

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
No pics, but I have seen straw driven into wooden barn siding like nails. Done a lot of tornado clean up and tree cutting and it is nasty. Also saw a full two deck of game board cards, in the plastic box, sitting on a downed tree trunk. in the middle of a pasture. It was crazy. I wish I had taken a pic of that one!
 
smokeywolf

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Only seen hail like that a couple of times. In '83 or '84 in Culver City, CA and in early Summer of '67 (IIRC), in Salt Lake City.
Closest I've come to a tornado is about 7 years ago we had a little bitty one touch down in the street right in front of the house and almost instantly disappeared. It had touched down in a park about 700 yards from the house a minute or two earlier and uprooted two trees that had stood for at least 12 years.

More familiar in SoCal with trouble coming from below ground than trouble from above ground.
 
Pistolero

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
One summer we had a Swiss rifle match, and had, fortunately, just finished shooting and cleaning up.
Storm moved in and it started hailing like crazy. We ran to the next range which had a cover, and a
couple of us pulled our vehicles up under the cover - not normally permitted, but the range was empty.

The noise (tin roof) was literally deafening, we all pulled out hearing protection. Within 5-6 minutes the ground
was entirely covered with 1/2"-3/8" hail, maybe 1 - 2" deep, looked like it had snowed. It was about 80F just
before but all that ice dropped the temp dramatically in minutes. After about 15 minutes the sun came out and
we went home.

Oscar - I have heard of that, would love to see a picture of it.

Bill
 
oscarflytyer

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
Bill

WAY before cell phones, back when I was in college - about 1984. It was the ones that started, I think in AR and went all the way thru NC/VA. It was devastating. I saw the BIG round corn cribs blown for 15 miles in that one.
 
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