Have You Ever Seen a Tornado in Person? Options

[wsushox1]

I was 4 yards away from a funnel cloud. Also, I have seen what is inside a funnel cloud. Nothing, but the DARKNESS.

The real question should be what are the strongest RFD winds you've seen/experienced?


I have heard stories about the Greensburg Tornado that the RFD on that storm was 100MPH+ itself...not sure if this was documented or not.

When I saw my three tornadoes whe were right on the edge of the RFD Clearslot but this storm was much weaker than the Greensburg Storm so the RFD we experienced was only 50-60 mph winds.

[Michal Kopyta]

I have seen a tornado in May 2010 in Poland. My friends and I always make a bicycle road trip across our country (Poland)in the beginning of May every year.

This year we were travelling as always along the road among the fields and meet a tornado suddenly. There are no tornadoes in Poland usually - I did not even notice it but my friend started to cry: Tornado! Look over there!

The tornado was pretty small and at least 200 meters from us but we could feel strong and cold wind which appeared as we approach it.

[NYCSuburbs]

I haven't seen a tornado yet, but I was close to one... the Bronx tornado of July 25th was only a few miles to my SE, and the storm's heaviest rain and center were over me before they moved into the Bronx, but strangely the winds weren't as bad here as they were in other places. And that storm wasn't even tornado warned.

[Sagebrusher]

Not yet...
I saw a funnel cloud last year in New Mexico. I also heard an F3 tornado in Iowa from 5 miles away...sounded like continuous thunder. I was also 1/4 mile away from a strong downburst that snapped large pines during the July 99 Boundary Waters-Canadian derecho

[Cracker]

Twice:
as a small chld in FL after a hurricane (don't remember the name) one went along the back side of our pasture. Then in NC during Hugo one passed along side then behind the house. That's enough for me, thank you!

[Niyologist]

The real question should be what are the strongest RFD winds you've seen/experienced?
I have heard stories about the Greensburg Tornado that the RFD on that storm was 100MPH+ itself...not sure if this was documented or not.

When I saw my three tornadoes whe were right on the edge of the RFD Clearslot but this storm was much weaker than the Greensburg Storm so the RFD we experienced was only 50-60 mph winds.

90 mph.

[Niyologist]

I was close to a waterspout in LI while I was in Weather Camp.

[Removed_Member_StormTopia.com_*]

do gustnadoes count? I saw one down in FLA 2 summers back

[Andros]

I haven't seen a tornado, but I did see a funnel cloud four years ago from my kitchen window. I initially *thought* it was a tornado. It was fairly long and well-defined, but it was quite a way's off and I couldn't see the lower half because other houses were in the way. I think a lot of people mistook it for a tornado.

For a few minutes, the clouds in my immediate area were also fairly unsettled -- at one point it looked like dust flew up from a nearby street (not sure what that was about).

[skygazer]

I think I may have actually photographed a a barely F1 tornado in central Connecticut last July 21st. I was on my way home when my sister called me on my cellphone to tell me that there was a tornado warning for my town. I was only about a mile from home at the time. When I got home I saw what I thought was a tornado and snapped a cellphone picture of it.. Then I snapped a photo of very dark clouds directly overhead and to the left of my "tornado". Four tornadoes broke out in Connecticut that day, but I understand "my" tornado lasted only 10 minutes. How can I go about verifying that what I took a photo of was actually a tornado.

I went on YouTube recently to see if anyone may have recorded it. As it happens someone in a shopping mall (on July 21, 2010) about eight miles to my west videoed a storm cloud that reached the ground in the direction of my town. In other words, I was on the other side of that cloud "looking" back at him when I snapped the photo. I managed to get a still/frame photo from that videotape and could post it, I guess.

I also have two cellphone photos of really weird looking clouds that I took while parked in a McDonald's paring lot last June 6th. I was on the southern fringe of some severe thunderstorms moving through the area--storms that delayed a professional golf tournament going on at the time. These clouds look very large, seem to rise up from the ground to go almost directly overhead, and dissipate quickly (the second photo was snapped about 90 seconds after the first). The clouds appear noticeably darker photographed through the glass of the sun/moonroof than they do to eye when looking at them through an open sunroof.

Could I possibly verify the tornado through this website?

[StormStalker]

Yes.

I was about 9, so I barely remember this.

I was having dinner with my parents somewhere in central Illinois (eating some delicious cornbread btw ) when all of a sudden the TV beeps and says were under a tornado warning. Just about that time to sirens go off. My parent were like oshi- so we pay before our food gets to our table and leave. As we are walking out, it starts raining. Not raining, more like BUCKETS OF WATER. We get into our car, and behind our car is a wall of black. You could not see anything. So we drive away from the black and make it away safely.

Idk if that was a tornado, but it was something.

[Dogod]

If I was about 40 miles west, I might have seen the NYC (possible) tornado yesterday. I did get hit by the storm, but nothing like 100 MPH winds.

[SnowMan11]

Never did.

[justintime2989]

i was next town over from the ef0 that hit perth amboy/ staten island and other was out in few towns over from peoria when we had huge hail storm then had the tornado warning going off. i dont rember the year of this.

[Andros]

I actually found a picture of the funnel cloud I saw in Winnipeg that I at first *thought* was a tornado (bottom was obscured by houses). It was just outside the city. The site said it was on 20 August 2006.

This post has been edited by Andros: Oct 20 2010, 06:08 PM

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[Delmarva Gal]

ive never seen one...but i was in one...i think i was 10. we were going up to the Catulktin Mountains in frederick county md. My dad, in our 77 ford ltd, had a cb and his buddy got on and told him to turn to a certain radio station. I remember hearing them say seek shelter the whole 9. Next thing i know we stop under an over pass driving rains and howling winds were rocking that old metal tank like it was a feather! i was in the back seat screaming...it lasted maybe 10 minutes then bright blue skys...when we got to the cabins we found out it was only 1/2 mile away from the overpass we were under. I cant say ill ever forget that one

[WolfSpider]

I believe I saw one right in my backyard in the pond; it was very small and I only saw it for a few seconds. There was another time I saw this funnel cloud, I couldn't tell if it touched the ground since there was a few houses in the way.

[sunnyboy]

Never seen a tornado, just seen the movie Twister. Thatīs about enough for me.

[fibergirl]

I seen 4 funnel clouds and been in one tornado. Although I never saw the one I was in cause I didnt know it was coming until it was overhead. We had almost no warning I was 8 years old at a daycare center...the staff rushed us all into the halway and told us to put our heads between our legs and place our arms over our heads in a tight ball...seconds later, I heard crashing exploding windows and a sound that can only be described like a loud rapid churning sound. I was in the famous tornado in Scott AFB in the 1980's which someone else did a great job of filming as the tornado passed over him. It took the roof off the day care center that I was in, all the windows but luckily the celing held, so no one got sucked out, but one boy who refused to go into the halway seconds before the tornado hit was cut up badly by broken glass. They did not have time to wrestle him in the hallway.

[Dave12308]

If a funnel cloud is more than 60% to the ground chances are it is touching the ground.

If it's touching the ground, it's a tornado - not a funnel cloud.

"A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud."

(from Wikipedia, but that is also the classic definition that i'd always heard)