OK yeah, honestly, I had heard of a Derecho before that day. We had one blow across southern Iowa City and Johnson County in late May or early June 1998. Winds were only about 110 mph for the most part so not quite as big as the one that hit CR in 2020. Still it was fairly significant. I didn't have power for about a week and we had trees on the ground down the block from me in yards that didn't have trees before. In other words, not a new phenom.
Tornado Night
- Thread starter Gimmered
- Start date
I love thunderstorms especially during the night. The louder, the better.
I honestly cannot fathom how plains indians survived the crazy weather before modern times.
That's probably killed more Iowans than real tornados ever haveTornado spotted in Altoona
Nah, I didn't spend much time outside tonight though. You could hear the roar.
I know that I’ve damn near suffered brain damage on that thing and the outlaw.
Y'all get way louder storms in Kansas and Nebraska where it's flat. Most places I've lived in Iowa, if the storm isn't overhead you might not hear it. Seems like when there's just average radar in Kansas, every clap of thunder is artillery incoming
As someone who grew up vacationing in the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, I learned about derechos due to the 1999 July 4th storm that rolled from Fargo all the way to Maine.
I can't imagine being out camping in remote wilderness with crap like that going on.
BWCA Derecho 1999
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I followed that storm (via TV) from Kansas/NE into Illinois. That was my entire day.
Yeah, her quads are like tree trunks.
So far, still got warnings west of us and southeast of us. Cant wait to see how many tornados touched down in the area. So far I've only seen downed powerlines in some rural areas.
- Sep 13, 2002
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We had one on the east side of Madison in the early 1980s. Tore about three roofs out in our neighborhood. That one was in the middle of the night, which was scary. Mrs. Torbee and I watched two trees fall into the little creek in our old backyard last August during the Iowa derecho. That was crazy.
Here it is rolling through Davenport and over the river:
Probably the only time I’ve been scared during a Tornado warning happened about 8-9 years ago. It was like 1:30 in the morning when the sirens in my area went off. I have a system next to my bed that beeps and bops when a Tornado warning is issued for my area.
So anyways, it’s pitch black outside and the wind is going nuts. I’m sitting on the coach, next to my mom. We then get the order to move to smaller secure space because a Tornado was on the ground within a mile of us. While we go to secure space, my dog is going nuts, the lights go off, and everything is pitch black. The next thing we hear is glass breaking and the wind howling throughout the house. I legitimately thought the Tornado was on top of us and I thought I was gonna die.
So about 10 minutes later, the storm passes and we come out of the spot. There was no damage in our basement, so we go upstairs to check out where the glass had broke. The window above the kitchen sink had broke, because a big ass stuck had flown through it, and said stick was stuck in the pantry door like a playing dart. So no considerable damage, but still a scary night.
So anyways, it’s pitch black outside and the wind is going nuts. I’m sitting on the coach, next to my mom. We then get the order to move to smaller secure space because a Tornado was on the ground within a mile of us. While we go to secure space, my dog is going nuts, the lights go off, and everything is pitch black. The next thing we hear is glass breaking and the wind howling throughout the house. I legitimately thought the Tornado was on top of us and I thought I was gonna die.
So about 10 minutes later, the storm passes and we come out of the spot. There was no damage in our basement, so we go upstairs to check out where the glass had broke. The window above the kitchen sink had broke, because a big ass stuck had flown through it, and said stick was stuck in the pantry door like a playing dart. So no considerable damage, but still a scary night.
- Sep 13, 2002
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I actually had one go over me while sitting inside a car.
It was Muscatine county, 1997. I was working at the Muscatine Journal and we had some tornadoes go through - the warning had been called off so me and a Photog went out to look for damage which was reported out on Hwy 38. We’re 15 minutes out into the country when the sirens go off again and they reinstate the warning.
This Photog had a scanner in her car, and we hear the emergency center say the tornado is spotted and heading toward us. We pull over on side of a road and then they literally say on the scanner that a spotter at the intersection we were parked at is seeing the funnel on the ground. The car is shaking, hail is pelting it and the sky is a totally weird green color and you can’t see more than 4 inches out the window.
30 seconds of terror or so like that and boom, done. Sun is out 10 minutes later. Surreal as hell.
- Sep 13, 2002
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Probably could have got a near-death-experience friendly encounter from the Photog, but she played for the other team. Super cool and a real pro shooter also. 🙂
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I stood in the eye of Hurricane Wilma.
It was super cool and I'm happy to have had that experience, but been there done that! Don't ever want to do that again.
That it is. But good way to get a new roof if you needed one before said hail storm
I was reading the costliest storm Iowa insurance history.
I first heard if one that occurred near Marshalltown through to 30 miles south US 30 from there. Pretty bad damage about 2013 or so.
Yeah, but we have no one to do it. Can't hire anyone here right now.
Flash flood warnings now for our county and the one just west. Should have bought me a boat.
My dad has told me lots of stories like this. He’s been in that exact same situation many times. My great uncle also had one jump his farmstead once. Luckily it didn’t damage his house because it jumped it instead of being on the ground coming at them.
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