Tornado Night
- Thread starter Gimmered
- Start date
The QB from the Little Giants opened the windows in the house to relieve pressure. One of many tornado myths.
We were actually taught that in the 60's in grade school. By high school, they told you to put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.
I think it was later in the summer than that. My summer job was at a daycare. Another college kid and myself would take a big vanload of elementary aged kids to parks in the IC area everyday and have them back to the daycare for their parents to pick them up around 4:00. We were at the City Park pool by Hancher and there were some dark clouds build fast to the west. We loaded up the kids, got back to the daycare (on Muscatine), and rode it out in the lower level. Lots of branches and some trees down with some broken windows upstairs. Found out later that a group of similarly-aged kids were in a shelter house at the City Park through the whole thing. That would have been a crazy experience. I think our apartment on S Van Buren was without power for about three days.
When I was the beach this past spring, my dad and I sat and watched a big lightening storm out over the ocean. It was amazing to watch. Streaks, flashes, thunder, and the wind made for a beautiful show.
When house hunting, it was common to see brand new windows on only one side of the house.
Imagine a tornado while on the Outlaw? There were pictures of this Altoona tornado with the Tornado Rollarcoaster in the foreground, but this is all I could find. Imagine being on a ride seeing this shit.
June 29, 1998
June 29, 1998 Iowa Derecho
An incredible complex of severe thunderstorms produced widespread extreme straight-line wind damage across much of Iowa causing over $150 million in damages. $100 million of that total occurred in Polk County alone. This included the $11 million in damages initially claimed in Johnston and...
nws.weather.gov
I'm pretty sure Kent Park was closed the rest of the summer because of all the downed trees. The kids were bummed because they liked the beach there.June 29, 1998
June 29, 1998 Iowa Derecho
An incredible complex of severe thunderstorms produced widespread extreme straight-line wind damage across much of Iowa causing over $150 million in damages. $100 million of that total occurred in Polk County alone. This included the $11 million in damages initially claimed in Johnston and...nws.weather.gov
I had only because I lived through one in my hometown (98) and the one in CR (20). I think there have been like 15 reported in Iowa since late 1800s?
I actually had heard of them prior. I'm a weather geek, and back when I had DirecTV I'd hear of them occasionally hit areas around the country. My bet is there's 1-2 of them per year in the US.
Maybe not THAT strong...but my bet is they do occur most every year.
That wasn't the first derecho to hit the CR area, too. We have had one other that I remember since I moved to my current place near Kirkwood in southern CR in 2004. I remember coming home from the cabin one Sunday morning and a lot of trees were down back behind where the Kum & Go off Kirkwood Boulevard is, that housing area just west southwest of it. Maybe late 2000's, somewhere in there. People thought a tornado had blown through, but sure enough ol' Joe Winters stated it was this rare event called a derecho - then showed the storm path flow half across the US it seemed.
As I recall that one sort of began in northwestern Iowa and built up strength across eastern Iowa, then went on to clobber a path all the way down into the southeastern US.
You'd be surprised how many long duration lines of storms occur in the US. Maybe not derechos, but a single line of storms that form west of Iowa and last for over 24 hours, remnants even occasionally making it all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Correct. There are about 1 or 2 derechos per year in the US. It's more common than people realize. However, the one that hit CR in 2020 was probably one of the strongest derechos on record.
I rode one out in the car once also.
Was just leaving an interview about 30 years ago.
Skies made it look like 10:00 p.m. at 10:00a.m.
Didn't worry too much about it and just left the parking lot and started heading back to my house in a town about 15 mi away.
Rain got so bad I couldn't see the road so I slowly pulled over and happened to pull right into a gravel road corner.
I inched my way onto the gravel road so I was at least sure I was off the main road and nobody would hit me.
Sat there for a few minutes and the whole car started to shake pretty violently, for a split second I thought about hopping out and jumping in the ditch like they tell you to do, but then the shaking let up, so I just rode it out.
I still couldn't see anything because of the rain in the wind, but that afternoon I heard of a reported tornado right where I was, so I drove back out that way in the early evening - sure as hell there was a nice swath of corn knocked over from the tornado right across the gravel road where I was sitting, I had to have been right beside it or behind it and never even knew it.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,176
- 201,539
- 113
Just under two years.
We were basically a minor league all-star team at the time, as I had the great Scott Dochterman as a colleague at the time.
It was still pretty much a legit newspaper back then - three full-time news reporters, two full-time sports guys and 2 photogs. That is a bigger editorial staff than I had at the Iowa Press Citizen in 2019. Good old Gannett.
I had. Have gone to southern Canada including the boundry waters multiple times over the years. Was not there when it hit but one hit a number of years ago, is part of their history and the locals still talk about it. Can you imagine being out in the BW when that hit? People were stranded due to all the down trees. Even if you and your equipment were ok.....how to you portage across all that?
Float planes were used to find people and if necessary, extract or resupply them until they could be rescued.
After the flood and then derecho My brother is lobbying for Cedar Rapids to change it’s motto to “Mother natures bitch”.
Last edited:
Sorry, I had missed your post....good video. 20 million trees blown down in 20 minutes....incredible.
Just under two years.
We were basically a minor league all-star team at the time, as I had the great Scott Dochterman as a colleague at the time.
It was still pretty much a legit newspaper back then - three full-time news reporters, two full-time sports guys and 2 photogs. That is a bigger editorial staff than I had at the Iowa Press Citizen in 2019. Good old Gannett.
I think my mom worked for the journal at that time.
Insert joke
A
anon_ddojbbh8q7xrt
Guest
Oh yeah, I'm still here. Lots of rain, just a little bit of hail, I'll go for a walk later, but from what I've seen there's no local damage, with most of the tornados being in rural areas.
I've seen some pictures of some damn big tornados from around the area.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,176
- 201,539
- 113
These were all from 3 different cells, taken west and south west of me. The second one would have been the one that tracked closest to McCook, I believe.
More touchdowns yesterday than Nebraska football could muster in 2020.
Amazing how something can look so beautiful yet so ominous at the same time.
These were all from 3 different cells, taken west and south west of me. The second one would have been the one that tracked closest to McCook, I believe.
We got very lucky last night. The only damage I heard of was a few power poles down.
June 29, 1998
June 29, 1998 Iowa Derecho
An incredible complex of severe thunderstorms produced widespread extreme straight-line wind damage across much of Iowa causing over $150 million in damages. $100 million of that total occurred in Polk County alone. This included the $11 million in damages initially claimed in Johnston and...nws.weather.gov
I was in a YMCA summer program when this hit when I was 11, we were at Jester park and it came in so fast and massive trees started falling and they loaded us all onto a bus, a tree fell and blocked the road out so they turned around and drove us back to these little wooden bathroom sheds with trees going down everywhere. Absolute miracle a tree didn’t hit a bus or any of the 30+ kids.
A
anon_ts5cfra6drv7r
Guest
