If so, when, where, and how big? I’ve seen a few but the largest I’ve ever seen was a big twister down in Mount Ayr. It wasn’t over the town thankfully but it did tear up a big chunk of farm land.
You ever seen a Tornado?
- Thread starter HawkeyeInCentralIowa
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Yep, down by New Bo district. Great burgers.
Not a tornado, but a waterspout at Lake Worth Inlet when I was in the Coast Guard. Very cool. Never felt danger or threatened. Just a neat natural phenomenon.
Yes. April 13, 2006. Went by my house. Sky was green. Iowa City.
I live on the river bluff. I watched the tornado that fücked up metamora a few years ago. I was actually in a pickup flag football game that morning and could sense the weather was weird. Crazy to watch that thing just sit there like someone was controlling it somewhere with a joystick.
I've seen a few. Biggest one was when I was driving from Texas back to Iowa. Nasty storm in the middle of Oklahoma nearly blew me off the road. The tornado crossed the highway about a mile behind me.
I've seen a couple waterspouts in in Florida too. I thought they were cute.
I've seen a couple waterspouts in in Florida too. I thought they were cute.
I was in a F5. Luckily, I used my leather belt to tie it around a pipe, saving my life.
I was in same tornado as Smalls. Saw it in the horizon west of town before it hit - let some dude in the Pizza Ranch who'd pulled up in his pickup. That dude, I found out later, happened to be my younger cousin's old Optimist basaeball coach in Waterloo.
I was a couple hundred feet from the 06 Iowa City tornado as it went by UI Credit Union and watched the 08 Parkersburg tornado move to the east from a few miles south of Janesville. That's enough for me.
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I lived behind the Kum & Go on Riverside by the Dairy Queen that was damaged. Saw the tornado as I was walking up the stairs to my place. It was over by Menard’s. Didn’t have a basement so we ran over to the neighbors. Felt it go over us, but it had went back up into the sky at that point before dropping on the other side of the river. Didn’t have any damage except it tipped over the neighbor’s motorcycle. Dodged a bullet.
I saw some when I was in Wichita Falls. We used to see them in the distance from the dorms. I was caught in a small one one night. We were driving down a dirt road out in the country one night when it got pretty bad. We stopped in the road, and a small twister turned our car sideways in the road - that was pretty scary. I'm glad it wasn't any bigger.
Jeez. I get a bit nervous around storms, especially lightening. I’d probably die not from storm but from panic.
I was headed south on Riverside drive when the 2006 EF 1.345 passed. It started to hail a little and the pre-curser wind was blowing everything right at us, so I tried to pull in real tight to the Sinclair station at the Benton St corner to avoid hail damage to the new car. A van pulled in right nest to us. As the tornado passed the van began to shake and I thought it might tip over on us but it subsided in just 30 seconds or so. A dumpster blew across the parking lot and slammed into the van with the lid blowing open and slapping the hood of the van, then it was over. We just headed south towards home, failing to notice ( of course it was dark ) that the Dodge dealership 75 yards north of where we were parked had been destroyed. I have a lot of pics I took the next day and we spent a week cutting down trees on all the apartments...
We were parked just behind the red pickup next to the green striped, grey mansard roofed Sinclair station.
We were parked just behind the red pickup next to the green striped, grey mansard roofed Sinclair station.
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survived an F4 back in April 13, 3:30am. It hit about 100-150 yards from my front door. Scared me to death. The entire landscape is forever changed.
You can see waterspouts all the time taking the Sunshine Skyway Bridge between St Pete and Sarasota in Florida. I’ve seen at least a dozen if not more over my life.
Land tornadoes, I’ve seen only one that would technically only be an F0 as it didn’t hit the ground. My wife and I watched the clouds swirl around until it turned into a funnel cloud that touched the top of the trees. It then ran along the treetops for maybe 30 seconds or so and then stopped swirling.
About 25 years ago was playing golf in Denver, Co and we were about as far away from the clubhouse as you could get when we heard the warnings. That thing came into view just a few minutes later and we dove into a ditch as it went almost over the top of us. Luckily it wasn't "on the ground" when it passed us. It did blow our bags that we dropped down the fairway quite a distance. After it was gone and we got up I realized how lucky we were especially since there was a huge tree awfully close to where we were laying in the ditch.
Fortunately I literally just left town 20 minutes before it hit. A buddy of mine that lived with me was still home. He made it out with a few scrapes. Only a toilet left sitting on the main floor. Had some of my personal files and old check book mailed back to me from Prairie Duchen. Guessing around 150 miles away at least. Looked like a nuke went off.
2008 tornado hit Dunkerton too lol.
I grew up in CF and went to Catholic school in Waterloo before moving to Pburg. I think we arrived in Pburg same year. Anyway, at the Catholic school this kid in my class (ended up being one of my best friends in college again) got his house totaled by that 2000 tornado. Then again in 2008 at the tail end of the tornado that roughed up Parkersburg. Rough luck.
Saw one tear through Ottumwa.
Did over $200k of improvement.
Did over $200k of improvement.
I was also in Iowa City in 2006. Couldn't see it from Mayflower, but driving through the damage the next day was surreal.
Did it knock power out in the whole town or just the part of the grid it hit? In the Parkersburg tornado, the lights went out everywhere in town then moments later half the town was flattened. I very definitively remember how eerie it felt when the lights went out. We were in an interior room with no source of natural light when the door's closed.
Ironically, being from Iowa, the only ones I have seen were during the 9 years we were in Denver and once returning from vacation driving through Colorado Springs up to Denver.
The plains east of Denver are very flat and we saw two that way. They were small by Iowa standards. My wife got a front row seat for three that hit Denver in 1988-her office was on the 12 floor and they watched them.
The vacation ones were small but we could see them drop down along the interstate but fortunately go back up before growing larger where we were at.
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/06...ears-since-memorable-denver-tornado-outbreak/
The plains east of Denver are very flat and we saw two that way. They were small by Iowa standards. My wife got a front row seat for three that hit Denver in 1988-her office was on the 12 floor and they watched them.
The vacation ones were small but we could see them drop down along the interstate but fortunately go back up before growing larger where we were at.
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/06...ears-since-memorable-denver-tornado-outbreak/
I remember that and was in IC that night. I couldn’t see it except during lightning.
Multiples. If you grow up in flat Iowa and are not in town you'd be surprised how many there are and how far away they are visible (30 miles is not uncommon). Most do not even touch down. Biggest "In town" tornado would have been the one that went across Johnston and Ankeny in the 90s. I was actually with the fire chief of Ankeny at the time and drove him for his first assessment of the situation.
I've never seen a tornado but I have seen a lot of funnel clouds in recent years. One went right over our neighborhood a few years ago that was very impressive. It wasn't fast moving but just ambled slowly to the east. It was real quiet until it got overhead and you could look right up into the cloud. In the center of the cloud the darkness subsided and I could see several clouds just going every which direction and gusts from the larger cloud were really whipping the trees around. This isn't an actual photo of it but it looked very similar to this as it was headed our way. The tornado sirens went off about 10 minutes after it had passed over. A lot of good they did. I don't believe it ever touched down.
20+ years ago in Swaledale, IA. My dad was playing in a big ball tournament for their Big Days. They had a street band that night and my parents wanted to go home and change. We lived about 10 min away, so I talked them into letting me stay and hang out with my friends, I was probably 12 at the time. About an hour after they left I was wandering around outside the ball diamonds and everyone seemed to disappear. I was close to the highway and a cop was coming into town. He slammed on his brakes and yelled at me to get to my house, a tornado was coming. He rolled his window up and took off. When I turned around there was a tornado about 3/4 of a mile away. I ran to the ball diamonds and hid under the bleachers. I was later told that wasnt a great place to seek shelter from a tornado.
/csb
/csb
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I’ve seen quite a few - interesting situation a couple months ago. I was riding my bike east of Morse and one came pretty much out of nowhere. Popcorn type storms that day and I got a clear view of it as it unfolded. Modified my planned route!
I was in the one in Plainfield, IL in Aug 1990. I was on leave helping my wife (then fiancé) do some things prepping for our wedding since we moved it up (thanks Saddam). While I was home, a friend of hers was moving into a new house (renting) on the southern edge of Plainfield so we went out to help her move. F5 came through while we were there, wiped out half the town and a chunk of Joilet, killed nearly 30 people and injured around 300. The house we were moving her into was destroyed, it's in the neighborhood shown towards the end of the clip below.
There was no warning. We barely made it to the basement, I looked out the window when we heard stuff hitting the house. I happened to look out one in the direction the tornado was coming from and we headed for the basement. The house was starting to get torn apart as we were going down the stairs. 2 people in the house next to us, who had helped carry a couple of big things in earlier, were killed.
Here's another video of it.
There was no warning. We barely made it to the basement, I looked out the window when we heard stuff hitting the house. I happened to look out one in the direction the tornado was coming from and we headed for the basement. The house was starting to get torn apart as we were going down the stairs. 2 people in the house next to us, who had helped carry a couple of big things in earlier, were killed.
Here's another video of it.
