Tornados a mile across are not something I want to even remotely see in person ever. I've seen as many as three funnel clouds forming around me at one time (driving on I-75 in central Florida, but thankfully they didn't make ground fall) and that was enough to make me wet my pants.

Condolences to all who suffered these storms. Let's hope there isn't a repeat anytime soon.

Quote:

I hope we can all keep dodging!

Tornado outbreak
 

I hope all our friends from the Southern and Eastern US are safe. Apparently yesterday and today, terrible storms have taken many lives and destroyed much property.

Yes, I hope that there are minor casualties and material damage for our friends in that aerahttp://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/redface.gif !!!! Jean

I hope everyone stays safe!!!

Hope everyone is okay...

Adding my hopes and wishes that everyone is safe.

I heard this am too. I wish the news had been on this a little more quickly!
Hoping & praying for everyone's safety!

I'm glad this is something I don't have to worry too much about, though some ''weak'' tornadoes have happened in my area in the past. Good luck to those in the danger area in the US.

Yeah, our best to all those in the rough sopts!

We should only get a good rainstorm from it (needed), but the passing front dropped our chances of a space shuttle Endeavor launch tomorrow afternoon to 70% due to possible cross winds and low ceiling.

Hoping we're on the tail end of all this weather for you folks in the midwest/south/east….really tragic watching the footage! If you're in the area, I hope to see you checking in when you can!

The weather down south has been really crazy lately. It's hard to imagine the devastation some people have to go through. I hope all our friends are okay. That's some serious weather system going through the S.E. US right now! My area of Southern Ontario at the west end of Lake Ontario has been getting serious winds and a few suspected tornados caused by the fringe of these same storm systems. Environment Canada is investigating to see if the damage qualifies for actual tornado status. This morning I was woken up by howling winds and once I realized what it was, I was out to the greenhouse like a shot! My greenhouse is an inflated double poly plastic design and it happens to be very ready for a new skin. It's quite soft and gets pushed by the wind easily at the moment. It's got 5 years of tiny rips and tears that leak air out. In high winds, I have to stick the leaf blower inbetween the layers to keep it inflated and taught. That way, the wind flows over it because it maintains an aerodynamic shape. When it is soft and the wind is strong, the wind can catch the plastic and change the shape, causing the wind to catch it even more, like a sail. 'Got the leaf blower going just in time for some REALLY big gusts (over 100 km/h). I watched the wind rip two huge sheets of sheet metal roofing off my barn and then snap a tall, 80 year old pine tree in half on my front lawn! But, the greenhouse is still standing! I hate wind!

Yikes, John! Glad everything turned out ok!

Thanks Heather. It's calming down now; but, I'm in no hurry to take out the leaf blower. Things can change so quickly. I'll wait until the winds have been calm for a few hours and the weather service is calling for calm too. This morning, a bunch of racing row boats full of high school students went out on Burlington Bay (western tip of Lake Ontario). They say the water was like glass at 7 a.m., it was so calm. Once out on the water, the storm winds hit and they got caught. 8 boats capsized and one broke in half! Luckily all the students got back to shore alive; but, 8 had to be taken to hospital. It's been so cloudy here too for days and days and days. I'm fed up with all this crappy weather. Some sunshine, calm winds and comfortable temps sure would lift my spirits.

Crazy indeed. Please stay safe you all.

Jeez, John. First a freeze and now you have to worry about wind!

John,
our weekend forecast is looking promising! Next week is rain-free so far. At least our clean up is minimal!

there was an e1 tornado near danby, ny (near ithaca) that touched down for about two miles a few days ago; one person on a natural history email list said that he woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of something like the whine of an electric turbine and was wondering if he should get up and take the kids to the basement when he again woke up and realized it was morning. other neighbors within a few miles also heard the whining sound and metereological data seems to suggest that it was a tornado that was high in the atmosphere. I think I would be really freaked out if I woke up in the middle of the night and heard that? the day before that my supervisor was taking his kids out in his truck through rome, ny and a small suspected tornado or straight-line winds did some damage along with some severe hail and high winds north of the city. I was on my way home from work and driving directly towards the front of the storm, and could see that the rain was so heavy in front that it looked like the clouds went all the way to the ground. I was about four miles away, and there was hardly any wind and only a few sprinkles. it was headed northeast of my town so didn't see any of what they did. just some minor flooding in this area, but further northeast in the adirondacks some large streams were flooding out areas because there likely still was unmelted snow in the wilderness areas and the warm weather and heavy rain melted it all. one co-worker was telling me that where he lives, if he hadn't made it through one small town that has seven bridges over one stream (cold brook), he would have had to drive maybe thirty miles out of his way to get to work or back home! every road goes over the main stream through that area, and the bridges would have been closed due to flooding

though scary, nobody was hurt; I think I heard on the radio that due to these recent tornados, over 200 people have been killed (in the last two weeks).

These tornadoes are way more serious than what we went through here last September. I just can't believe that there was a tornado a MILE across! I can't even imagine what it did. Actually, what happened here last fall wasn't a tornado...it was a "microburst" (actually, so big it was a macroburst). Kind of like the opposite of a tornado. Instead of winds moving up, they come down and spread out. The tornados on either side of my neighborhood had winds of 80 and 120 mph...the microburst had winds of 135 mph. But the Alabama ones had something like 200 mph!