storm stories

[LT1BRD]

i just nearly messed my pants! a big thunder clap just delivered my adrenaline rush for the week. mg: caught me by supprise.

anyway, it reminded me of a time a few years ago when me and 2 buddies were standing outside spraying wasp nests with spray paint (that bored). a little clowdy, but not bad. we felt a drop or 2 of rain, then suddenly the tree across the street was struck by lightning and broke in half.
talk about running and screaming like a girl, messing your pants, and having the girlfriend look at you like you're an idiot (oblivious to the near death experience that just ocurred...or what felt like it anyway).

considering i've never seen huricanes, tornados, or earth quakes, what weather/nature related issues have yall experienced?

 

[Duramax_JP]

Hahaha that thunderclap was loud. I jumped and nearly fell out of my chair.

 

[FMOS]

I live in -40 degree temps from november to april. Does that count?

 

[Pure Diesel]

Lived in So Cal. for 46years. Been throught the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. Been through the 1994 Northridge quake. The Northridge quake scared the living crap out of me. Felt like a freight train was coming through my house. The problem with quakes, is you never know when they will happen.

 

[Dozerboy]

Been through it all about Floods, Tornado, Blizzards, Small quakes, Hurricane Ike. The first 3 I grew up with so no big deal. My 1st quake in Socal I though some had fallen in the apartment above me. But Ike was just eiry lots of wind and rain no thunder or lighting. The occasional boom of a transformer blowing putting a massive blue green glow in the shy. The humm of all the power serges. Watch my garage door flex in and out 4" even after I braced it with a few 2x4s.

 

[LT1BRD]

good gosh! idk, I don't want to live anywhere there are quakes, tornadoes, huricanes...San Angelo has an occasional twister, but never too bad. hail storms are probably the worst thing around here.

Hahaha that thunderclap was loud. I jumped and nearly fell out of my chair.

haha, i know what you mean. i think it came from across the street.

 

[mmangels22]

survived loma prieta. that quake was bad.

 

[LT1BRD]

what do you do in a quake? do you duck somewhere in your house, or do you go outside so the house doesn't come in on you?

 

[coldLBZ]

http://www.duramaxdiesels.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15592

Here's a few pics of what blew through last Saturday. I have never seen wind like that, and clouds move that fast. The big pine trees in my front yard were bent right over in the wind, lot's of creaking and cracking, but they survived.

 

[FMOS]

We didn't get any of that up north. Infact, I was out all night and it was t shirt weather.

 

[coldLBZ]

It was pretty cool, there are flags down the street from my house. I was watching them and the wind was at first blowing southeast. Then I could watch the flags whip around and start blowing northeast in the blink of an eye and then the stuff hit the fan. It was pretty cool, glad I wasn't working that night, I was on days. I guess there were quite a few power bumps and such. It was pretty wild, and stuck around for quite a while.

 

[RENODMAX]

Those clouds look so low compared to what we get here ColdLBZ. One of the worst storms I have been caught in was coming back from the Bakersfield Crude drags. They shut down I-80 and we had to drive back over Mammoth for those of you that know the area (Mammoth gets ALOT of snow). We get nasty winds that flip minivans over here in Reno and all that but I think snow storms are pretty gnarly when they roll in quick. Heres the road home, and an after shot of anATS shirt that came into our posession and somehow rode on the trailer hitch the whole way home

 

[TheBac]

Driven through rain falling so hard you couldnt see a damn thing anywhere...it was like someone dumping a bucket out.
Driven in fog so thick I felt I was in a little bubble, and 10mph was wayyy too fast. Now that was scary.
Been out in bad snowstorms, heavy T-storms...just about everything (no tornadoes, thank God). Sometimes I wonder just why I do this job.

 

[FMOS]

Reno, that looks like the drive I used to do every week!

I used to commute to and from work when i was on shift. Drove about 1000km every week just to and from work. 6 on, 6 off. 500km up 500km back. I couldn't count how many times I drove through stuff like that. No cell service, 300km without services...

One time I was driving in a particularly bad blizzard and I had it in 4x4 doing about 60-80km per hour and the only indication that I had to know my truck was moving was the speedometer reading a speed. The blizzard was blowing about as fast as I was going and there was so much snow on the road that I didn`t have a feel for where I was. It actually made me a bit sick to the stomach. I ended up hitting the ditch but managed to keep it floored and popped back out on the road... sideways. So I stopped in the middle of a highway because i had no idea which way was which or where the road was. So I just picked a direction and started going again. It was risky. I ended up making it home, but I had to do about 30km per hour at one point because the wind was so bad it was blowing my truck directly sideways (strafe) on the icy road..

That drive took me about 6-7 hours to go 450km.

On edit: I believe at one point on the highway where I hit the ditch I came to a stop because I had no idea which way the road went anymore and I quickly jumped out to sweep some snow on the road to try and find the line and use it as an indicator of which way the road was going. Its probably right after when I hit the ditch haha.

 

[RENODMAX]

FMOS that's how that trip was at points with the snow blowing at us so fast it felt like we were doing 150mph. Weird stuff