The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
I was in the 5th grade then, age 11, and I remember going to school that day with eery, dark clouds and atmosphere. I remember pulling into the school drop-off, as usual, but then the tornado drill started going off right as I was exiting the car. I ran inside and went down to my hall, and we all ducked down with hands over our heads as usual. I actually started crying, because I realized it wasn't just a drill, it was a serious thing, as there were tornadoes touching down nearby in north Georgia. We were down in the hallways with the drill sounds going off for probably 2, 3, or 4 hours, or it at least felt that long. That was the only thing I remember about the school day, I have no memory of whatever happened during the second half. Storm-wise, things seemed to have slightly calmed down by the time school let out, so when I got home I played some Wii games for a few hours. Then, things in the area started picking up again and I flipped on the Weather Channel. For the rest of the night, I (with the rest of my family slowly joining) watched the Weather Channel and the local news (for local weather and activity exclusively), alternating between the two. I am fascinated with weather (and always have been), but I had never been so scared with so many tornadoes so close to my own home. I remained awake and watching the weather until about midnight, when I became too tired to continue. That was what my day was like.
After the fact, I realized what had happened to the nearby town of Ringgold, Georgia. I was baffled to see the first time (in my remembered lifetime) a town in my own area would be almost completely destroyed by a tornado. Ringgold, GA was hit by an EF4 tornado on April 27, 2011. I always remembered driving on Interstate 75 North to Chattanooga and seeing that massive Ringgold exit (GA SR 151 on Exit 348) - now it was completely destroyed, and to this day, not everything was rebuilt. I was in complete shock. I always saw how tornadoes completely mutilated towns in Tornado Alley, and realized it wasn't that uncommon - but it was surprising to see it happen for the first time locally.
I don't think the West Coast knew, or even cared, about this tornado outbreak. I certainly didn't know about it.
It was a Wednesday, so it was probably an ordinary day at work for me.
I do remember people freaking out about a bunch of tornadoes but I wouldn't have known the date without you mentioning it. Of course, like Bruce, I was not in the affected area.
It was 2 weeks after we had our outbreak in eastern NC. We had one touch down about 8 miles SE of my house that tore up a neighborhood on April 16th.
April 2011 was a really bad month for twisters all over the country.
Quote from: Duke87 on December 29, 2016, 12:36:39 AM
It was a Wednesday, so it was probably an ordinary day at work for me.
I do remember people freaking out about a bunch of tornadoes but I wouldn't have known the date without you mentioning it. Of course, like Bruce, I was not in the affected area.
Same. I turned 7 five days ago, on that day.
I don't remember people being freaked out in my area, considering we were well outside the radius of the tornadoes.
I was here in Huntsville, AL. At my house, then at school, then back at my house until after the city lost power, at which point we moved in with my grand parents as they had a back-up generator.
For those who've never heard about this outbreak, look it up. It was even larger than the infamous 1974 Super Outbreak! The joys of living in Dixie Alley...
Quote from: slorydn1 on December 29, 2016, 12:40:10 AM
April 2011 was a really bad month for twisters all over the country.
Yes. And only one month later, on May 22, 2011, one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history struck Joplin, Missouri. Some of the factors that made that tornado so deadly was probably that it was an EF5 tornado, and IIRC it was a
rain-wrapped tornado.
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on December 27, 2016, 03:09:11 PM
The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
Not a clue. Around these parts, it's August 28, 1990 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado).
Quote from: Brandon on December 29, 2016, 01:29:31 PM
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on December 27, 2016, 03:09:11 PM
The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
Not a clue. Around these parts, it's August 28, 1990 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado).
So is April 21, 1967: http://www.weather.gov/lot/1967_April_Tornadoes (http://www.weather.gov/lot/1967_April_Tornadoes)
And April 9th, 2015 which was my first storm chase: http://www.weather.gov/lot/15apr09 (http://www.weather.gov/lot/15apr09)
Most recent and my second chase, June 22nd 2016: http://www.weather.gov/lot/22June2016_tornadoes (http://www.weather.gov/lot/22June2016_tornadoes)
Quote from: Brandon on December 29, 2016, 01:29:31 PM
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on December 27, 2016, 03:09:11 PM
The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
Not a clue. Around these parts, it's August 28, 1990 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado).
I went through that storm in DeKalb. No tornado at that point, but still *very* impressive!
I was at work predicting tornadoes at the end of an exhausting month full of 'em, even up here in the Ohio Valley. I was on third shift at the time, though, so I slept through the Dixie outbreak later that day.
Quote from: Brandon on December 29, 2016, 01:29:31 PM
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on December 27, 2016, 03:09:11 PM
The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
Not a clue. Around these parts, it's August 28, 1990 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado).
Yep..I was there!
Quote from: Brandon on December 29, 2016, 01:29:31 PM
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on December 27, 2016, 03:09:11 PM
The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
Not a clue. Around these parts, it's August 28, 1990 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado).
For me, it's Hurricane Agnes, so June 25-26th, 1972. But that's for Pennsylvania. In North Carolina, it would probably be Hurricane Matthews, where my hometown Lumberton got hit.
I was about to turn 16 and was finishing my sophomore year of high school; I got home and turned on The Weather Channel and they were doing non-stop coverage of the outbreak. It was this outbreak that made me realize that Alabama is just as prone to tornadoes as, say, Oklahoma. Any part of the country and world is under the right conditions, really.
The very next day, April 28, which was the ninth anniversary of my state's worst-ever tornado, the 2002 La Plata, Maryland F4, my school was placed on lockdown for about 20 minutes because a tornado spawned from the same weather system touched down for about 30 seconds about 15-20 miles away, and I guess we were under a tornado warning, so they put us on lockdown until the warning was lifted. That tornado was just an EF0 and caused no visible damage.
Still lived in Florence, KY at the time. I remember watching the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham coverage on TWC. Fun fact: My current roommate actually chased that storm though I was unaware at the time.
While we missed that one, the next year it was our turn in the Ohio Valley to be hit with an EF-4 (actually 2). The Henryville, IN storm (EF-4 damage in that community) came into western Carroll County, KY with an EF-2, and continued producing tornadoes across much of Northern Kentucky into southwest Ohio. In fact, an EF-4 came within 13 miles of the city limits of Florence, instead leveling parts of Crittenden, Piner and Morning View. Had it been 15 miles further north than it was (it crossed I-75 near mile marker 166), the famous "Florence Y'all" tower might well have been wiped off the map, along with my home.
Quote from: ET21 on December 29, 2016, 04:42:15 PM
Quote from: Brandon on December 29, 2016, 01:29:31 PM
Quote from: adventurernumber1 on December 27, 2016, 03:09:11 PM
The notorious April 2011 tornado outbreak, of which most or all of us may know about and remember. On April 27, 2011, the most active day of the outbreak, what were you doing?
Not a clue. Around these parts, it's August 28, 1990 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado).
So is April 21, 1967: http://www.weather.gov/lot/1967_April_Tornadoes (http://www.weather.gov/lot/1967_April_Tornadoes)
And April 9th, 2015 which was my first storm chase: http://www.weather.gov/lot/15apr09 (http://www.weather.gov/lot/15apr09)
Most recent and my second chase, June 22nd 2016: http://www.weather.gov/lot/22June2016_tornadoes (http://www.weather.gov/lot/22June2016_tornadoes)
June 21st, 2010
According to my records, on April 27th 2011 I had recently moved to Arizona and played a prank on a former college professor in Wyoming by ordering a pizza for delivery for him over the phone (paid by card and tipped nicely) at a Geography Department function in Laramie.
I was living in Farmville, VA at the time (nice town), before I ended up in a shithole (Danville :ded:) later that year in October (long story).
I was living in Southern Illinois at the time, in my room, building a computer (god knows where that went, now.) and they issued a tornado warning. My room was in the basement, so I didn't have to go far for shelter, I was sick that day and my classmates (fucking idiots) were stuck at school for 3 hours after it was supposed to end.
Having sex with a whole herd of sheep.
I lived in East Tennessee at the time and fancied myself something of a YouTuber at the time, so I spent the afternoon making severe weather videos with updates. I think my county was under either a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning for five or six hours straight and we also had major flooding in our area due to the training nature of the storms. Luckily, there were no tornadoes in my immediate area and we had nothing worse than heavy rain.
Sorry for the bump. Was the New England tornado around that time the same as the one you are talking about? I remember a lot of wind. Not much else. I was 7 or 8.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 11, 2017, 10:55:18 PM
Sorry for the bump. Was the New England tornado around that time the same as the one you are talking about? I remember a lot of wind. Not much else. I was 7 or 8.
June 1st, 2011.
EF0: Fiskdale
EF0: North Brimfield
EF1: Bethel
EF1: Embden
EF1: Wilbraham
EF3: Hampden and Worcester
Springfield: High end EF3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_New_England_tornado_outbreak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_New_England_tornado_outbreak)
Quote from: ET21 on May 12, 2017, 09:35:04 AM
EF0: Fiskdale
EF0: North Brimfield
EF1: Bethel
EF1: Embden
EF1: Wilbraham
EF3: Hampden and Worcester
This seems a bit misleading. "Hampden and Worcester" refers to counties (Hampden, MA and Worcester, MA are nowhere near adjacent), while the others refer to towns or villages within towns.
Quote from: 1 on May 12, 2017, 09:45:31 AM
Quote from: ET21 on May 12, 2017, 09:35:04 AM
EF0: Fiskdale
EF0: North Brimfield
EF1: Bethel
EF1: Embden
EF1: Wilbraham
EF3: Hampden and Worcester
This seems a bit misleading. "Hampden and Worcester" refers to counties (Hampden, MA and Worcester, MA are nowhere near adjacent), while the others refer to towns or villages within towns.
Ahhh I mistyped. The towns were Westfield and the Charlton area
At Chicago at the time heard it on the news
Around these parts, it was July 10, 1989. A couple of F2's and an F4 in surrounding towns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Northeastern_United_States_tornado_outbreak
I was in NJ on the field at Giants Stadium for a concert while all of this was hitting, which would have put me a few miles south of the Garfield-Fort Lee F0. If one bolt ever hit that field, me and 40,000 others might not be here today.
If I recall correctly, I was out on a field exercise in the boonies of Ft. Bragg. In the previous outbreak two weeks before, an EF-3 tornado had hit parts of Jacksonville (NC) and Camp Lejeune while I was out in Wilmington having my 21st birthday party.
I was working. I have emails to prove it.
Seattle doesn't get tornadoes... just the occasional dust whirly.
I was working, three weeks into my new job in Arizona. Didn't hear about the tornadoes.
I was having a bad day, though not quite as bad as the previous days (26/4/2011 will always be remembered as an exceptional level of suck for me). Weather was cold and cloudy around here.