What would you claim to be the most severe weather event you survived?

[Hurricane Rex]

Portland is boring, we don't have sever weather however on June 2008, 60 mph suatained winds were reported in my home town with gusts in the 80s. Thunder every 30 seconds or less. No tornados but the sky was still brown (only time I've seen it that way). Ironically the ice cream truck was out 2 hours before this hit.

[jeffandnicole]

The macroburst we had about 3 years ago. We didn't lose electric, although much of the surrounding area lost it for up to 5 or 6 days! We even stayed outside in our gazebo tent with the sides down not realizing how bad it was! Our fence was hit with a large limb, and debris was scattered everywhere.

I may even argue this was worse than Sandy in our area (we were in Florida at the time of that storm ironically).

[Brandon]

This

[GaryV]

Probably a snow storm we had in Holland, MI when I was in college (just a "few" years back). It started snowing Wednesday night.  Thursday morning I got up and looked out, and knew my visiting prof wasn't going to make the morning class, so I went back to bed.  By the time I got up again, school was closed.

The area was shut down with a total driving ban until Sunday.  (Rumor has it that they really weren't prepared to lift the ban, but they knew the stalwart Hollanders would go to church anyway, and they didn't want to force churchgoers into being lawbreakers.)  The National Guard was called out to rescue people stranded on the highways.

Guys in our dorm were jumping off the 2nd floor balcony into the snow below.  Great fun.  Until someone remembered that somewhere down there was a bike rack that we couldn't see in the snow.

Parking was limited to one side of residential streets for the rest of the winter, until the snow piles finally melted.

A few years later when I moved to the Detroit area, the city issued a "Red Alert Snow Emergency".  Since I had to drive in Detroit to work, I figured I had to stay home that day.  But about 10:30 or so it seemed it wasn't so bad out, so I drove in anyway.  I found out that in Detroit a "Red Alert" meant you couldn't park on the street.  Not like the alerts I was used to from growing up in West Michigan - that unless you were in labor or a doctor headed for the hospital, you were going to be arrested and your car impounded.

[NE2]

[Max Rockatansky]

Hurricane Bob, I wouldn't classify it as "survival"  though...more annoying and loud.  I was snowbound in my home in Connecticut for about a week after a Nor'easter and I was stuck in Show Low, Arizona for three days following a blizzard either in 2011 or 2012.  Back in 2011 I was snowbound in Willcox, AZ and actually drove through the first clear day to Ruidoso in New Mexico on an ice coated US 70 in the Sierra Blancas.  Back in 2014 a tropical depression started  forming over Key West and had to drive 20 miles home to a high horse power RWD car on a flooded US 1.  Back in 2010 there was a severe hail storm during a monsoon that knocked out a couple pedestrians, I rode it out under a tree while the golf ball stuff came down.  The basement that I was living in flooded overnight during heavy storms in Central Michigan in the late 1990s, fhat was fun wading through to get to the stairs.  Again, none of this I would teen as "survival"  but rather most annoying or tedious. 

Edit:   Probably the most dangerous road trip I did was back in February of 2013 when I went to all 5 National Parks in Utah and Great Basin National Park in Nevada.  There has been a blizzard the week prior and there was at least 2 feet of snow surrounding the roads above 6,000 feet.  The lowest temperature I encountered was -14F near the Nevada State Line.  All the parks except Zion had snow/compacted ice on the roads.  Really I should have been using chains but the only park where I ended up using them briefly was Arches.  I ended up getting a bad tank of gas near Capitol Reef but I didn't stall out and kept going on UT 24 all the way to Green River before I filled up with 91 octane. Really that was one of the most stupid things I willingly subjected myself to knowing full what I was getting into.  That said, it really was worth seeing the Colorado Plateau covered in snow and I was moving to Florida which meant I wasn't sure when I would get another chance to see those parks. 

[index]

Either the 2011 Super Outbreak (or one of the various other Southern outbreaks in early 2011) or the June 2012 Super Derecho.

For the latter, I was in Northern Va. at the time and I was staying at my grandfather's house before taking a flight out of IAD. The storm completely knocked power out overnight, and in the morning there were branches the length of box trucks and about 1-2 feet thick littering the ground. That one was the probably the worst out of them all for me, in terms of firsthand experience.

[MNHighwayMan]

1991 Halloween blizzard, although going by official records I technically wasn't alive yet.

Edit to add Wiki link.

[02 Park Ave]

I just survived a Bombogenesis this week.

[jeffandnicole]

I just survived a Bombogenesis this week.

Which is funny because the actual 'bomb' didn't affect us one bit.  It was basically a 3 inch snowfall, compounded with a windy day and cold temps.  If this was a clipper system, it wouldn't get anywhere near the coverage without the fancy name.

[MNHighwayMan]

I just survived a Bombogenesis this week.

Which is funny because the actual 'bomb' didn't affect us one bit.  It was basically a 3 inch snowfall, compounded with a windy day and cold temps.  If this was a clipper system, it wouldn't get anywhere near the coverage without the fancy name.

Which I find funny because this forum is honestly the first place I'd ever seen the word. (And I wasn't quite certain, at first, that it wasn't some nonsense someone like NE2 would make up. )

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^^^

Love the new sig.   

[MNHighwayMan]

I just survived a Bombogenesis this week.

Which is funny because the actual 'bomb' didn't affect us one bit.  It was basically a 3 inch snowfall, compounded with a windy day and cold temps.  If this was a clipper system, it wouldn't get anywhere near the coverage without the fancy name.

Which I find funny because this forum is honestly the first place I'd ever seen the word. (And I wasn't quite certain, at first, that it wasn't some nonsense someone like NE2 would make up. )

Love the new sig.   

[jp the roadgeek]

I don't remember the Blizzard of '78.  The two that I remember were Hurricane Gloria in 1985, and the July 10, 1989 tornado outbreak.  For the latter, I was at a concert at Giants Stadium in NJ, and the field had about 3" of water on it with lightning all around and an F0 tornado touched down nearby (an F2 and an F4 hit about 20 miles from my home in CT).  Between sets, they were telling everyone to clear the field as we all booed.  It was a crazy night.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Northeastern_United_States_tornado_outbreak

[MikeTheActuary]

I don't know how you define worst, but in my life:

- I remember the Blizzard of 78, but wasn't old enough to appreciate the regional impact
- I've been in seven tornadoes
- Hurricane Opal was kind of fun (I lived near the path, about where it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm)
- Snowtober (Halloween nor'easter of 2011) was not

One of the tornadoes, which removed the roof of the building I was in and generally created a mess, probably counts as "most damage to happen in my immediate vicinity".  However Snowtober...being without power for over a week, listening to trees snapping and hearing big branches falling all night, evacuating bedroom when realizing that a tree was about to go (missed the house by inches)...the experience was impressive.

[D-Dey65]

I don't remember the Blizzard of '78.  The two that I remember were Hurricane Gloria in 1985, and the July 10, 1989 tornado outbreak.

I remember both Blizzards of '78 (January 20, and the much more infamous one), as well as an ice storm in between the two. For hurricanes my memories include Belle (1976), Gloria (1985), and Bob (1991) on Long Island, and three of the four big Florida hurricanes of 2004, as well as Hurricane Irma last year. For some crazy reason, I don't remember Hurricane Agnes or the Ice Storm of 1973, and I would've remembered something like that.

I do remember the 1974 Super Outbreak. Not because it gave Long Island any tornadoes, but because we got the tail end of it... that and I saw footage of it on the news. Evidently that storm brought us thunderstorms that were so severe, that it took me a little longer to get over my childhood fear of thunder, which I found embarrassing at the age of eight.

The Buffalo Blizzard of '77 , which I also only saw on the news, was also part of a severe winter that brought snow to the tri-state area, and even into Florida. This was the first time in my life I saw snow as a threat. Even the "Lindsay Snowstorm" of '69 didn't do that for me. 

After '78, the only blizzards for me were the Yankee Opening Day Blizzard of '82, the March Blizzard of '83, the "Storm of the Century" in '93, the big blizzard of '96, a long forgotten one from December 2005, and Winter Storm Stella from last March.


One other storm that brought tornadoes to the Berkshires in Massachusetts in the 1990's had a lesser impact on Long Island. I actually remember I was out at a shopping center in Farmingville, and one of the signs to a laundromat was flapping around in the wind, while still sticking to the frame on the building. I had my old Toyota Van at the time, and I offered to catch the thing before it could break loose, and they begged me to do it. I stood on the rear bumper of my van, where I managed to catch one corner, then I caught the other and it landed on my head. I brought it down and gave it to the manager who told me their landlord was taking too long to get them a new sign. They gave me something for free, but I can't remember what it was. Maybe a cup of coffee or something like that.

Beyond that, there have been storms on Long Island and in Florida that I've been through which spawned tornadoes, but I've never had any encounters with those tornadoes.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

[SSOWorld]

Tornado through the UW-Platteville campus 1/2 mile north of me.  The loud A/C drowned the sound of it but a brown-out occurred in the apartment.  the warning was a severe thunderstorm warning.  The NWS did not issue a tornado warning because the storm had been dissipating prior to its arrival, then it bowed out right before arrival and dropped the twister 2 miles west of the city.  Had the twister be 1/2 mile further south, I would have been taken flight with my stuff and probably killed.  The overnight reports had shown some photos that with power out in the entire city did not indicate tornado damage and the indication was wind damage.  The next morning I drove into the area and when first seeing the mangled trees, buildings, and lines, thought - if it were not determined to be tornadic,  the NWS was definitely on drugs.

EF2 strength.  An EF1 also touch down in the city and cut through the golf course.  The EF2 seriously damage 5 campus buildings and destroyed homes and businesses east of there.  5 injuries, 1 seriously (had been thrown from apartment's top floor)

[Roadgeekteen]

Hurricane Sandy.

[LM117]

Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. We were living in Warsaw, NC at the time. Nearly all of eastern NC was under water. Our whole yard got flooded and was nearly a foot deep. The water line breaking in the ditch across from our house didn't help either. I was 10 years old back then.

A lot of the rivers reached 500-year flood levels. 17 years later, Hurricane Matthew did more damage than Floyd.

I remember there was a lot of anger directed towards Raleigh from those along the Neuse River in eastern NC at the time because of the dam openings at Falls Lake, which is the source of the Neuse River. A lot of people never forgot it, especially the old timers.

[Roadgeekteen]

How old are you?

[hotdogPi]

How old are you?

He's 9. He used to be either 1000 or -1000 (I forget which).

[Roadgeekteen]

How old are you?

He's 9. He used to be either 1000 or -1000 (I forget which).

1000. He is not really 9 right?

[hotdogPi]

How old are you?

He's 9. He used to be either 1000 or -1000 (I forget which).

1000. He is not really 9 right?

No. He became 9 years old to parody dzlsabe, who was supposedly 9 (and then later turned 10) (he was definitely of driving age though).

[Rothman]

Tornado, Bloomington, IN, 1978.

[Buck87]

Tornado/high winds from a storm in July of 2013. The closest confirmed tornado was about a mile from me, but there was wind damage all over town, including a 50 foot pine tree that went down in my front yard and luckily missed the house.