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

[Rothman]

The tornado I experienced blew through my  own neighborhood.  My house wasn't affected, but it destroyed homes on the same street.  One house, despite having its walls blown outward and the roof collapsing, still had a mostly set dining table intact.  Bizarre sight.

[Eth]

I've been in close proximity (~1-2 miles) to tornadoes twice: the one that hit Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2005 and the one that hit the Georgia Dome in 2008, though I wasn't really in immediate danger from either.

[robbones]

I remember the April 1996 tornado that hit Fort Smith and Van Buren, Arkansas which destroyed the little community of Fern in NW Franklin County. I lived about 3 miles from the path of the storm. I also been through Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Isaac when I lived in Mississippi.

LGL64VL

[Flint1979]

Coming home from Detroit one February morning in 2002 I got stuck in a snow storm that prevented me from leaving the city of Detroit at the time. I remember doing two slides on I-75 in Oakland County, the first one happened in Troy and I was fine and regained control of my car, the second one was a little more challenging it was between M-59 and M-24 (the exit where the Palace of Auburn Hills is) I slid off of I-75 to the right and just missed taking a pole out during my slide off, it took me about 20 minutes to rock my car back up onto the highway and take off again. I'm pretty sure I made it the rest of the way home without sliding again.

Another time when I was a kid my dad had rental units in Mt. Pleasant and we were coming home from Mt. Pleasant with a trailer of trash for some reason and it rained so hard that you couldn't see in front of you at all. I can remember stopping under a bridge and waiting for the rain to let up which it did about a half hour later.

I've probably been in worse but those are two that I remember well.

[freebrickproductions]

April 27th, 2011. No tornadoes came near my house, but the Tennessee Valley was one of the hardest hit areas on that day by the storms.

[ET21]

Groundhogs Day Blizzard, and I chased to Rochelle/Fairdale tornado but was never in it's direct path.

[Jim]

I've been through lots of severe weather in many of its forms, but I don't recall ever feeling that my life was in danger from weather.  The most dangerous weather I've traveled in was probably some ridiculously dense fog in Pennsylvania within the first few years after I started driving.  The most risky probably would be some drives in heavy snow or into other foggy areas, but nothing in particular stands out.  I have not had need to be out traveling at the height of any of the real blizzards we've had.  The most intense thunderstorm drive I can recall was probably on I-95 in southeastern Georgia late in the evening in early January I think in 1999.  I was driving (slowly) through some very heavy rain with wind and frequent lightning.  I later found out that that storm dropped a tornado that crossed I-95, but I don't believe any cars were damaged.  I did not see a tornado.

[kphoger]

There was a tornado in Wichita a few years ago that was heading straight for us, then it took a right turn just a few miles from our house.  Other than that, I don't have much to report.

[kphoger]

There was one time I decided to take my chances with a tornado.  It was blowing heavy rain with severe weather in the area, and I was making a delivery at the General Dynamics facility in southern Illinois.  While I was there, the tornado sirens started going off, and workers started running around for shelter.  If you don't know what General Dynamics is, they make military ordnance; I was surrounded by things that go boom, including some serious stuff like ordnance for the B-1 bomber.  They offered to me that I could hunker down in their shelter.  I said no thanks.  Felt safer outside the gate than in.

[hotdogPi]

I haven't had anything that bad. The worst I remember was being locked inside the house for one day because snow was blocking every door.



Side note:

Most of the United States can have major blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes, or it can have extreme heat. The place without any of these as a frequent occurrence: WV/KY/TN, plus SWVA. If this is the case, why are WV and eastern KY losing population, or gaining population so much slower than the rest of the nation?

[intelati49]

We literally drove out of Joplin during a Tornado Outbreak (2003)

My ears were popping at the house even though we were miles away from any of the tornado.

My parents have me beat though. They were watching a movie and were a half mile from a tornado.

I have an aunt who had a run-in with a tornado in 1975. She was living in that same apartment until the 2000s. She died in a nursing home in the 2011 Joplin tornado.

[triplemultiplex]

A severe thunderstorm that rolled through the boy scout camp I was attending.  Lightning struck a tree just a few dozen meters from where literally hundreds of us children were sitting there outdoors around a large bonfire.  It was a mad dash through torrential rain to reach shelter.  By the time we got there, it was pretty much over.  No one was hurt and most of us thought it was pretty cool, but some kids were a little freaked out.

In retrospect, they narrowly avoided a mass casualty situation at that camp.

It's the kind of thing that's never going to sneak up on a group these days since everyone has a supercomputer in their pocket.

[KEVIN_224]

A severe t-storm with cloud-to-ground lightning here one summer day in New Britain, CT. One bolt struck barely a block to our west. I swear I could hear a buzzing sound as if the electricity was charging up, getting ready to strike.

We had fringe effect of Hurricanes Gloria (1985), Irene (August 2011) and Sandy (October 2012). We had a huge blizzard in February of 2013. A freak tornado tore through Windsor Locks, CT on October 3, 1979. A big portion of the Bradley Air Museum near the airport was destroyed. I was pulled out of third grade classes by my mother early that afternoon.

[Pete from Boston]

Probably either Hurricane David in 1979, or the October snowstorm of 2011, both in New Jersey.  Both involved many massive trees falling all around.  The latter was more sudden and unexpected and scary, honestly.  Sounded like a war was going on nearby with crashes and booms ongoing.

[HazMatt]

Hugo in 1989.  We got off easy and just had to go without power for 3-4 days.  I remember our neighbor had a tree fall into their bathroom while they were using it.  Overall an interesting birthday.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

A hailstorm that caught me outside.

[wxfree]

I've been within a few miles of quite a few tornadoes.  Some of those storms stand out in my memory, but the one I've always remembered as being the worst at my location didn't produce tornadoes, it was a hail and wind storm.  I believe it was May 5, 1989.  I think of it as the worst because hail is louder than wind, and this storm produced an obscene amount of hail, and not for a short time.  It woke me up with the first few hail stones, then the floodgates opened.  I'd never heard anything like it, and never have since.  I walked around looking out the windows; I was always fascinated by storms.  Wind gusts over 100 were measured in the area and I remember hearing the house groan under the strain.  The hail intensity reduced and I fell asleep beside a window watching stuff blowing around outside.  A little later was the first tornadic storm I remember.  All I saw was wind and rain, but I got to hear the tornado sirens.

[Interstate 69 Fan]

March 2, 2012 Tornado outbreak

[NWI_Irish96]

March 2, 2012 Tornado outbreak

So I was about 20 miles from the worst of those tornadoes when it hit Henryville, IN.  That's the closest I've ever been to an F2 or greater tornado.  I'm not sure I consider it an event that I survived since I wasn't actually in danger from it.

I drove through the massive southeastern winter storm in March 1993 and was probably in more danger than I realized.  I would call that the worst event I survived.

[kphoger]

Side topic:  What was the most severe weather event you didn't survive?   

[vdeane]

I didn't know the dead had forum accounts.

[webny99]

I didn't know the dead had forum accounts.

Linda Of Green Gables says hello 

[SectorZ]

I've never had the privilege of being in anything too horrible, which for someone with a meteorology degree like me is a tad depressing. During the 6/1/11 tornado 'outbreak' around here, there was a probable funnel cloud (hard to tell due to obscuring rainfall) that went almost directly over my home prior home in Fitchburg MA. Radar confirmed the signature of a tornado and we had an active tornado warning out for the storm. So, that close to having a tornado make a direct hit to my house.

Of course, I was watching it from within my garage...

[formulanone]

Hurricane Wilma in October 2005: leaky roof (thankfully a far corner of the house), damaged patio, loss of seven trees, two large rose bushes, one car window, and without power for 11 days.

One big mess, but we made it. Never ran out of food, water, nor needed to deal with long gas lines. Friends and family helped out with clean-up, and there were tons of great experiences that change your perspectives and make for some great stories or lessons.

After the initial shock, the biggest annoyances was the aftermath of missing traffic lights, impatient four-way-stoppers, and dodging debris for a week or so. But the greatest groans came from driving home from work and seeing preceding streets get their power back before you did!

[gonealookin]

I have never been anywhere near a tornado, nor a hurricane.  I did get bounced around in the 1989 "World Series" earthquake in the SF Bay Area but that's a separate topic.

Around Lake Tahoe we have our blizzards, but summer thunderstorms can be worse.  One of the worst recent episodes was in July 2014.  The Carson Valley just over the ridge to the east was hit by some severe flooding.  This video was shot just east of Gardnerville, NV, showing a flash flood coming out of the Pine Nuts.  It was this sort of episode I had in mind when I posted in the US 101-Montecito CA thread expressing concern about the excavated, below-grade portion of I-580 a few miles north of this in Carson City.

https://youtu.be/Is70zxH8_eY

(I'm not "JT Humphrey" who posted the video.)