The "Mother of all Thunderstorms"

[Power Wagon]

There's been one going on unsteadily now for just under 5 hours. I don't recall having been in one like this before. At 4:45 AM, it was going strong, with multiple lightning strikes and rain coming down so hard it was coming off the house roof like a waterfall. It has been at least raining or having distant thunder ever since, and now it's 9:15, with the latest run at us resulting in rain so hard it wasn't even running off the street, just appearing to be solid water.



I've been in more violent storms, I've been in storms with more rain, but never do I recall a storm in this area that simply refused to end, and kept coming back, and coming back, and coming back...



What's the worst thunderstorm you have been in, where and when was it? And, did it result in anything close to danger or loss for you?

 

[EMDDIESEL]

We had a nasty thenderstorm here in CT last night, real heavy rain, but it only lasted about an hour. The lights flickered once, i thought sure the power was going to go out.

 

[Happy Camper]

Up in the mountains out of John Day a few years ago just as evening set in a storm was rumbling. Came down the valley, thunder and lightning, not much rain. Went right over us and it went on all night long. Nothing but thunder and streak lightning from left to right as far as you could see. Figured it lightning hit us that would be the luck of the draw.



We had a steady 4hr rain which soaked into the soil and was badly needed. Too bad yours was not more gentel and over a longer period. Probably laid a lot of grain down. Sounds like what we call a cloud burst!

 

[Power Wagon]

I'll find out about the wheat in a little while. If this stupid storm will ever let up, I have to go pick up some parts for the PW and clean up the rest and start putting the heads back on. But, since I am doing it 'shade tree' mechanic style, I'm not even bothering to leave until it looks clear. Not to mention I'm NOT crawling under the PW now... it's muddy under it. Maybe I'll do it Sunday, instead. There wasn't any storms predicted, nor rain, so this was kind of a surprise. I got up and ran outside to shut some car windows and shut the lid on my toolbox at 4:dark this morning... got soaked. Now I see that the D150 had windows open too...



BTW, I'm in Weston, where are you?

 

[SLittle]

The weather service said the "Monsoon" officially started here in Southern Arizona on Tuesday and we had our first good rain yesterday afternoon. One good rain was all it took and the poisonous Colorado River toads came out last night, croaking and singing all night long. Fished two out of the pool at 4am and sealed up the back yard so the dogs don't chew on them.



If we get another rain today the ants and termites will come out of the ground in clouds with their wings on going everywhere. I usually wind up with a solid layer of wings floating in the pool.



The monsoon storms are a blast though, I work on the sixth floor of my building and watch the storms come from the south and move across town, a couple years ago I could see three different palm trees burning from the lightning strikes and there was a small funnel cloud that started but never touched down. Gotta love mother nature.



Scott

 

[ETOBICOKE]

Storm

We had several heavy storm fronts come through Southern Ontario on Wednesday. Had heavy rain for several hours, but only some minor flooding. There was a fair bit of wind damage in the city, the usual downed trees and a few small tornados outside the city. Was a strange week heavy winds most of the time since Sunday morning, plenty of micro bursts as well.



Neil

 

[Happy Camper]

Power Wagon! Prairie City, 13 miles east of John Day.

 

[Randy J]

3 years ago in October we had the "500 year" flood here in San Antonio. Started raining hard about midnight. I got up several times to make sure everything was all right. I was ok till about 7am. Shortly thereafter water about 2 feet high was going by my sliding door (and it was full of cow manure from the pasture behind me). The flap on the dog door in the back of the garage was standing straight out as water rushed through and out the front of the garage. We pulled carpet back and tried to soak up as much as we could with the wet/dry vac, but gave up after about 1 hour. We ended up with about 24 inches of rain in 24 hours. Completly unexpected, the storm just kept circling around the city. Still not as bad as Houston though.

 

[JConley]

Worst storm I have been in resulted in an F-5 tornado that hit the central Texas town of Jerrell about 4 years ago. This tornado wiped a subdivision off the map. This tornado left no debris other than bare concrete foundations where the subdivision once stood. A lot of people lost there lives.

 

[Bob Beauchaine]

While traveling across country in the 70's (1970's that is) my boys and I ran into one h#&& of a storm in Nebraska. It was at night so it had a spectacular lightning show. At one point we had to stop under an overpass because it was raining so hard the wipers couldn't keep up. Lightning would start at one side of the horizon and work it's way to the other side then start all over again. This went on for about 4 hours and I assumed we were just running with the storm. BTW I was pulling a 16' single axle trailer without any problems.

Happy Trails

 

[JBell]

T storms

Originally posted by EMDDIESEL

We had a nasty thenderstorm here in CT last night, real heavy rain, but it only lasted about an hour. The lights flickered once, i th

ought sure the power was going to go out.

Hi ,

The mother of all t storms hit Houston about 2 weeks ago. It rained very hard over a wide area(100miles by 50 miles). As a result 25000 homes recieved flood water. Lo and behold the city of Houston put the word out that no one will do repairs without a permit. If the repairs come up to a certain percentage of the value of the house, the house can not be repaired and will be condemed. It seems that Uncle Sam has gotten involved.

JBell

Houston

 

[Steve M]

A week ago last Wednesday my wife called from work to say it was storming pretty bad and she was going to pick up the girls from the girls club and head home. It was just getting cloudy and dark over me so I thought I'd stop at the store and pick up some meat for supper. No sooner did I park and the sky cut loose. Thunder and lightning with small hail. my wife called a few minutes later to say her car had stalled in deep water behind other stalled cars. Then she started getting scared. Water was coming in the car and the girls were going ballistic. The car was trying to float and when a truck passed them, the wake pushed them into deeper water. I scurried on over with my Ram to the rescue and it was over the axles deep on the Ram. She opened her car door and she was sitting in water. They all piled out of the car and climed in my truck sopping wet with lightning all around. We went home to no power and waited a couple of hours for the storm to pass and then waited for the flood to recede so we could go push the car home three blocks from the house. It's at the Chrysler shop now waiting on a new motor and interior. Meanwhile, we traded the wet Stratus and my 98 Ram for a 2001 Ram and Durango so she'd be alittle higher off the ground for the next deluge. The Dodge folks will pick up their trade as soon as it's repaired. The Dodge dealership has been fantistic with helping us trade the wet Stratus. I like to hear the summer thunderstorms as they pass but this one was unusually strong and damaging.

 

[Archive]

PW... I was up at my onery father-in-law's place for your storm. Beautiful site, but glad I am not a farmer and have to worry about those kinds of things.



Mother Nature is very powerful!



PS... Vaughn came up... why didn't you???

 

[Power Wagon]

I didn't know you were there?



I still don't know where your place is... I'd like to check out the area sometime



Mark

 

[Archive]

Mark... check your private messages!

 

[John Berger]

They get pretty nasty down this way. The nice thing about them is that they normally are done and gone in less than an hour. We usually have to watch for tornadoes when the really bad ones roll in. I have a NOAA radio that I always keep on, just in case.