The tornado chaser thread got me thinking about one of these Oh Shiite moments I had several years ago
I was elk/bear/mule deer hunting in WA
While sitting in a spot known for blackies to frequent I hear this moaning roaring sound way up in the mountains and the wind picked up rather quickly
It dawned on me that the sound was a tornado coming down that valley right at me
I get out to the trail headed towards the cabin…I’m on foot… when I start getting pelted with small limbs, leaves and pine needles
Needless to say but I picked up the pace beyond my ability because I can’t run worth a crap
I hear tree falling behind me when I make it to the fork and am about to take the right fork when a big tree drops beside me blocking the trail
Yes I definitely caught another gear that I didn’t know I had and went to come into the side of the cabin and had two more trees to fall parallel to the trail beside me
The cabin is surrounded by a 5 strand barb wire fence to keep out free range cattle
To this day I don’t know if I went through the fence or over it but I made it to the cabin unscathed
It wasn’t a tornado but it was straight line winds and did a lot of damage in that valley
Scared the crap out of me

April 27, 2011. Was in the middle of the EF-5 that came through Marion county. As stated in the other thread, God is the only reason my grandmother and I made it out alive. Can’t really explain the situation as it was a chaotic time lapse.

A storm that came blasting down the Clearwater River in Idaho was the scariest weather moment for me. There were 4 of us sleeping in a little bunkhouse that had a wood stove for heat. It was the middle of the night and all of a sudden we were awakened to the sound of 100 plus mph winds and huge trees snapping and coming down all around us. It was obvious one was going to hit the bunkhouse any moment. Sure enough, a massive fir tree hits the corner of the bunkhouse just feet from OlTimer's head. It shook the ground and bounced us all out of our bunks. All of this happened in just a few seconds. We all went running out into the night to find a place away from those trees. By the grace of God, nobody was hurt. Right on the heels of those winds was plunging temps and a snowstorm. I remember standing out in the open in my underwear in that frigid hell and was as happy and relieved as I could be. I have been in much worse weather but being in the pitch black and hearing those massive trees coming down rapid fire was scary.

Back in mid 90’s my brother and his wife both had to go out of town for work and asked if I’d stay with their three kids at heir place. Mobile home, naturally. Tornado came through about 7:00 am. I got the kids up and threw them in the truck and took off to my uncle’s about a half mile away. Trees falling everywhere. After the storm, we headed back to my brothers place and couldn’t figure out what the pink snow was that we’re weee seeing on the way. Turned out to be insulation. Tornado hit the trailer next to there’s and completely destroyed it.

It wasn’t scary at the time until I realized what happened

At back in the 80s weather was forcast that a very strong system was coming in midday to afternoon. It was earlybduck season and I called my buddies and we’d figured ducks would hit the timber. I told them I’d go to the swamp and gather the decoys and meet them in that timber hole. I paddled out to the blind and was gathering the dekes when it hit. A small tornado took out Otha’s barn trees etc. I grabbed a hold to the blind and rode it out. Ducks were everywhere, the swamp was white capping. Most of Otha’s barn and trees were in the swamp. The field barrel were there too. Took forever to get back to bank from all the debris. It was cool but scary afterwards. Buddies never made it because of the trees down on the roads. Was late getting home that evening.

There were other times while duck hunting and not being properly prepared for the sudden freezing temps. I’d say we’d been lucky several times

April 27 2011 missed me by 800 yards. I still hear that freight train sound.

About how far it missed me, had my daughter's tied together in car seats in a bathtub...that was the scariest
Ive been really close to 2 others ones, I watched a line of trees go down out my window few years ago, and one in highschool,that was a big one that left a bed and a grill in our yard

Trying to cross the inter coastal near NAS Pensacola after a duck hunt in a 16 foot aluminum boat, been across it a many times, but one day even the dog headed for the bottom of the boat. 3 hunters, 130 or so decoys, guns/gear and severe waves . This was before cell phones, we just had a small am/fm with weather radio. It came on us quick, but it stayed. It wasn’t a squall, it was a true northeaster blowing threw.

March 1974. I was 6 years old and we were living in a mobile home on Rice Mine Road in Tuscaloosa County. I was awakened in the middle of the night by my mom literally dragging me out of the bed. Just as we got to the hallway a tornado hit the trailer and barrel rolled it about 70 yards. She had gotten my brother up just before me and a pine tree ripped his room in half. The mattresses from my bed were found over a 150 yards across the road in a field. My beagle woke my mom up going crazy out in the yard. She went to the back door and opened it up to check on him and saw the tornado coming. She said it was glowing. My mom wound up with a pretty bad concussion and the rest of us made it out with some scrapes, bruises and splinters. My beagle got injured pretty bad and my dad had to put him down later that day when he found him.

02 one came over my house taking some shingles, went 1/4 mile to my brothers and almost took the front wall off of his house.
Went another 1/4 mile and hit a double wide and killed some people here in Kennedy. My dad and I were standing in front porch watching the rotation but thankfully it didn’t fully set down on us.

I have had a lot of bad deals in my early days duck hunting. But, April 27, 2011 will live in my mind as long as I am here.

Had one time we were in sandpits on Neely. Cold as hell when the front dropped on us started snowing like hell. Absolute perfect conditions. This is the days before a lot of Geese were around. Flock came over us 2 of us managed to knock down several. I hit the boat to go and get one. After 5 shots and it running on land, I killed it. My hands were so cold I could not pick the goose up. No feeling in my fingers. I had to just grab it with my wrists. It took over a month for me to get all the feeling back in my fingers.

I watched the Tuscaloosa 4/27 tornado pass within about 300yds of me. Puckered up is an understatement

1995 in Cullman. Tornado came within 400 yards of our construction site and pounded us with baseball sized hail hail.

Nothing on land but have experienced some wicked weather offshore. Most recently was the previous summer. My crew didn’t take it too serious until I told them to get the life raft, epirb and life jackets.

4/27/11 - Daughter was a student at UA. The wife called me at work earlier in the afternoon and said Tuscaloosa was expecting to be hit by a large tornado. I called my daughter when I got home and she said her and her room mates were in a utility closet on the first floor of their apartment at University Downs on the north side of 15th street as a tornado had touched down west of town. As I was talking to her she said "Daddy I hear it" and the phone went dead. My wife had showed up by then and we tried to call but could not get thru. All this was happening as we were watching James Spann on the news showing the massive funnel going right were our daughter was taking shelter. We were both praying and the wife sobbing. I kept texting over and over "Are you OK?" and she finally answered "I am OK". The funnel probably missed her a few hundred yards to the south and had heavily damaged the units closer to 15th street. It had sucked the door open on their utility room and she said the sound is one she will never forget. She called when she was walking out to a friends aunts house and said "Tuscaloosa is gone!" She got a ride home with a friend as she could not get her car out. It was days before she could get back to her apartment.

We were 70 miles offshore when a storm hit with 70 mph winds. Waves filled the boat up nearly knee high a couple times. We all had life jackets on and had a rope tied to each of us. Four boats sunk during that storm!

Hail that size would be a nightmare.

1986. Fifty or so miles south of Orange Beach while work on the Island Girl. Ain’t nothing more scarier than knowing you’re going to die and no where to run. Captain Dan Negus passed away a couple weeks ago, and that was one of the last “ oh F#%!!ck” stories we talked about.

4/27/2011. I watched the F5 from my back porch. Shingles and insulation were landing in my yard and the sky was green. Strange feeling and that tornado was just roaring. Seemed like it was 10 miles wide

We've had 2 tornadoes touch down on our farm since we moved here in 1983. 4/27/11 I saw 6 tornadoes and/or funnel clouds that day while visiting chicken farms. Saw the 7th from our front window after I got home that day. It was the one that skirted the brow of the mountain off Hwy 79 south of Guntersville. Never seen a day like that before, and hope I never do again. I found 2 pictures of black girls dressed in school uniforms that next June in our hay field, while cutting hay. No idea how far those had to fly in the air, but they weren't from anywhere around here. Likely from B'ham or Tuscaloosa.

But the most scared of my life I've ever been was when I was 18 or 19. A buddy of mine and I were fishing on lake Guntersville. We put in at the ramp on 431 at the bottom of the mountain as you go into Guntersville from Albertville. We rode in the boat from there, way up into Browns Creek. We fished for a while, then I noticed when we'd cast, that our line would stay suspended in the air for an unusually long time after casting. I didn't know what that meant, until that day. It wasn't long until a black wall of clouds came over the top of Brindlee mountain. Lighting was popping the lake all around us. We rolled em up as quick as we could and started back. I don't know how strong the winds were, but there were 5-6 foot waves on the big water between the big river bridge and Hwy 69. We were in my friends, dads, bass boat. It was a glass boat, but only 16' long. My friend had no idea how to drive a boat in those conditions, and I'm not sure anyone has any idea of how to drive a boat that small in those conditions. I was yelling at him to beach the boat. He kept yelling back that his dad would kill him if he did. I laid down in the bottom of the boat, so I wouldn't get tossed out. We finally got slightly ahead of it when we came past the feed mills. It never rained a drop on us, but the boat was about half full of water when we got back to the ramp. My little Toyota would barely pull it up the mountain. There was still water draining from the boat when we got back to my house. We were lucky to survive that.