Storms/Tornados

[FL-JOE]

We made preparations today for the severe weather event which is taking place in southwestern Alabama this evening.  The leading edge, which is nearing Mobile, has been producing some tornadoes today.  We are thrilled that the rural CG we are staying in has a office/community building that is built out of block and not stick built.  No basement of course but still better than staying in an RV.

We learned some valuable lessons first hand back in November 2013 when camped outside of Washington Illinois when a EF4 about destroyed that whole town.  We certainly take these warnings seriously.

For us, as you travel the country these severe weather events are the biggest down side of being full time.   I hope everyone out there who is in the path of this storm stays safe.

[rockintom]

In our 13 years of FTing we came on to tornado warnings about 3 times. We took them seriously and paid attention with the weather radio and the park managers. We were amazed of how few RVers in the parks take it seriously. Once near the shore line of the Outter Banks of NC we had 2 tornadoes touch down withing 5 miles of the rural park. We got our safety box, computers, and overnight bags and went to the "shelter" to meet with the managers/owners. There were maybe 4 other couples that joined us and we watched the TV news for the latest on the storm. I was amazed that so many just stayed in their rigs. All was well and we went back in about an hour. We were in South TX once with a major hail storm near San Antonio in the spring.  Holy crap, I thought the stuff was gonna come in the slide roofs, but it didn't. There were 65 MPH gusts of wind which we got close to leave the rig.....but all was well there too. End of reminishing.

[2gypsies]

We have also been in some serious storms in Alabama and the worst one was in Oklahoma. 

In OK we were fueling at a truck stop and a bunch were huddled around the TV in the store. It was a weather alert about a tornado. We asked where it was and they said "right here".  They were also predicting orange-size hail. We got into the MH and drove to a nearby underpass where there were cars stacked up seeking shelter.  Soon the highway was void of vehicles and the sky was green. We did have the hail & we were protected but no tornado. Afterwards we found out that getting under a structure like that is bad to do as the tornado wind would make it more dangerous funneling through the area.  The best thing would have been to stay in the store but we were thinking more of the hail.

In Alabama a few times we were in state parks and the rangers came around knocking on doors telling us to head for the restroom, as the safest place.  Everyone showed up with their pets, lawn chair, weather radio, decks of cards, water and snacks and the party began!  They all seemed experienced on the routine. 

[sandsys]

We've sat through a couple warnings and a watch. Once we took to the cinder block bathroom. There was a family room so we were able to stay together there. Another we went to the clubhouse with a few other people. I was also surprised at how many people just stayed in their rigs. For the watch we picked a campground that advertised having a shelter but it never became a warning so we didn't do anything more than check out the shelter just in case.

Linda Sand

[FL-JOE]

Just before it reached us we pulled in our slides.  The local news station hadn't talked about detecting any rotation for over an hour.  The heavy stuff rolled through with no hail and no real high winds.  The park did lose electricity.  We turned on the generator long enough to put the slides back out, then shut everything down and went to bed.

It is still a pretty strong storm moving across to northern Florida.  

[Kirk W]

11 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

For us, as you travel the country these severe weather events are the biggest down side of being full time.   I hope everyone out there who is in the path of this storm stays safe.

1

Having lived most of my life in areas that have tornado threats every spring and has helped with the aftermath of them on several occasions, I don't panic like some folks and over the years had perhaps become a bit too unconcerned by the warnings. About 4 years ago there was a major tornado event that took the two lives and those two were good friends of ours. I helped the couple's children clean up the property and recover what they could and that experience does change your outlook on things.

When I really look back over the many years of severe weather experience, as destructive as a tornado is, the probability of one striking you is pretty low as I am sure that I have taken over more than 1000 times over the past 75 years. In all of those times of taking cover, never have we personally been harmed by a tornado and on only 3 occasions has anyone we actually knew any of the victims. But you do not have to be in a tornado path to have serious damage from thunderstorms. Far more common is destructive hail and that can do damage over a much wider path than any tornadoes. High winds also are more widespread and RVs are much more susceptible to the effects of either of those than permanent buildings. For that reason, we take cover much more quickly while out in our RV. In those same 75 years mostly in areas with severe weather and no damage from tornadoes, we have experienced damage from hail probably a dozen times, and that can be anything from minor roof damage to major destruction. In the worst hail storm I have ever experienced, we had 3 skylights completely broken out and the roof including the decking under it destroyed. We happened to be out of town with our RV for the weekend at the time but a neighbor had a 10-year-old fifth wheel totaled in the same storm. 

My point is that while severe weather doesn't cause us to panic it does cause us to take precautions. Taking cover is a lot like putting on your seat belts before you travel by car. You probably won't really need them, but if you do need them you won't have the opportunity to put them on in time. 

[frater jason]

12 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

For us, as you travel the country these severe weather events are the biggest down side of being full time.  

When I was FT in a travel trailer my ears were calibrated to the sound of emergency sirens.  :-P 

For boondockers in small rigs FTing could be an upside regarding predictable severe weather events.  Vandwellers, for example, tend to watch for and follow good weather because of their limited HVAC.

 

[sandsys]

I'm with Kirk. In spite of living most of our lives in tornado territory the only damage we've ever suffered has been from hail. That doesn't mean we don't take shelter if the radar indicates we are actually in the path this time. But, it has to get fairly close to us before we take shelter because we live in a part of town where storms usually turn north or south of us before they get here. When we were RVing we took shelter sooner because we were not familiar with the trends of those places.

Linda Sand

A green sky is NEVER a good thing.

[jbh]

  You have to get proactive. Let me illustrate..

  Weather  Underground's Nexrad radar plot isn't real exciting but it can designate big hail and vortex signatures without human interpretation.

    A couple of years ago in Texas  we watched a line marching eastward and all of a sudden a vortex popped up on radar upwind of us. Granted the plot was five minutes later and it was _right here_. Before we could do anything the sky turned green and it got a bit nautical.

  It passed over us and about five minutes later it destroyed concrete buildings a few miles away.

  About five minutes more and we saw neighbors duly trudging to the concrete bathhouse. Why? The TV and the weather radio gave them a tornado warning. For what had passed overhead 10 minutes ago!

[sandsys]

1 hour ago, jbh said:

  Weather  Underground's Nexrad radar plot isn't real exciting but it can designate big hail and vortex signatures without human interpretation.

Dave uses that. I stick with NOAA. But Dave is more concerned about hail than I am since he's the one that got caught in a brand new car driving a freeway ramp which means his car got hit by hail on all sides since he was driving in a circle. Turned out he'd have been better off staying parked outside at work than trying to race the storm home so he could park in the garage.

Linda

[FL-JOE]

I have a weather radio and numerous apps on my phone.  During my working career we didn't have those sort of things.  The dispatcher would relay any severe weather threats but you still had to cover your patrol.  I've spent some time in and around about any type of weather conditions you can imagine.  

However, being retired and not really wanting to subject my RV to those conditions I always have a plan.  If given enough warning and it is possible to easily move a hundred or so miles out of the path of approaching severe weather we will.  I avoiding it isn't a possibility, like this last storm that stretched over 1,500 miles long, we locate personal shelter in advance, then prepare the RV and everything else.  

Like Kirk said, no need to panic but you do need to prepare.

[Aggie79-82a]

The Texas Storm Chasers are putting on a Severe Weather Preparedness presentation at the Wagon Master RV Park in Sanger, TX Wednesday night.  The one hour session is free.  Just need at ticket from the office.  DW and I are going.  Not sure if adult beverages are allowed, but they should be part of preparedness. 

[jbh]

  Hail is of course a lot more common and widespread than tornados and it can really tear up an RV.  My weather solution at this point is to just stay in central Florida until sometime in May.

[FL-JOE]

8 hours ago, jbh said:

  Hail is of course a lot more common and widespread than tornados and it can really tear up an RV.  My weather solution at this point is to just stay in central Florida until sometime in May.

That may not be a bad plan!  We are heading over to the panhandle of Florida today to check out a couple CGs in that area.  This last storm from the west seemed to weaken a lot as it got past New Orleans.  

The main reason we didn't stay put at our winter CG in SW Florida for April was because they only lowered their rates about $100 a month.  We are going to check rates for April in other CGs between Ft. Myers and Sarasota as a possibility next year.

[GlennWest]

We got a close call few years ago. some may remember it. We were in Louisiana on River Road. Poche RV. Tornado came right up the river. Rv park is just off the river. We were fine. Just up river where it turned, slammed right into the sister rv park, Sugar Hill. Flattened it. Many of my fellow welders were in that park. One got his back broken. Was one that lost their life. Not a good feeling but there was nothing we could do. Happened too fast.

[jbh]

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/cool-season-tornadoes-are-becoming-more-common-especially-dixie-alley

[Dmitche4]

The only thing we have hit is a "high wind" event on Chinoteague Island VA., I do not remember which storm that was rolling up the Atlantic coast at that time (August/September) but we were advised to stay on the Island because of the high wind exposure over the causeway.  Wound up putting all slides in and moving the 5vr to behind the laundry/bathhouse to mitigate the winds.  The wife was not a happy camper that day.

David

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

In 5 years we've had two actually tornado warnings.  During the first one, we had sirens, lots of warning.  During the second, we had only the weather radio (trying to figure out where towns like Smith Creek and Farmer's Gap were and what part of the county we were in) and the weather app on the phone which gave us a decent map.

Both times we bugged out to block buildings.

We've bugged out for a few severe thunderstorms, especially those with high winds predicted.

Frankly, I worry too much about storms and want to be more measured about them.  So far, though, I find myself looking at Wunderground maps and refreshing them every minute or so.

[2gypsies]

It's very important to know what County you are in when listening to the warnings.

[sandsys]

59 minutes ago, 2gypsies said:

It's very important to know what County you are in when listening to the warnings.

And what county is upstream of you. For instance the KOA on the NW side of Minneapolis Metro is on the western boundary of our county and storms tend to come from the west. If you wait to hear our county mentioned you may be too late to respond.

Linda Sand

[FL-JOE]

8 hours ago, GR "Scott" Cundiff said:

In 5 years we've had two actually tornado warnings.  During the first one, we had sirens, lots of warning.  During the second, we had only the weather radio (trying to figure out where towns like Smith Creek and Farmer's Gap were and what part of the county we were in) and the weather app on the phone which gave us a decent map.

Both times we bugged out to block buildings.

We've bugged out for a few severe thunderstorms, especially those with high winds predicted.

Frankly, I worry too much about storms and want to be more measured about them.  So far, though, I find myself looking at Wunderground maps and refreshing them every minute or so.

Scott, I'm not sure in this day and age you can worry too much or prepare too much for severe weather when in an RV.  It seems to me that some of the storms, winter and summer, are just more extreme.  I would just keep doing what you are doing and stay safe.

[kb0zke]

Please remember that a tornado starts in a specific place, not just somewhere out there. A warning isn't given until either someone actually sees a funnel cloud OR it is indicated by radar. Some years ago I was teaching at a rural K-12 school with two buildings. We got a warning that a tornado had been indicated by radar heading for us. The principal in my building looked outside before sounding the alarm. The principal in the other building sounded the alarm and then looked. The tornado popped out of the clouds across the road from us and took out the electricity. Guess which building heard the official alarm. What did we do? The principal grabbed the nearest loud-mouthed student and told her to run down the hall screaming that a tornado was coming. No injuries in either building, but a vehicle or two were damaged and some of the roof was torn up.

We pay attention to local weather, and if a watch is issued I turn on my 2-meter HT, tuned to the local repeater. When we arrive at a campground I figure out where we should go in the event of severe weather.

[beemergary]

I take tornado's very serious. Was living in a mobile home (trailer) in 1979 while I built my present home. When the walls go down and the roof flyies off with the floor going up and down all while the wife is screaming things get serious. Made the front page of large newspaper. Still got a copy. Wish storm chasers would get blown away (not hurt). Got japped by lightning once also (another story and learning lesson). Yes it does sound like a train comming thru your house.

[Solo18]

One lesson I learned is that you should put in all slides as soon as you know that a storm is possible, not just likely, so they don't catch the wind or have awning covers tear.  Even though I was watching my cell phone radar app, I once got caught in a 65 MPH straight-wind storm in Kansas (where else?) that quickly changed direction and left no time to seek shelter. I put my slides in quickly and then buckled myself into the driver's seat with my go-bag, cell phone, and purse on my lap.  I figured if my rig was going to roll, at least I would be buckled in.  As it happened, mine was fine, but several trailers got turned 90 degrees and a couple of 5th wheelers got knocked off their posts.  Luckily no popups in the campground.

Found out later that camp host's rigs were tied down to cement pads with cables!  That tells you something.

[2gypsies]

13 hours ago, Solo18 said:

Found out later that camp host's rigs were tied down to cement pads with cables!  That tells you something.

The hosts at Guadalupe Nat'l Park have their RVs chained down also.

You were smart to grab your 'go bag', cell and buckle yourself in. I wouldn't have thought of that.  However, next time get into a suitable shelter - concrete block, preferably such as restrooms or a park office.