Weird Tornado Dream

Joe Zemek

Joe Zemek

EF2
Joined
Jun 27, 2004
Messages
196
Location
Denver, CO
I'm sure others have tornado dreams. I think sometimes they're chase fantasies, & perhaps othertimes they have deeper symbolic meaning. Not sure which this one is yet.

Somewhere near the KS/OK border, a large group of chasers including myself catches a huge tornado, bordering on wedge/thick stovepipe. This thing is racing along the horizon a safe but watchable distance away.

When the RFD comes, it's a blizzard. Not hail, but actual snowfall in high RFD windspeed. We scramble, totally surprised, but are soon caravaning in zero visibility, heading south to escape. That's it.

I think this reflects some model uncertainty :?
 
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Kidding aside, I discovered 'snow devils' this April in the mountains of West Virginia. They were incredible, I would have spent hours chasing and filming but I had three people in the car with me on the way back from a weekend retreat. Here are a few shots:

http://wvlightning.com/april32005.shtml

I didn't catch the best ones I saw, which were like mini-snow wedges, very dense and large, rotating rapidly and lasting for 20-40 seconds. The next time this type of snow event happens (heavy snowfall followed by strong frontal passage and high winds) I am making the three hour trip to the mountains to see this again, it was spectacular.
 
Mines more of a nightmare – I’m driving along a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, trying to stay ahead of a large tornado, when all of a sudden I come up on a “Bridge Outâ€￾ sign … nowhere to go. This is when I usually wake up.
 
I rarely have them anymore, but mine are always great successes....which kind of sucks because I have to wake up eventually. Back when I was a newbie, my tornado dreams were always nightmares, I had a perfect tornado in front of me and then my vidcam wasn't there, or would jam, or I didn't have a tape. I think these reflected the anxiety I felt constantly back then trying to prove myself. Glad I got over that.
 
I have a recurring dream of multiple tornadoes moving around the small town where I grew up ... I'm there chasing them, but since they are in such familiar territory and around people I know it becomes scary. At least in the dream Tarkio goes down while I get some great footage -
 
I have alot of dreams about tornados. Im never chasing them though. I just find myself near them and sometimes I am surrounded by them and I cant get away. They are so real sometimes. I dont consider them to be nightmares though. I enjoy my many strange dreams. I wish I was a writer. Some of them would make an excellent movie.

The only nightmares I have are that something happens to a loved one or pet. Or that I find myself back in the Navy again.

Dennis
 
I have dreams of tornadoes at least once a week, especially approaching the chase season. Most times, I'm trying to get into the house because the tornado is right there, I make it to the door and then I get sucked into the sky and wake up. Othertimes, I'm the only smart fella around and I get into the basement while everyone else tells me I'm crazy.

One vivid dream involved a tornado coming over the railroad tracks (which are behind my house and elevated above the swamp on a hillside), coming across the yard faster than I can duck, then it shoots off to a topdown view of the house getting pulverized. First time I ever woke up in a cold sweat.

Sometimes, I'll get more dreams just before we get a tornadic storm system through. Othertimes, its just off-season anxiety.
 
When I was little, I had a large newspaper photo of the Edmonton (I think it was anyway.... large wedge) tornado up on my closet door because I thought it was the coolest thing. However, I started to get tornado nightmares so I took it down. Used to dream of getting tornadoes on my street.

But now, when I do get tornado dreams, the details are incredible. I would dream of me either chasing or just watching them on my street. In my chasing dreams, I would end up seeing an entire family of tornadoes. In one dream, it felt so real that I was disapointed when I woke up and realized it was just a dream. In my other dreams, I would be on my porch watching a large tornado come up the street. The details in the debris were pretty detailed, and it would be rotating violently just right across the house. Never did get to the point of it hitting the house though, but there were just a couple of dreams where I kept calling the family to get in the basement.

I remember one strange/funny dream... there was a waterspout and it froze into ice. So I climb inside of it, and it's all hallow.

I haven't had any recent tornado dreams... no wonder my SDS is so bad... I can't get storms to form here or in my dreams! :shock:
 
I have had some tornado dreams. I am always chasing them and I always see at least one in my dreams. However, I find it very sad that I have seen many more tornadoes in my dreams than in real life. :cry: :lol:

In one dream, it felt so real that I was disapointed when I woke up and realized it was just a dream.
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I agree. Just a few days ago I had a really good tornado dream. Then I woke up in cold Leadville and thought "dang that really did not happen." I was not happy. :lol:
 
I have them all the time. Last week my house got hit by what was an F-4 and I was up set because I had to take shealter and could not film it. Very life like. For some reason when I dream about tornadoes the detail is so amazing and real, they do not seem like dreams. Then I wake up and face reality, no tornadoes.

The strangest weather dream I ever had was also very life like. It was when I lived in Montgomery, AL in the early 80's and on the street where I lived there was thunderstorm and a huge bolt of lightning hit in the center of my street, and then froze. It was an amazing stroke that just stayed there. We could all go out and stand around it. It was like time had frozen.
 
I've had quite a few interesting ones about chasing lately. One was where my chase partner and I were chasing an HP supercell and ended up a couple blocks away from my grandparents house, so I had him drop me off and I walked to their house. When I got there my whole family was out in the backyard surveying the damage caused by a microburst.

Another one was where I was out chasing this storm that dropped several white tornadoes against a dark background out northwest of Watonga or Kingfisher, but with how many people were out I was having trouble finding a good place to pull over and get pictures.

The best one I had though was about a week or so ago. A large black barrel shaped tornado against a dark blue background hit in the open area between Norman and Moore. The motion was intense, easily capable of F4 or greater damage had it hit something. I had to sit back and watch it race off to the northeast though since there was another storm just to my south and the road options east of Norman aren't that great.
 
God, I normally dream tornadoes all the time to be honest. Had a very intense one recently. I arrive home, see HUGE towers going up all over the place, lots of UK chasers there and we see a huge wedge and I remember thinking how bizarre is that!
 
I stopped dreaming about tornadoes after I saw my first one. And yes, before that they were always about my cameras not working/being left at home. In the winter of 2004 I had a few where I actually got everything on tape. May have been a sign of things to come later that spring.
 
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