Your "Oh no..." moments

[Bryan Stokes]

My Oh no! almost cost me my life. May 15, 2003 it was after dark.

Kem,

Wow. This story takes the cake!

My goodness...
Bryan

 

[Ed Cphen]

Mine was in Gainsville, TX , Tornado had just passed through the northen part of town, I got caught in traffic and golf ball hail started falling. I busted south only to find myself in a rather bad spot and found a farmhouse nearby. I parked the car and the home owner was pulling into the driveway. I asked him if there was a strom cellar out back, he said "yeah but its got water in it". We both looked to the west and decided it was time to dive into the cellar (no pun intended). Water was up to my waist and it was putrid. Within a minute the RFD blasted over the top of us. No damage reported at the house and I was on my way smelling like a wet burlap sack. That was all for that day!

 

[Steven Marshall]

Mine happened way back in 1999 I think. I had two novice chasers with me from Ohio. We were stuck in the core of a nasty cell in Harper County Kansas. Seemed like everytime I made a turn to get out of the storm, it would turn and keep us prisoner. All at the same moment, the cellphone rang and the wx radio started beeping..and the van starting rocking. On the phone was our Met, following us on radar at the tv station back in Ohio. He was trying to tell me that the storm had developed a hook and if we were where he thought we were, we were right there in the hook...and he no more than got that out of his mouth when the tornado came out of the murk on our left and crossed the road in front of us. There were a few moments there that I was thinking that I really needed to find a new line of work. My two passengers practically had to pick their jaws up off the floor. One of them had been recording from the backseat ala "Blair Witch Project " style...."I dont think we're gonna survive this one!"

 

[brandongreen]

Last year south of quitaque. I got stuck on the side of the road in mud. The storm passed over me and all i could see was large hail and horizontal rain. My sister was with me and i hated myself for a while for putting her in jeopardy like that.

 

[David Drummond]

This was pretty much the worst storm experience I have had in 25 years of chasing. It was the only time I truly felt like I was going to die.

http://daviddrummond.com/latest-website-news/74-do-you-ever-get-scared.html

 

[Laura Duchesne]

May 15, 2009 is my top scary chase (although it seems rather tame compared to David's hair raising experience!)
http://www.laurawx.com/chase20090515.html

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Wow, powerful story, Dave. I think there is something about night storms in general that heighten the sense of fear. Getting caught in a tornado at night is just about the scariest scenario I can think of.

I know that after a while, most chasers lose most of the inital fear they experienece in and around storms; you get to know how they work well enough that you know where you can and can't go. Personally, I've never really lost that fear. I'm not sure that I want to, either; for the most part, it's the fear that keeps me from making risky decisons.

 

[Bob Hartig]

David, I remember reading your story when it was fresh. I felt its intensity then and I can feel it now, re-reading it. I think it should be stickied along with Brian Stertz's account as mandatory reading, particularly for new chasers. Most of us will acknowledge that we're not bulletproof, but I don't think any of us really grasp what being vulnerable means until we actually experience it firsthand. Hopefully few of us ever will, but you have. Thanks for sharing how that felt with such honesty. God surely had his hand on you that night.

 

[tarone]

May 30th, 2005 while a hail core was bearing down on us outside Raton we hit a pothole and blew a tire. I was able to put on the spare before we got nailed but it took us completely off route and we ended up high on a mesa where we ended up catching a quick mountain funnel.

Exact scenario two years later near Macksville, KS. We blew a tire and moments after I put on the spare a long tapered funnel touches down a few hundred yards away.

 

[John Vandehei]

Exact scenario two years later near Macksville, KS. We blew a tire and moments after I put on the spare a long tapered funnel touches down a few hundred yards away

.

Sounds to me you've found a sure-fire way to find tornadoes. Keep a couple spare tires in the trunk and aim for those potholes.

 

[James McCormick]

South of Odessa, NE on May 29th, 2008. Got in great position to watch a supercell move east... dual wall clouds, great structure... not producing, not producing... but as the storm got nearly overhead, the south winds increased dramatically, the southern wall cloud REALLY tightened up, and all of the sudden there was this mass of swirling dirt in a field maybe a quarter of a mile from me... while other chasers were heading north towards the storm... I was fleeing south on the Odessa road to reposition and make sure I was safe.

Another good one for me would be near Attica, KS, on April 26th, 2009. There was a tornado warning to the southwest of Wichita (Barber County I think), but very near that tornado warning was a ferocious little bow echo. The precipitation for the echo was pure white and racing towards the road I was on. Needless to say I punched east with no delay... and then drove away from the storm that produced the Viola tornadoes. D'oh...

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I have a few of them over the years ... So I'll pull one out of my cap of feathers ;-)

Above: May 26, 2008 between Pratt and Greensburg, Kansas ... Baseball and larger hail, falling out of the ANVIL of a supercell and I could not clear the storm in time!

 

[Paul Hadfield]

June 6, 2008 while in Edgar County IL, I got in front of a tornado warned cell. Not a big deal or so it seemed till I dove S only to find a secondary one coming up on its heels to the SW that I was fearful I wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Pulled into someone's driveway not a second before getting blasted by wet RFD. Double oh no is that some of the pics I shot were in Tv Mode because my thumb pushed the dial forward thus at a shutter speed making them almost blow out and difficult to recover.

http://pawleewurx.com/p/060608.html

 

[MClarkson]

Its not quite chasing... but I was flying from Vero to Daytona in a 172 and decided the small(~45dbz, or at least thats what they were half an hour prior when I took off, and I dont think they changed much) thunderstorms weren't really worth avoiding, and had I been at a higher altitude that would have been a correct statement. I enter the rain shaft and my vis drops to nothing, so I go to back up my GPS with older radio beacons. This probably prevents me from watching my other instruments for about 10 seconds. When I resume my scan I'm at 800 feet and dropping pretty quick(oh no?). I instantly go to full power and best rate of climb, but the downdraft wont let me up... I was a little nervous as I stuck there at ~750 feet, full power, not climbing. But I wasn't dropping anymore either. Perhaps 30 seconds later the sky starts to lighten and I slowly start to climb.

This is Florida so the chance of hail in a cell of that strength is about 0, and the turbulence wasnt bad(i'd say steady moderate). Next time I'll simply enter at a higher altitude. And I'll close the air vents. A lot of rain comes through a very small vent in a very short time, soaking the inside of the plane.

 

[George Dikun]

My "Oh no" moment came sometime during the 2008 season. It wasn't on a chase, as it was after dark, though there was a gust front moving into my area. I was driving a friend and a future girlfriend home through light rain and moderate wind, when a powerline started arcing over the road about 30 yards ahead. I hit the brakes (going at about 35 mph) and slid across the wet pavement just as the tree hitting the line decided to give. The tree and powerline impacted the pavement about 10 feet in front of my car, and we slid into the branches and leaves. I backed the car out of it and called it in to the police. My friends were very shaken and pale for the long route home, haha.