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Worst thunderstorm you have ever been in


Ice bowl 67

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Maybe 10 or so years ago I was smoking a cigarette in the entryway to the apartment building I lived in when a thunderstorm rolled thru.  No big deal.

 

Except this time a few feet away from me i see this blue thing starting to rise up from the ground.  Looked almost like a plant or tree sprouting up in slow motion.  Then the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard, the earth felt like it shook, the air around me was full of static, and that blue thing shot straight up into the sky

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20 minutes ago, Ice bowl 67 said:

What was the worst storm you have ever been in? You guys ever seen huge Hail or been in a tornado or huge flooding?

  Probably about 20 years ago or so.  The rain was so heavy and the lightning so fierce and frequent I just sat in the pickup which was sitting near the house versus making a run to the back door.  It was that intense.

 

  Somewhat related is there is high voltage lines nearby and a dozen plus years ago they replaced a tower near my place.  The top most metal had burn marks which had to be from lightning strikes over the decades the tower was in service.

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2 experiences spring to mind...

 

2012 Coolangatta, Austrailia. (Gold Coast)  We were holidaying on the 14th floor of this fantastic high rise.  On our last night, there was the most intense lightening storm I've ever witnessed.  Constant lightening strikes all around us for hours.

 

Mid-90's, Northern Colorado.

I had gone hiking on one of my favourite peaks.  When I got to the summit, I laid down to soak up the sun.  Next thing I know, I wake up to ran falling on my face.  The skies around me were BLACK.  As I got up to repack my daypack, the hairs on my head began to stand on end.  (Scheisse!)  I ran as fast as I could off of the summit and found shelter in this little cave for the next hour as the storm passed.  I honestly thought I was a goner that day.

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4 minutes ago, Bad Things said:

2 experiences spring to mind...

 

2012 Coolangatta, Austrailia. (Gold Coast)  We were holidaying on the 14th floor of this fantastic high rise.  On our last night, there was the most intense lightening storm I've ever witnessed.  Constant lightening strikes all around us for hours.

 

Mid-90's, Northern Colorado.

I had gone hiking on one of my favourite peaks.  When I got to the summit, I laid down to soak up the sun.  Next thing I know, I wake up to ran falling on my face.  The skies around me were BLACK.  As I got up to repack my daypack, the hairs on my head began to stand on end.  (Scheisse!)  I ran as fast as I could off of the summit and found shelter in this little cave for the next hour as the storm passed.  I honestly thought I was a goner that day.

  It seems there was more intense pop-up activity during the 1970's and 1980's versus current times.  Our dog was very afraid of thunder and when she went into hiding during the summer months we knew a storm was only maybe 10-15 minutes away.

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4 minutes ago, RochesterRob said:

  It seems there was more intense pop-up activity during the 1970's and 1980's versus current times.  Our dog was very afraid of thunder and when she went into hiding during the summer months we knew a storm was only maybe 10-15 minutes away.

I remember a couple storms in the 1990s that were wicked. 

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Just now, Ice bowl 67 said:

I remember a couple storms in the 1990s that were wicked. 

  I've seen many strong storms during my life but the one I mentioned was the only one intense enough where I would not leave the pickup for fear of being struck by lightning.  Not that being in a vehicle is extremely safe but better than running upright in the open.  I do remember one time lightning struck near my grandmother's house while I was there.  Probably as close as 10 feet from the door but it was the only close strike in that storm.

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We used to go to Elmira to visit friends and we laughed when we would go over this bridge which was over the Chemung " river". We thought it was funny they called it a river. About 200 ft. down was a trickle of water that struggled to be a brook. I think it was early summer of probably 1971,  an early season hurricane, came up the west coast of Florida and shoved some water in Tampa Bay and caused some flooding downtown. Then that storm went up the east coast of the US and dropped an incredible amount of rain, flooding was epic and I was told that bridge I spoke of was knocked out by HOUSES floating down what had been a trickle of water.

I lived in Buffalo, Cheektowaga and Lancaster til I was 34 yrs old and saw some good lightening storms, but in 1972 we moved to the West Palm Beach area. They say Florida is the lightening capitol of the US--------------believe me I HAVE NO REASON TO DOUBT IT! My houses have been hit 3 times, a tree 20ft. away from where I was driving got blown into toothpicks and I have a nephew who claims he was hit 3 times in his life. The nightime cloud to cloud lightening that I call the "southern Lights" is beautiful to watch but the ones that come down can be pretty scary. By the way, about 25 yrs ago it rained 30" in North Palm Beach in 24 hrs.

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1 hour ago, Ice bowl 67 said:

What was the worst storm you have ever been in? You guys ever seen huge Hail or been in a tornado or huge flooding?

Tulsa. Where tornado alley, and the bible belt cross roads. The end.

Edited by BUFFALOKIE
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10 minutes ago, PBLESS said:

We used to go to Elmira to visit friends and we laughed when we would go over this bridge which was over the Chemung " river". We thought it was funny they called it a river. About 200 ft. down was a trickle of water that struggled to be a brook. I think it was early summer of probably 1971,  an early season hurricane, came up the west coast of Florida and shoved some water in Tampa Bay and caused some flooding downtown. Then that storm went up the east coast of the US and dropped an incredible amount of rain, flooding was epic and I was told that bridge I spoke of was knocked out by HOUSES floating down what had been a trickle of water.

I lived in Buffalo, Cheektowaga and Lancaster til I was 34 yrs old and saw some good lightening storms, but in 1972 we moved to the West Palm Beach area. They say Florida is the lightening capitol of the US--------------believe me I HAVE NO REASON TO DOUBT IT! My houses have been hit 3 times, a tree 20ft. away from where I was driving got blown into toothpicks and I have a nephew who claims he was hit 3 times in his life. The nightime cloud to cloud lightening that I call the "southern Lights" is beautiful to watch but the ones that come down can be pretty scary. By the way, about 25 yrs ago it rained 30" in North Palm Beach in 24 hrs.

  You are thinking about Hurricane Agnes back in 1972 when you refer to Elmira.  Yep, a lot of those rivers look like nothing until a storm drops several inches over a wide area there.  The Susquehanna River at Waverly, NY you can just about walk across most days and not get your shorts damp unless a lot of rain has fallen.  

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I was hiking out of the Grand Canyon on the north rim around 8000 ft. and a wicked lightning storm was chasing me up Bright Angel canyon. I was still about a mile or so from the rim when it caught up to me. I was inside the lightning cloud and my hairs were standing you could feel, see and hear the electricity in the air. I thought I was a goner and was saying my prayers. 

Another time I was playing softball on the south rim when an immense lightning strike blasted a tree just over the left field fence. It was so loud and shocking I instinctively ducked and covered my head. I was sitting on the bench and the electricity came up from the ground through the steel frame wooden top bench and arced from a bolt into my inner thigh. The girl sitting next to me saw it and freaked, evidently she just happened to be looking between my legs, it lasted a few seconds and when it was done a little puff of smoke came from my leg and I had a small cauterized hole in my skin. So I guess I can say I was hit by lightning. Some people there swore they saw electricity pass through people in the outfield. 

 Used to sit on the edge of the canyon rim and watch incredible lightning light up the canyon ripping through the air in every direction.

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As a Boy Scout @ Philmont in New Mexico.  Hiking up to the "Tooth of Time" Ridge... 1984.  It was getting bad up to Schaffer's Pass to Peak to ToT Ridge...

 

...We were trying to rendezvous w/the rest of the Greater Niagara Frontier Council @ the Tooth of Time... So we could be up early to see the sun rise over The Tooth while being on The Tooth.  So our crew/squad pressed on past our scheduled camp up to the ridge to make rendezvous well into late afternoon and evening when the thunderstorms roll in over the mountains...

 

...Climbing up the pass to Shaffer's we were getting pounded... At one point, lightning was popping everywhere... One flash struck around 10 yards away took a tree... We all hit the deck... Back in those days, no internal frame packs... We had aluminium external frames...

 

...We get to the top of Shaffer's and the start of the ridge @ the peak... There is a 100 yards of clearing.  It's that or go around and stay in the treeline for 10 times that. What's worse???  We darted across with hip belts off... Maybe pretty foolish... But I am here to tell the story... Thunderstorms popping everywhere!

 

Storms start to die down... We hike ridge a little... There there is a monument to a Scout that got zapped in 1936... We hike into evening and make rendezvous @ about 23:00... We just crash on trail after that 20 mile hike (we skipped a camp)... Sleeping bags right on trail...

 

...Wake up early before sunrise... To see others from GNF Council scattered all over trail in the pre-dawn... They made it to rendezvous after us.  Watch sunrise on the Tooth of Time.

 

The Tooth of Time is the landmark where the pioneers would turn on the Santa Fe Trail:

 

1200px-Philmont_Scout_Ranch_Tooth_of_Tim

 

We were up on that ridge coming from the left to the right... To get sunrise from ontop of The Tooth.

 

Needless to say... When I went back in 1986... I had my aluminum pack frame wrapped in electrical tape... Hockey stick style... LoL... Not sure if that would help, but one wrap of tape does insulate 600v... Which I still would be toast... But it made for nice convo why my frame was wrapped!

 

I should digitize my prints/pics of that trek, sunrise, etc...

 

 

 

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During the blizzard of 77 my friends and I

walked 4 blocks from my house to another friend's house through complete whiteout 60 or 70 mph winds. You could not see your hand in front of your face. We made our way down the street from parked car to parked car sometimes missing and walking into trees. We checked every car and if it was open we would get in and regroup, it was so disorienting I will never forget it. It must have taken us over 2 hours to walk 4 blocks.

  My friends and I weren't thieves and were not in the habit of getting in strangers cars, but this was survival.

 

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15 minutes ago, Turk71 said:

During the blizzard of 77 my friends and I

walked 4 blocks from my house to another friend's house through complete whiteout 60 or 70 mph winds. You could not see your hand in front of your face. We made our way down the street from parked car to parked car sometimes missing and walking into trees. We checked every car and if it was open we would get in and regroup, it was so disorienting I will never forget it. It must have taken us over 2 hours to walk 4 blocks.

  My friends and I weren't thieves and were not in the habit of getting in strangers cars, but this was survival.

 

Thunder Snow!!!!

 

Probably not during Blizz'77... But that opens up possibilities for this thread!!!

 

 

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2 hours ago, RochesterRob said:

  You are thinking about Hurricane Agnes back in 1972 when you refer to Elmira.  Yep, a lot of those rivers look like nothing until a storm drops several inches over a wide area there.  The Susquehanna River at Waverly, NY you can just about walk across most days and not get your shorts damp unless a lot of rain has fallen.  

Mount Morris Dam on the Genesee River, at the north end of Letchworth State Park, came very close to overflowing.

41 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Thunder Snow!!!!

 

Probably not during Blizz'77... But that opens up possibilities for this thread!!!

 

 

Quite common in lake effect snowstorms around here (WNY/Southern Ontario) in late fall and early winter.

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18 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Mount Morris Dam on the Genesee River, at the north end of Letchworth State Park, came very close to overflowing.

Quite common in lake effect snowstorms around here (WNY/Southern Ontario) in late fall and early winter.

There is an emergency spillway. Just happens to be right in middle of dam... What it's designed to do:

 

Dam.jpg

 

IMG_5897.JPG

Edit:

Upon closer inspection, there seems to be some sort of concrete raceways to the east, probably for nornal flow release...?? Control...

 

Edited by ExiledInIllinois
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6 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

There is an emergency spillway. Just happens to be right in middle of dam... What it's designed to do:

 

Dam.jpg

 

IMG_5897.JPG

 

 

My father hauled steel used in the making of that dam.  They would secure the tractor trailers to bulldozers and slowly make their way down the steep construction roads to the riverbed elevation to be unloaded.

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In west central Florida, Tampa area, it is almost every day between June and October... so no real one I could say. **** is ferocious...  usually after 3pm or so. 

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About 5 yrs. ago at the Bruce Power nuclear plant on Lake Huron, we witnessed 8 waterspouts coming in off the lake.

 

If you’ve never seen one you’d be in for quite the surprise.....now imagine seeing 8 of them at the same time.

 

We were all stuck in the plant until the storm blew over.

 

Wow......just wow.

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Indiana, tornado season.  Tornado sirens were blaring, wind gusts were hitting 90mph.  News outlets were telling everyone to take cover and I was chilling in a bath tub in the middle of my house since I had no basement.  It was the only time I have ever been scared in a storm.  Luckily, no tornado ever touched down, but it was still a very nasty 15-20 mins.  It was crazy, stuff was everywhere outside from peoples yards.

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9 hours ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Mount Morris Dam on the Genesee River, at the north end of Letchworth State Park, came very close to overflowing.

Quite common in lake effect snowstorms around here (WNY/Southern Ontario) in late fall and early winter.

  Yep, I mentioned the Mount Morris dam in the other weather thread by the OP.  They opened a couple of gates to keep the dam from overflowing.  There was worry about debris going over the top creating damage down stream so the decision was made to discharge water even though it meant minor flooding in Monroe County.

 

  I attended SUNY Alfred back during the 1980's and the 1972 flood got mentioned plenty as it pertained to Wellsville and the surrounding area.  Some people suffered a permanent loss as I understood it.  Apparently, it was easier to get full federal assistance if your home or business was right next to the Genesee River versus up in the hills.  Some farms there suffered extensive top soil erosion rendering the farms useless other than to let brush grow.

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Several years ago, I was on an overnight flight from Seattle to JFK.  My plan was to sleep as much as possible but started watching the most incredible lightning show, all the way across the USA.  Most of the activity was at least 100 miles S of the flight route, but very spectacular.

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Driving back from Texas. We were somewhere in ohio and everywhere you looked there was constant lightning strikes. Didn't have a camera phone at the time but I bet you could easily take pics of the lightning there was so much. 

 

Cheektowaga about 15 years ago. There was tornado watches but no confirmed touchdowns. Temp dropped like 10 degrees in what seemed like seconds, got really dark, large Tree branches and debris were flying around. Sounded like a train drove up the street. A lot of damage and everyone in the area swears it was a tornado but the news and weather service said there wasnt. There was a few days of back and forth on if one touched down or not. 

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About 5 years ago I went to see a minor league game at Fenway Park in Boston and the skies just opened up - sheets of rain. I was covered by the overhang in the right field boxes and you could barely see the Green Monster it was coming down so hard. The rain washed down onto the field so fast that it was waist deep out by Pesky's pole and guys were actually swimming. Obviously the end of the game - no way you're going to restart a game after that sort of rain.

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spent some quality times a safe distance from the Ozarks, almost every day you could see funnels forming off yonder, quite the natural wonder display.... 

 

the town a mile from my place of stay was wiped out a year before i got there from a tornado

 

 

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Was climbing on old coal cars in a train yard near my house when a kid with a friend in the rain when all off a sudden there was a huge flash as we were on the outside of a coal car on top of the ladder and ended up suddenly tossed to the ground, about 12 ft. down. Lightening hit somewhere near and knocked us off.

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1 hour ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

Several years ago, I was on an overnight flight from Seattle to JFK.  My plan was to sleep as much as possible but started watching the most incredible lightning show, all the way across the USA.  Most of the activity was at least 100 miles S of the flight route, but very spectacular.

 

The best views of thunderstorms are from the air.

I've seen storms that are so intense that weather radar can't get through them.

What you see is one giant red return and nothing but a shadow behind.

 

Similar to your experience, I remember one evening flying from Chicago to Orlando.

This British woman introduced herself and asked how the weather was.

I told her there was a huge line of thunderstorms that would be parallel to our route, but we would avoid the line.

She told me that since she was from the UK, she was no stranger to rain.

Two hour of paralleling that thing and it was nothing but a spectacular light show. Not a single second without some lightening, which show up much more at night, obviously.

Anyway, when she got off, she said she never saw anything like it.

UK and western Europe just doesn't get hot enough for serious convective activity.

 

The Amazon basin in norther Brazil has some pretty good ones, but the midwest US can compete, just not every day.

During flight planning, you can get charts that show potential for huge storms.  They graphically display moisture content and atmospheric instability, which when combined, and extreme,  is what leads to sever thunderstorms.

One of the worst I've ever seen was the evening that Air France Airbus crashed from Rio to Paris.

Just impenetrable. 

 

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19 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

As a Boy Scout @ Philmont in New Mexico.  Hiking up to the "Tooth of Time" Ridge... 1984.  It was getting bad up to Schaffer's Pass to Peak to ToT Ridge...

 

...We were trying to rendezvous w/the rest of the Greater Niagara Frontier Council @ the Tooth of Time... So we could be up early to see the sun rise over The Tooth while being on The Tooth.  So our crew/squad pressed on past our scheduled camp up to the ridge to make rendezvous well into late afternoon and evening when the thunderstorms roll in over the mountains...

 

...Climbing up the pass to Shaffer's we were getting pounded... At one point, lightning was popping everywhere... One flash struck around 10 yards away took a tree... We all hit the deck... Back in those days, no internal frame packs... We had aluminium external frames...

 

...We get to the top of Shaffer's and the start of the ridge @ the peak... There is a 100 yards of clearing.  It's that or go around and stay in the treeline for 10 times that. What's worse???  We darted across with hip belts off... Maybe pretty foolish... But I am here to tell the story... Thunderstorms popping everywhere!

 

Storms start to die down... We hike ridge a little... There there is a monument to a Scout that got zapped in 1936... We hike into evening and make rendezvous @ about 23:00... We just crash on trail after that 20 mile hike (we skipped a camp)... Sleeping bags right on trail...

 

...Wake up early before sunrise... To see others from GNF Council scattered all over trail in the pre-dawn... They made it to rendezvous after us.  Watch sunrise on the Tooth of Time.

 

The Tooth of Time is the landmark where the pioneers would turn on the Santa Fe Trail:

 

1200px-Philmont_Scout_Ranch_Tooth_of_Tim

 

We were up on that ridge coming from the left to the right... To get sunrise from ontop of The Tooth.

 

Needless to say... When I went back in 1986... I had my aluminum pack frame wrapped in electrical tape... Hockey stick style... LoL... Not sure if that would help, but one wrap of tape does insulate 600v... Which I still would be toast... But it made for nice convo why my frame was wrapped!

 

I should digitize my prints/pics of that trek, sunrise, etc...

 

 

 

My camp had a few scouts get zapped back in '01, and ever since then they are extremely rigid with the electrical storm protocols. It was incredibly frustrating as program director having to deal with leaders who would pressure my staff to shirk the protocol, and then others (leaders and staff members) who were in camp for the unfortunate incident.

 

Worst storm I've been in had to be the 1998 Labor Day Storm in Rochester. My father and I had planned on going salmon fishing the next day, and the trees across the driveway weren't going to pull him away from that. A sagging powerline on route 18 did though. Ripped the hard top right off the boat. 

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https://www.cnyhistory.org/2014/09/labor-day-storm-1998/

 

Shortly after 1 am on the morning of Labor Day 1998, a line of fierce thunderstorms moved into the area, striking Central New York from the west with wind gusts of up to 115mph. The storm devastated the community, damaging hundreds of buildings and tens of thousands of trees. More than 200,000 people lost power, which was not restored to some until the following week. New York State declared the community a disaster area and federal aid was sought.”

 

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I was in my back yard in Rochester putting together a mountain bike when this strange storm started approaching from the East. In Rochester almost all storms come from the West. There was a lot of lightning bolts going in every direction so I grabbed the bike and my tools and took them inside into my workroom in the basement.

 

I was standing barefoot on the concrete slab, near a small open window and about 4' from where the main water line came into my house. I was working on the bike with a pair of vise grips in my hand when an instant flash and what sounded like a bomb went off when I felt electricity enter both of my feet, travel up my legs to my arm, the vise grips went flying across the room and the bottoms of my feet hurt like hell for days.

 

After the storm I went outside and in the yard about 35-40 feet from where I was there was a burned patch of grass about the size of a small plate. It missed the house by 10 feet.

9 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

 

 

 

https://www.cnyhistory.org/2014/09/labor-day-storm-1998/

 

Shortly after 1 am on the morning of Labor Day 1998, a line of fierce thunderstorms moved into the area, striking Central New York from the west with wind gusts of up to 115mph. The storm devastated the community, damaging hundreds of buildings and tens of thousands of trees. More than 200,000 people lost power, which was not restored to some until the following week. New York State declared the community a disaster area and federal aid was sought.”

 

I remember that storm, it started just South of Toronto over Lake Ontario, did a lot of damage in Rochester and killed a couple people who were sleeping in their RV at the state fair. The sky in Rochester was aglow for at least an hour from non stop lightning.

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18 minutes ago, frostbitmic said:

I was in my back yard in Rochester putting together a mountain bike when this strange storm started approaching from the East. In Rochester almost all storms come from the West. There was a lot of lightning bolts going in every direction so I grabbed the bike and my tools and took them inside into my workroom in the basement.

 

I was standing barefoot on the concrete slab, near a small open window and about 4' from where the main water line came into my house. I was working on the bike with a pair of vise grips in my hand when an instant flash and what sounded like a bomb went off when I felt electricity enter both of my feet, travel up my legs to my arm, the vise grips went flying across the room and the bottoms of my feet hurt like hell for days.

 

After the storm I went outside and in the yard about 35-40 feet from where I was there was a burned patch of grass about the size of a small plate. It missed the house by 10 feet.

I remember that storm, it started just South of Toronto over Lake Ontario, did a lot of damage in Rochester and killed a couple people who were sleeping in their RV at the state fair. The sky in Rochester was aglow for at least an hour from non stop lightning.

I remember hearing about the RV deaths. The experts said it was a derecho, not a tornado. 

Lightning was constant for an hour or more. I didn’t think about going into the basement for safety, but I probably should have. Power was out and many tree limbs were broken, but no real damage at my house. 

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5 hours ago, sodbuster said:

My camp had a few scouts get zapped back in '01, and ever since then they are extremely rigid with the electrical storm protocols. It was incredibly frustrating as program director having to deal with leaders who would pressure my staff to shirk the protocol, and then others (leaders and staff members) who were in camp for the unfortunate incident.

 

Worst storm I've been in had to be the 1998 Labor Day Storm in Rochester. My father and I had planned on going salmon fishing the next day, and the trees across the driveway weren't going to pull him away from that. A sagging powerline on route 18 did though. Ripped the hard top right off the boat. 

Yeah... We were in a bind that evening.  We crossed the "Rubicon" by pressing on, there was nowhere to go but forward.  Of course this was in the days when we didn't have radar and real-time lightening strikes at our finger tips via a handheld device.  Not sure what we should have done, hunkering down in the treeline didn't seem all too smart either. Probably how the Scout in '36 found himself. Exposed on the ridge not that much better... But storms blew thru. That ridgeline can be a bad situation.

 

Probably should have read the clouds better and stayed low instead of hiking up ridge. The coming darkness sure clouded our judgement and a race to make the rendezvous point.  Others in the contingent must have been in a worse situation... Or waited it out... Hence getting to the rendezvous point after us.

Edited by ExiledInIllinois
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Do Hurricanes count?  

 

Charlie/Francis/Ivan/Jeane/Irma/one in 2005 I can't remember the name.   Irma was probably the worst last year it took roof shingles off the house and broke a fence post.   

 

I was also in Marathon FL during hurricane Alberto this year for a day.   50mph sustained winds is not good fishing weather.   

 

EDIT:  I forgot Andrew back in 1992

Edited by Soda Popinski
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