The biggest storm i have seen in my whole life.

[Chasym]

I dont mean like seen on tv, I lived through this tonight.
Hours of nonstop rain and heavy winds, Hail, Flash floods, Tornados surrounding everywhere, Cyclonic weather and funnel clouds in over 30 places....yet no reported casualties. Someone did get hit by lightning not far from my house but they are ok.
Tell you what this is why i love storms, but this is insane. Cars stuck in water so bad rescue crews had to come out to save people trapped inside.
My own brother got in a car accident on his way to get his girlfriend from the mall of people taking shelter.
The local mall here was flooded so bad they evacuated it.
My moms whole neighborhood lost power, I had to drive there to check on my daughter, it was like driving through a river with obstacles in the way.
Trees are busted down everywhere, My old work place was struck by lightning. It was literally Armageddon here for some hours. And all you hear people say is "ive never seen anything like this" and its true. Everytime you saw the news, more funnel clouds were popping up. One of the slide shows on the following sites has a picture of a radar, and some of the circles were where tornados were.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=local&id=4294587

this page has some pics of the size of the hail, and of some floods.
but i cand find any pictures of the insanley flooded streets where cars were buried to their roofs.
http://www.nbc24.com/Global/story.asp?S=5058375

This is just an awesome before the storm pic, that or that short calm that came before part 2 hit.

 

[Lyrai]

Wow, I absolutely love that picture.

But yeah, I've had some horrible storms where I live, since I'm right near the ocean, and on a small barrier island to be specific. We get horrible flooding, but luckally my house is raised up a bit, not on pilings though, but enough so our house doesn't flood. Last year a bookstore right next to my house that I worked at flooded and destroyed a lot of the books, causing the store to go out of business(Well, also for other reasons.) Quite a few years ago there was a large water spout at the end of the island, and occasionally smaller ones will appear during stronger storms.

Since a lot of idiots have their houses so close to the beach, when the waves eat away at the beach, they occasionally will get close enough to the sand under the houses and eat away at it, we almost had a house colapse at the end of my street from that. Channel 6 News was here for that too. And I get lucky enough to live in one of the places that floods the worst. I enjoy it though, watching people drive their cars through the deep water like idiots.

One time, a few of the people from the municipal yard across from my house, went out into the street with a rowboat. They had fishing poles, and held up a fish on a plaque and took pictures, it was interesting.

 

[Anttaru]

Part of me wants to see a Tornado, and part of me does not want to see one.

Glad to hear no one got killed.

 

[Elemmire]

I <3 giant thunderstorms and rain. Though, granted, I never have seen a tornado or hurricane at its full power x.x but I wanna

 

[Blabj]

Wow, thats an incredible picture!

Well, good to hear every body you know and love are safe, just gotta hope for the same sorta luck for everyone else.

 

[Dayner]

better then the sandstorms and we have here ...

 

[Chasym]

just woke up but the news is sayin some of the coutys around me have today declared a state of emergency o.0 they apparently have alot of damage taken.

 

[Brin]

Thats mammatus from a cumulonimbus. Bad joo joo. o.o;;;;

 

[Chasym]

More storms coming today, Heres some more amazing pics from that night, One has been noted by the national weather bureau as quite amazing and rare.

This one is the one they sent in.

Three bolts shown here, The brightness from the biggest one is from the bolt bouncing back after it struck ground.

just got word that all counties being hit right now have tornados already >.<, so far we are not listed as in the line of the storm yet.

 

[Brin]

I plan on working in the NWS once I get out of the Navy ^.^

 

[tidy]

zomg That storm is coming to VA soon.

 

[Chasym]

brace yourself, its hardcore

 

[alanon]

Twas an interesting storm to be sure. I have seen more powerful storms, but never on with cloud movement like what we saw last night. The picture in the first post looks almost exactly how it looked over my house as the first storm rolled in. Imagine that picture in motion, with clouds jetting off at different directions and speeds. I saw several spots where clouds were rolling and suddenly shoot into the atmosphere as if caught in the updraft. I'm sure most of the reported Tornados were actually seeing this movement and mistaking them for Tornados. I saw several funnel clouds, but nothing sustained. The wierd part was on the way into work, I passed by several wheat fields where you could see large patches of wheat simply blown over by what I can only assume were incredibly powerful downdrafts.

The lightning pictures were probably taken during the second storm that rolled through. The storm itself was far more normal than the first, but provided one EXCELLENT light show (I was on the porch).

The funny part of the night was when the second tornado warning was issued. I was watching cable and a generic red and blue screen with red lettering "TORNADO WARNING: WOOD COUNTY" came up. No other information, but in the backgound, you could hear "Born to be wild" playing

As far as the flooding goes, Im sure that Toledo proper got hit especially hard due to their notoriously wonderful (sarcasm) drainage system, especicially in the Lewis and Alexis areas of town.

 

[Ranpha]

@_@ ! Hope you guys are doing all right Chasym. There are a few relatives that live near that area. You still have electricity and cable which is a good sign.

Reminds me of Florida (less flooding though), which I plan on not moving back there until I am senile enough to forget awful weather does exist there all year round. Hot and humid summers with the predictible rainstorms everyday. Hurricanes (the aftermath is worse than riding the storm), torrential rain, and heat storms were always something to watch for. Winters were obnoxiously windy and cold (wet humidity) and more rain.

Hurricanes are boring to watch... The sky turns a puke green color before it comes on shore. The rain is not as heavy as a typical rainstorm (at least in florida where 6-8" is normal) When they are at night, it is scarier because of the sounds and not being able to see anything. Paranoid people and evacuating at the wrong time are the most annoying things to deal with. ;p

 

[Chasym]

yeah alexis and lewis got hit hard, So did central and upton.
Even monroe at franklin park mall for massacred.

 

[tidy]

I can't wait for it. It's been like 90 degrees+ everyday at practice. Can't wait to play in the mud D:

 

[Gatttsu]

Quite a fun storm isn't it? It must be as bad as I've heard in the southern parts of the state, it's not too bad around my area (northeast OH), we just get some power blinks once in awhile and have to restart every traffic signal at certain intersections in town.

Three power outages that lasted no longer than 5 seconds now since 3pm, how annoying ><

Edit: I'm kinda surprised not to hear about the canal flooding like usual, it is in the middle of the valley, perhaps they just gave up on acting like it's a shock that someone got stuck in the road by it again.

 

[Lanien]

Damn, I think that is the storm that is supposed to be hitting me in NY for the next couple days. Gonna get my camera ready.

 

[Stirce]

lol Toledo went crazy after I left.

 

[Blabj]

Wow those pictures are all incredibly amazing. I love photographs like that. We don't get many thunderstorms or tornados here in england so it's fantastic to see some really nice shots to remind you just how powerful nature really can be!

Good luck to all you surrounding countys!