Have you ever seen a tornado in person?

[wootbot]

Have you ever seen a tornado in person?

[mo92]

Went to college in Texas and thank the Lord I never encountered one! They scare me!

[wootsboc]

[Larry1977]

They mostly develop in open flatlands which is luckily miles away from me.

[Wooter330810531]

No, and I don’t think that I would like to.

[PoisonWaffle]

Yep, I’ve lived my entire life in tornado alley so I’ve seen a few in person over the years. I’ve done the stereotypical thing where I sit out on the front porch during the tornado warning to watch for them, and only go inside once the wind and rain get so bad that I’d get soaked even when under the roof over the porch.

The ones I’ve seen form didn’t touch down, but came close. Fully formed funnel clouds that fizzled out before reaching the ground.

[md2915]

Was a few miles away but didn’t see

[Wooter634555556]

I’ve slept through THREE!!! Two in Louisiana as a teenager and about 20 years after that, one in Kansas.

The one I “saw”, in Wyoming, literally passed right over us (horizontal, the way it came off the mountain) and it didn’t go vertical til quite a ways beyond us. So no damage at all.

[Wooter533386701]

Yes, they sell tornados at my neighborhood c-store.

[wootuserjared]

We has one come close to old house. It wasn’t completely formed so I got to see the weird calm, sky changing color, and then start of freight train winds. It stayed high until crossed the river, and unfortunately, it had devastating touchdown in the next town.

This WootForum poll has started an earworm…

[ExplicitDank]

[delgadojb]

[RebelTaz]

No, but (and no offense to those who have had intimate interaction with them) but I would like to. From a distance, of course, but…

[flared0ne]

Back in the day, when analog TVs had a fine tuning adjustment on the channel knob, you could go down to approx channel two and then shift slightly off-center - which puts you in the frequency range where tornadoes put out radio frequencies which equal the video signal for “white” light on the T.V. screen. Several times that glowing screen saved our bacon to know “Incoming!!” and “head for the basement!”. Was in Kansas at the time, a place referred to as “Tornado Alley”. Happened often enough to be a little boring…

[ShadowHeir]

Thankfully I have not.

[arp734]

One time i did. I asked what it’s name was, it ignored me and blew right by me. Rude.

[intrepid01]

@RebelTaz

… would like to. From a distance, of course, but…

Wait, how fast can you run?

Photographer: Mike Olbinski - we think, hope(?) he still is alive
Interesting Factoid: lightning is common in man tornadoes likely due to static build up of particles.

[WooterAmax]

Does a dust devil count?

I have a vague memory as a kid seeing a tornado off in the distance, but can’t be sure it is a real memory.

[jabluszko]

One forming, then dissolving itself, so the honest answer is a ‘no’.

And yet, when a real one came to my neighborhood, I chickened out and hid in the basement. The eye passed less than a mile from me, did some serious property damage to a very small area, injured some people and killed someone.

All in a place where people didn’t believe that tornados can happen to them.

[jabluszko]

Amazing photography(er). And yes, still kicking and still chasing and shooting.