When There’s A Storm Brewing In the South – IOTW Report

When There’s A Storm Brewing In the South

We can laugh a little now that Dorian is just a storm headed for Greenland. More

18 Comments on When There’s A Storm Brewing In the South

  1. I grew up in Southern CA so I don’t really have much experience with tornado watch, etc. Although we did have a water spout come through our back yard one time, made the chimney sound like a boat horn and threw a concrete roof tile through my parents’ bedroom glass door.
    One time I flew up to Minneapolis with a bunch of scout dads for a summer trip. A scout camp van picked us up, plus one family had driven up in their Suburban (which I stole a seat in). The van had a leaky roof and bald tires, so bad that the rear end was sliding around on the freeway in the rain and scaring the hell out of the dads in it, as the 19 year-old driver assured them that it would be okay. We were listening to the radio for storm news, and when they had a tornado warning (or watch, not certain) the van driver decided to pull over and stop under a freeway overpass. We sat there a couple minutes. I said ‘is this really safer?’ We had a short discussion and decided to continue. That was a looong 3-hour ride, probably even longer for those in the van.

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  2. “We had over 2200 bolts of that there lightnin’ in four hours here last week. Twern’t nothin’ though, not like what they get in Texas. Hell, you don’t know what lightnin’ IS ’till you’ve lived to Texas.”

    “You ever live in Texas?”

    “Nope.”

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  3. A tornado passed directly over my neighborhood in 2001. My neighbor watched out his bay window as it touched down and ripped mature oak trees out of the ground in the park just outside his back yard. He said he didn’t think about the danger until a few minutes later. I was huddled in my basement with my wife and kids. It’s true – they do sound like freight trains.
    http://weatherbook.com/collegeparkmain.html
    .

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  4. When I was in Georgia I remember one local lady looking out a window at the darkening sky and saying, “I think it’s fixin’ to come up a cloud” (Yankee translation: “I believe it’s going to rain”). A while later she looked out again and said “Oo-eee! It’s gonna be a real frog-strangler!” (translation: Start building an ark.)

    I always loved those Southern country expressions, even though I had to have a few of them explained to me.

    🙂

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  5. Jethro, speaking of sounding like a freight train, I was watching a show on TV about storms and they were interviewing people who survived a tornado. One guy said that he was in his house and didn’t head for the basement because he didn’t hear the “Woo-woo”. I laughed so hard I couldn’t hear the rest of what he said!

    Also, having lived in tornado country all my life, it wasn’t until I was in my early 40s that I ever saw one. Too far away to hear it, but the sight was really cool. I’m the kind of person that, when there were tornado warnings, I would run outside to see them.

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  6. A friend and i were in a little aluminum boat on lake Huron fishing when a tornado ripped through Port Huron. It caused a lot of damage big black funnel you could see it tearing up buildings then it went out over the lake to the west of us turned into a huge water spout and disappeared. Scared the daylights out of us in that tiny boat.

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  7. expressions from my Great Grandaddy
    “a real gullywasher”
    “comin’ down like a cow pissin’ on a flat rock”
    on a very humid day … “gonna rain so hard ’tis evenin’, gonna knock yer eyeballs out”
    “hotter than a june bug in matin’ season”
    “it’s so hot the dog’s chasin’ a rabbit & both of them’s walkin'”
    “hotter than a two-peckered billy goat”

    & my Grandma …
    “rain before 7, done by eleven”
    “so hot the devil’s sweatin'”

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  8. Watching this while under a tornado warning.
    Killing time in the safe area of the basement until it all blows over and we get the all clear.
    My sister survived a tornado that ripped through Missouri several years ago.
    I hope I never see the carnage and destruction of lives and property she lived through.

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  9. Funny video, very close to the truth. I’m from the Midwest, so I’ve experienced several tornadoes and being blessed enough to never have one destroy my home. However, I have witnessed neighborhoods nearby get hit.
    Now living in the South for decades, I’ve experienced several hurricanes – Fran was the worst for me, so far.

    There is a definite difference between the South and Midwest storm preparedness. What really perplexed me the first time getting ready for a hurricane in the South, was watching the mass grocery store run for the proverbial milk, eggs and bread.
    In the Midwest that wasn’t a factor, because we routinely stocked up. There was no desperation to run to the store, last minute, before bad weather. Took me while to get used to witnessing that wacky behavior. One of many culture shocks.

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