Bad Weather Stories

Duke

Open-minded critical thinker
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Here in the US, we've had some nasty weather in the past few months. What's the worst weather event you've ever personally experienced, and where?
 
Somewhere around the mid 1990s, we had one of the most extreme winters ever. The barges delivering oil were stranded on the water, due to multiple blizzards. The plowed snow was piled up to eight feet high around our houses and cars were buried. Schools were shut for weeks. One thing that made it so bad for me was that I had injured my ankle; a severe ligament strain after a fall at a roller skating rink. My leg was in a cast. Imagine using crutches on icy, snow encrusted stairs (we lived on the second and third floors of a row home.) I had to park on the street and couldn't dig my car out for a long time. It seemed as if that winter would never end.
 
The one i remember was when it rained for about a month. It may or may not have all day all night, but it was crazy. Most of the smaller bridges were compromised and had to shutdown for repair/rebuild. The main overpass into my town had to be torn down and completely rebuilt. I remember there being talk to inspect the damn at nearby lake as the engineers feared the damn was going to break and flood the town. I was at least happy i then lived on the second floor of an apartment building lol. If flooded, i'd be up a level.
 
flooding is pretty common for this area. the south in general sees its share of heavy rainfall and the occasional flooding of road ways and residential areas. rivers are often hitting their limit and overflowing.... been through a couple hurricanes in savannah and brunswick. both cat. 2,.. many tropical storms.... saw a sand storm that was massive once. you could see it coming from 3 hours away, just a wall of sand....cool experiance.... worst and scariest storm is any tornado that comes through. those are no fun and always a scary situation to be in
 
Inthe 70's we had a real snow storm (doesn't happen her much) and most people used natural gas to heat their homes. But the gas company sold the bulk of it's gas to the state of Conecticut, as they were expecting a very bad winter and needed the extra gas. So the schools were closed because we had no heat. It was when mini skirts were in style and my friend and I were in junior high. Girls were not allowed to wear pants to school. My friend and I walked about 1/2 mile to school every day and after the snow storm, the tempertures plunged to zero (also unusual here) and stayed for a week. It is the first time I saw snow on the ground days after it had fallen except when we went to the mountains. My friend almost got frost bite walking home from school that Monday. When I got home my dad was off work because of the cold and no heat in the buildings. He set us all up in our huge kitchen and put sheet rock in the doors and windows to keep the room warm. Then the pipes to the kitchen broke and he spend a couple of days with a friend using a torch to thaw the ground to dig the pipes up and fix them.

If you don't like extreme weather I suggest moving to this area. We get snow in winter every couple of years, it is close enough to mountains for people who like to ski, and summers are hot and dry for the most part. This week we have had 4 days of rain, and very low temperatures, it got up to 75 one day, but has been below that the other 3 days. It will warm up today and I am hoping we will get clear skies and sunshine. When it is 105 degrees the humidity is usually low enough for it to seem like 95 degrees.
 
I think the most unique thing I've ever seen was 2 waterspouts on Lake Michigan.

I was born during the Great Chicago blizzard of ' 67. So technically I was there. And it seems like everybody has a story. People were abandoning cars left and right and public transportation shut down so nobody was getting home. Lots of people walked to the nearest restaurant or bar and we're stranded for at least two nights. That's what my Dad did. He had all the basic necessities plus drinking and cards.

I met a guy that was managing a restaurant at the time and the place was getting packed. He noticed a guy with a bread truck delivery uniform on.
"Where is the truck and let's go unload it." And they did !

The blizzard of '77 was a real doozy and we missed a week of school. Mayor Bilandic couldn't get the streets plowed and was quickly voted out. In the big picture he only had one job to do.

2 years ago I had a tornado go down my street and I lost three ash trees. But I slept right through it. Half a block North looked like a war zone. Saw a giant Oak uprooted. Debris everywhere.
 
Inthe 70's we had a real snow storm (doesn't happen her much) and most people used natural gas to heat their homes. But the gas company sold the bulk of it's gas to the state of Conecticut, as they were expecting a very bad winter and needed the extra gas. So the schools were closed because we had no heat. It was when mini skirts were in style and my friend and I were in junior high. Girls were not allowed to wear pants to school. My friend and I walked about 1/2 mile to school every day and after the snow storm, the tempertures plunged to zero (also unusual here) and stayed for a week. It is the first time I saw snow on the ground days after it had fallen except when we went to the mountains. My friend almost got frost bite walking home from school that Monday. When I got home my dad was off work because of the cold and no heat in the buildings. He set us all up in our huge kitchen and put sheet rock in the doors and windows to keep the room warm. Then the pipes to the kitchen broke and he spend a couple of days with a friend using a torch to thaw the ground to dig the pipes up and fix them.

If you don't like extreme weather I suggest moving to this area. We get snow in winter every couple of years, it is close enough to mountains for people who like to ski, and summers are hot and dry for the most part. This week we have had 4 days of rain, and very low temperatures, it got up to 75 one day, but has been below that the other 3 days. It will warm up today and I am hoping we will get clear skies and sunshine. When it is 105 degrees the humidity is usually low enough for it to seem like 95 degrees.
Ja, your post brought back memories. We must be close to the same age because I remember not being able to wear pants to school and having to walk in the cold. I am in MI and we get a lot of snow and cold here. We had a bad blizzard in 78 and I remember mountains of snow. Thankfully by then girls were allowed to wear pants.
 
Ja, your post brought back memories. We must be close to the same age because I remember not being able to wear pants to school and having to walk in the cold. I am in MI and we get a lot of snow and cold here. We had a bad blizzard in 78 and I remember mountains of snow. Thankfully by then girls were allowed to wear pants.
Yes after that storm when we went back to school we were told that we could wear "nice slacks" to school. Most of us wore jeans and no one said a thing. The boys could wear what ever they wanted. The parents had called and complained to the superintendent so he changed the rules to get them off his back.
 
Yes after that storm when we went back to school we were told that we could wear "nice slacks" to school. Most of us wore jeans and no one said a thing. The boys could wear what ever they wanted. The parents had called and complained to the superintendent so he changed the rules to get them off his back.
We have lived long enough to see some huge changes in societies standards. I think for the most part us women have benifited in freedoms to live our lives out of the steriotype. You took me back to a time when things were so different.
 
We have lived long enough to see some huge changes in societies standards. I think for the most part us women have benifited in freedoms to live our lives out of the steriotype. You took me back to a time when things were so different.
Yes, I remember back the my cousin had to keep his hair short and wear a button up shirt at the high school he attended in a small town. That changed a year later, but the town 9 mile down the hill expelled a kid for having his hair too long (it touched his collar) and it was in the news. So weird now. My nephew wore a mohawk and sometimes died it different colors when he was in junior high in the 80's.