I remember the blizzard of 77 here in buffalo. it lasted for 3 + dys, 60 mph winds temps -35 and lake erie was frozen . the wind blew all the snow off lake erie and placed it on top of buffalo like 30 feet in spots. Trapped in the house for 5 days snow over the windows, battery froze and burst in the truck. Lots ofpeople died from being traped in thier cars, national guard called in to help. was unreal.

read here>>> www.wbuf.noaa.gov/bzpns.htm

 

Nothing overly exciting I can recall. Been in lots of thunderstorms, snowstorms, and hailstorms; seen a couple of avalanches and a flood; lived through the 1980 Mt. Saint Helens eruption and the 1989 Bay area earthquake (OK, I know, not weather ); survived 120mph winds, a blizzard, and sub-zero temperatures. No tornadoes or hurricanes but that really doesn't disappoint me

 

Speaking of bad weather for someone.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/cont...ruck_0427.html

 

That sucks in the worst way.

 

Living in Florida, I have seen more than my share of hurricanes.
Not only can you lose everything you own, the aftermath is a major PITA!
There is nothing worse than living without power for extended periods of time (besides losing your home or loved ones). You can't get cash, ATM's use electricity. You can't get gas, same reason. No water, lifting stations are dead, cant even flush the toilet. No Air conditioning, 96 degrees, 95% humidity, hope you have a good supply of insect repellent, and sunscreen. Food? good luck. A cold drink? NOT! A shower???? hahahahahaaaaa, guess again! Make a phone call? hmmm, perhaps but not likely.
Consider yourself lucky if you still have a roof! Did I mention downed power lines? Watch where you step, and what you touch.
Driving - driving in the aftermath of a hurricane is a real challenge as well.
IF the roads are semi-clear, you can somewhat get around. Watch out for
people that do not understand common intersection ettiquiette (no traffic signals) Talk about chaos? I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

A mother and her baby got killed in Richardson, TX, in thier house in bed, a few years ago. Lightning went through the roof, and killed them where they laid...

Bad way to go, and probably insanely tough on the father/husband, but at least it was quick, with hopefully, no pain/suffering for the victims.

When I was at Fort Huachuca, 19th Signal Company was having a formation as a thunderstorm approached. (Thunderstorms in Arizona were sissies compared to the storms in Louisiana and Texas) A bolt of lightning came down, and hit very near, if not in the formation. 2-3 people got burned, and 19 were taken to the hospital, but no one got killed.

Lightning can strike you 20 miles away from where the storm actually is... Clear skies, and "zap"! Dead

 

My worst is also tornado related. I was in college and had a buddy that had a job delivering medicine to old folk’s homes and hospitals. Sometimes I would go out and ride with him while he made his nighttime run. We were in the dorm when he got a phone call that he needed to make a delivery to a town about 40 miles away. I was done with my homework and doing nothing so I went along. When we left the dorm it was raining but not really storming. We jumped into the company truck a little Nissan and took off. Shortly after we left town it started storming. Soon the rain was coming down so hard that we could barely see the road in front of us, and the wind was blowing that little truck all over the road. It took an eternity to drive the 40 miles because we could only drive about 15mph. So we made the delivery and started back home. About halfway there the storm just stopped, and then we heard on the radio an announcement about a tornado on the ground 1 mile east of Cash, AR. My friend looked at me and asked me, "Where's Cash?" I answered, "We just passed a sign that said 1 mile to Cash, and we are on the east side of town." So here we are right where the tornado had been spotted, it was pitch black out and the ditches were now raging torrents because of all the rain. We hauled a$$ to get out of there ASAP. He was driving as fast as he could and I was on tornado watch. I never was so glad to be back in the dorm as that night.

Joe

 

That reminded me of a few years ago, soldier got struck by lightning. He was burned over 95% of his body. There was only one vein big enough that wasn't burned to get an IV in him. I won't get too graphic, but let me say you don't want an IV in this area!

 

I can imagine how scary that would be at night... You can't even see them to try and oout run/out maneuver them...

What's worse is living in a city. If a major Tornado (f4-f5) came through the North Dallas/Plano/The Colony, Allen, Frisco area; we'd be just as screwed as those people in Jarrell & Wichita Falls were. We have no basements in Texas (99% of us don't) and not many more have above ground tornado shelters (If you're even home, or awake to get to it.) But, worse case scenario, if one hit at 5:17 PM on a Wednesday, all most of us could do is kiss our butts goodbye, while praying it didn't approach us too closely.

No way to run (bumper to bumper traffic) nowhere to go (No shelters or basements), we'd be screwed...

I think that 2 mile wide, F6 (Which no one thinks is posible, yet) that Discovery channel showed on their disaster series, striking Dallas, TX and roaring north east for 40 miles, would devestate this area, and kill a great many people... No amount of Doppler, or forewarning, would do anything, but give us all a chance to kiss our butts goodbye...

If I ever come into some real money, the house I have built, in Plano, TX, WILL have a basement/storm shelter. If the businesses can have one, and overcome the high water table, so can residents...

 

Delta Company 16th SIG BN, 1st PLT. (LEN) Feb 1996. Not only did we see 100 degree temps that month, we also experienced record cold the same month. It all started with something this weather nut had never seen before. A “Mud Storm”. In this storm, every car (or anything else that was outside) from Copperas Cove, TX to Temple, was "brown" from the rain. Then it got so cold (upper teens, low 20's) that the car washes closed, and you couldn't even clean your car!

Apparently, what had happened was a windstorm kicked up tons of dust into the atmosphere in west-Texas, and lift pulled it high into the atmosphere. We were on the verge of two cold fronts coming through the area. The "wet" cold front came through first, followed by what the meteorologist called an “Alberto Clipper”. The West-to East (wet) front, dumped it on us, the North-to-South front kept it there a few days. Talk about a 1 – 2 punch!

I'll never forget it; I was the NCOIC, and my LEN (Large Extension Node) team was set-up at the Sim-Center at Fort Hood, it was a balmy February night (low 70’s, upper 60’s and it was the last full night of the two-week exercise. About midnight, I gave my team the order to break camouflage (don't ask me why we cammo'd our vehicles at the Sim-Center) so we did. As we were rolling the nets up, the wind picked up. You could smell it in the air, so we knew it was about to rain. We hurried up, and bagged up everything, including the tents, and secured it on top of the vehicles and in the support trailer. We were just about done when the rain came. We got back inside the shelters with no one catching too many drops. It turned out to be a gully washer.

By this time, it was 1:15 AM- and it rained for a good 90 minutes. It ended at about 2:30 and I left for home at about 2:45 AM. I lived off WS Young & 190, so I decided I'd run home and grab something to eat. (Lunch break, we did 12-hour shifts). As I approached the parking lot, I could see that my car, and everyone else's car, was sandy brown (Just like our Hummers). Not just spotted brown, I mean coated brown, the windshield, side windows, everything. Plus, it was getting cold. (2nd front was going through). When I passed the Fort Hood bank, the temperature said 41 degrees, when I passed the 1st National Bank in Killeen, the temp said, 34. Seven degrees dropped in less than 10 minutes driving. My washers cleaned my windshield, and I could kinda see out of the side windows. I had half-a-mind to stop at the car wash at Trimmier & 190, but decided not to (Car Jacking was still a sport back in 1996, the car wash, late at night & alone was a good place to get jacked) so I went on home. I stayed inside about 35 minutes, and when I came out, it was clear that I was gonna need my field jacket, easily below freezing at this point. (It had to be cold, because I NEVER wore my Gore-tex Field jacket, if I wasn’t in formation, except in Korea, one time in Germany, and now here).

I went back on post, and the other guys (who were as inadequately prepared, as I was) was there shivering with just the BDU's on, no thermals (Because we went home every day), no field jacket, nothing... I told them to go home and get their stuff if they wanted. One or two did, but the other 3-4 decided to "tough it out".

It dipped sown to 21 degrees that night., freezing the now muddied cars in their sheath of muddy rain. We got the call to shut down the network, and prepare to come home; soon it was daylight and with the shelters shut down, tents torn down, we took turns staying warm in the hummers, but it was colder than a *****, and the wind was whipping. Wind Chill had to be zero.

They finally told us to go home (redeploy to the motorpool) around 10:00 AM, and us night shifters (who were supposed to be gone at 7:00) was finally released at 13:00.

I went to the car wash, and every car wash (DIY, or the ones that do it for you) were all closed due to the cold weather. The sun came out that day, but it never got over 30 that day. And, because of the high wind, the streets stayed dry, (Aside from dirty cars, you’d never even know it had rained) but, if the 2nd cold front had come through an hour or two sooner, we’d have had an ice storm of epic proportions.