Thursday 3/4/04 Noontime question from Michaelskis

[michaelskis]

Today’s question in honor of the change in seasons here in SW Michigan… As some of you have also been experiencing, warm fronts have been bring a good amount of rain, and even thunderstorms… and so now I ask the question.

Do you like thunderstorms?

Personally, I love really heavy thunderstorms. Growing up on the North Shore of Lake Michigan, we could tell if a storm was coming in, because it would be hot and muggy and the waves would swell up. Of course we would be at the beach playing in the water, but once it would start to get dark, we would sit on the sand and watch the south wind blow the storms in. The lake provided the perfect back drop, because we could see for miles and miles, and the lightning would tear open the sky as it struck the surface of the dark water below. As the storm hit land, we would all go to some ones house, and have a party, as it would get late, and I would get home, I loved to hear the rain dance on the window glass.

 

[Rumpy Tunanator]

Do you like thunderstorms?

They ROCK!!! I like sitting on the porch in the summer and watch them roll in. They suck though if your on the SS Tunanator on Lake Erie. Aluminum boats and lightning don't mix.:5

 

[mendelman]

I love them too! Especially, if they have heavy rains and lots of thunder and lightning.

 

[Richmond Jake]

Don't like 'em...I think forest fires when they occur here.

 

[Chet]

Love them in the summer, hate them this time of year. We are supposed to get 1" to 2" of rain tonight and into Friday, and the ground is still pretty frozen so we can expect alot of localized flooding if the forecast is correct.

 

[Gedunker]

I love 'em too, but with one reservation: Not when they are attached to tornado watches/warnings at 4:00am. We didn't have too many tornadoes growing up in Jersey (we had Hurricanes, thank you very much). But now in Hoosier country, they are an all-too common occurence and they ahve a way of unsettling my stomach :5

 

[Queen B]

We have rain no thunder right now.

I love to sit on the porch during a thunder storm. Well until the lightening gets to close.

 

[Plannerbabs]

Hated them when I was a kid, love them now, the bigger, the better. And, Gedunker, as a native Hoosier, believe me, they run tornado watches way too often. You don't have to run for the hills until the sky turns green and the air feels inside out. They're usually false alarms. And it's kind of fun to watch the clouds slowly rotating counter-clockwise..... 8-!

 

[Gedunker]

And, Gedunker, as a native Hoosier, believe me, they run tornado watches way too often. You don't have to run for the hills until the sky turns green and the air feels inside out. They're usually false alarms. And it's kind of fun to watch the clouds slowly rotating counter-clockwise..... 8-!

I would tend to agree that there are too many alarms. My problem is I sleep very soundly (the railroad out back, and approach to a major airport don't wake me or my wife). It would be typical of my luck that the one that really does have a funnel aimed at my house would take aim at me when it is 4:00am and I'm sound asleep. 8-!

Any other time I love to be out on the front porch and watch the storm come, the trees become still, the birds fall silent, the clouds swirl, et cetera.

 

[biscuit]

I love thunderstorms. And I agree, the bigger the better...up to a certain point. One of my favorite things to do while growing up was to sit on the front porch and watch the storms gather on the other side of the mountains and eventually sweep down into the valley. Our dog, however, hated storms with a passion and would be completely terrorized by the sound of thunder. During a small storm he would cower in the garage. During the big ones he would come inside and lay on the rug beside the kitchen door till it passed...The only time he was ever allowed in the house.

Ahh, the nostalgia is starting to kick in.

 

[Bangorian]

I love them SO much, and miss them dearly. The storms up here ain't nothin compared to some of the storms I've been caught in out in Michigan. I'd say that the thunderstorms (especially on a hot summer afternoon) are one of the things I miss most about Michigan.

 

[JNA]

I love 'em too, but with one reservation: Not when they are attached to tornado watches/warnings at 4:00am. We didn't have too many tornadoes growing up in Jersey (we had Hurricanes, thank you very much). But now in Hoosier country, they are an all-too common occurence and they ahve a way of unsettling my stomach :5

My feeling also.

Has anybody been through the Skywarn Spotter Training Program?
What with all the geographers here there must be other severe weather geeks.

 

[Plannerbabs]

I was briefly fascinated by the idea of being a storm chaser, until I read that to do it right, you have to have full first aid training and carry all sorts of medical and meteorlogical equipment in your car--the idea being that if the storm you're chasing after actually injures someone, you'll be able to help rather than standing there helplessly and saying, "wow, sorry that your car got sucked through a tree, but did you see that funnel? Had to be at least an F3!"
Short answer--interested, but not yet, don't have the time...what is involved, anyway?

 

[nerudite]

Love thunderstorms, until the lightning gets too close and then run inside. I also don't like the tornado warnings. My bedroom is in a finished basement now, so I won't worry about those as much this summer.

 

[Maister]

I was briefly fascinated by the idea of being a storm chaser, until I read that to do it right, you have to have full first aid training and carry all sorts of medical and meteorlogical equipment in your car--the idea being that if the storm you're chasing after actually injures someone, you'll be able to help rather than standing there helplessly and saying, "wow, sorry that your car got sucked through a tree, but did you see that funnel? Had to be at least an F3!"
Short answer--interested, but not yet, don't have the time...what is involved, anyway?

I was interested in the idea of being a storm chaser after watching the movie "Twister". Come to find out the movie 'Twister' is to the world of meteorology as the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is to archaeology. Fun, but any resemblance to the real thing is purely coincidental.

 

[Floridays]

Although we get plenty of rain here in south FL, I miss the southwestern storms. Growing up in Oklahoma provided lots of opportunities to see some really wicked stuff! (probably why NOAA Storm Prediction Center is located in my hometown).

 

[otterpop]

I love thunderstorms. I especially like an evening thunderstorm when I am camping. I sit in the tent and enjoy the wind and rain shaking the tent. The July hailstorms I can do without, especially since I just bought a house.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

I've always liked watching thunderstorms, which we get almost every summer day here. Unfortunately, they interfere with so many summertime activities. Then of course there is the major inconvenience when your home gets struck by lightning, as mine was 3 years ago (via a large tree out back).

 

[boiker]

My feeling also.

Has anybody been through the Skywarn Spotter Training Program?
What with all the geographers here there must be other severe weather geeks.

Speaking of weather geeks, I'm one. I've storm chased regularly irregular in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin since 1996. I've had 3 years of Meteorology classes, taken numerous classes, etc. But I will not do HAM radio. That's were I draw the line.

I have a weather radio that drives my wife crazy, I've convinced my son, 4, that chasing is awesome and he's gone with me once.

I'll have to locate my pics and post them. Unfortunately I have never caught a tornado on film.

 

[Seabishop]

I used to love them as long I as was home and on the porch. I sure do miss having a porch.

 

[mendelman]

I love them SO much, and miss them dearly. The storms up here ain't nothin compared to some of the storms I've been caught in out in Michigan. I'd say that the thunderstorms (especially on a hot summer afternoon) are one of the things I miss most about Michigan.

Michigan thunderstorms are great. Especially when you are on I-94 near Jackson in south central Michigan. That is Michigan's tornado alley.

Story to follow:
One early July day, a huge thunderstorm erupted over town. The front came from the east like a huge dark wall of cloud (like the cloud wall when the aliens entered the Earth's atomsphere in Independence Day). My hometoen is on Lake Huron and the waves were huge, so after work, my friend and I got our kayaks and gear and headed out onto the Lake to do some kayak surfing on the waves in the heavy pouring rain with some lightning off in the distance on the lake. That was one of the greatest times I've ever had.

Dangerous? Possibly, but we were 19 and 19 yr olds don't think about safety.

 

[JNL]

LOVE THEM!!! As a kid, would turn off all the lights and watch the lightning. Just last week, was at a bar when heavy rain, thunder & lightning started, so me, the bartender and one other (we were the only ones there) took our drinks to the seats outside, just barely sheltered, and sat and watched the weather and the people running past. Was fun

Another memory: first trip to Aussie, was sitting in an outdoor spa in the dark, watching very impressive lightning display overhead. That was pretty cool.

 

[Lee Nellis]

Having grown up in the heart of tornado alley and having participated in a rescue after a lightning strike (do not be caught in a high place - you'll be dead, but its not pleasant for the recovery team), still LOVE thunderstorms.

 

[JNA]

Severe Weather Preparedness Week in
Indiana is March 14-20, 2004

For Plannerbabs - National Weather Service - Indianapolis http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/

Upcoming Spotter Training Sessions:
Brownstown - March 3 Bloomington - March 5 Noblesville - March 6
Covington - March 8 Anderson - March 9 Lafayette - March 10

 

[Michele Zone]

I grew up in Georgia, where we had the daily afternoon thundershower that ZG speaks of. I thought they were cool but I have lived without much in the way of such thing for many years now and I am happier without the hassle:
In Kansas, it mostly rains at night. You hardly have to worry with an umbrella during they day. I liked having "polite" rain that did not interfere with my schedule. I was in hill country, so tornado were not as a big a fear as for most parts of Kansas.

We then moved to South Eastern Washington state, which gets more snow than rain.

We then moved to the Mojave Desert, which gets about 6 inches of annual rainfall (and everything floods and the low areas stay flooded for several weeks if you get 2 inches in 24 or 48 hours -- and then the brine shrimp hatch out. We caught one and took it home in a jar as homeschooling field trip/project.).

Then I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of this area get between 18 and 22 inches of rain per year, on average -- half or less of the average annual rainfall for most of the Continental US, as I understand it (someone feel free to volunteer exact figures -- I won't be offended if I am wrong). It seems to rain a lot at night but I am not sure. I have been housebound a lot since moving here. But, regardless, even when it rains, I rarely take an umbrella because I did grow up in Georgia and I don't think they get REAL rain here. It is more like heavy drizzle most of the time. Sometimes it is very light drizzle, so light that my oldest son calls it "wet air".

I loved watching a good thunderstorm as a kid. I don't miss them and have grown used to not having to put up with them. I voted "what is this thunderstorm you speak of?"

 

[Rem]

I like them a lot - as do the kids. We are lucky to get lots of non-destructive electrical and thunder storms in these parts.

[ot]I didn't know that Brontophobia - fear of thunder and lightning existed until recently. I was in my office with our GM during a storm. Every time a clap of thunder sounded he put his fingers in his ears, closed his eyes and pulled his shoulders in and neck down. He told me he had always suffered from it. I was a bit embarrassed for him but he seemed fine about it. I don't know what he will do if we ever get a thunderstorm during a Council meeting.[/ot]

 

[Zoning Goddess]

I am surprised I don't have brontophobia (not that I'd ever heard of it until I read REM's post). As a small child, I was watching t.v. when lightning struck our house, and the t.v. blew up and a fireball flew across the room, over my head, and thru the window. My mom said I went screaming "We've been bombed!". Everything plugged in that day was toast.

 

[Cardinal]

I love most thunderstorms. Especially when driving across the plains, watching one approach in the distance at night is an awesome spectacle. I think this spring thunderstorm season will be a bit better since I had the hollow basswood next to the house taken down. I was always waiting for the sound of it crashing through the roof.

 

[Plannerbabs]

For Plannerbabs - National Weather Service - Indianapolis http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/

Thanks! I look at this site obsessively during the spring and summer. It's always frustrating, though, when the weather sites report an anticipated big weather event, only to have it fizzle after a few drops of rain... |-)

 

[Gedunker]

I was watching t.v. when lightning struck our house, and the t.v. blew up and a fireball flew across the room, over my head, and thru the window. My mom said I went screaming "We've been bombed!". Everything plugged in that day was toast.

Oh my Goddess! Thank you thank you thank you for the BEST laugh of the week!

(And I am glad you weren't hurt or anything.) :-D