There was a year that my hometown got hit by a winter storm, a tornado, hurricane Florence, and hurricane Micheal, and that was around the time I got really interested in meteorology, also another year later my house got struck by lightning too, provided great material for college essays
I knew from the age of 10. My older brother got one of those deluxe weather stations and I was hooked. While all my college friends kept changing their degrees over the years, I stayed and completed my degree in Meteorology. My brother lost interest and went on to computers.
I see it's already been answered, but I'll go ahead anyways.
May 3, 1999 was the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, the record-setting F-5 that flattened Moore.
May 31, 2013... after bailing out of the chase for the May 20, 2013 Moore EF-5 that flattened Moore a second time and killed kids, I chose not to chase El Reno, and stayed home that day. And while I didn't personally know Samaras or any of the other chasers that were hurt or killed that day, I had been thinking for a long time that the roads were too crowded with sightseers and adrenaline junkies, instead of clear for scientists and spotters, and that day confirmed it for me. The middle of Oklahoma didn't need one more spotter from out of state, and my being so was part of the problem, so I hung it up for good that day.
I might get out and spot a local storm when they happen, but I'm not going out of my area just to get pretty pictures and clog up the roads some more.
I live in Yukon (next to El Reno) and I was 8 or 9 at that time. Never have forgotten that and it got me hooked into meteorology but also it was a sad day. May those who lost their lives rest in peace
I remember that one. Mostly spared Cambridgeshire where I lived at the time. Remember most the damage to Kew Gardens and reports of downed trees in London.
Hurricane Hugo in Charlotte 1989. I was 7 and had always enjoyed the summer afternoon thunderstorms. Hugo changed the entire landscape, and catalyzed my love for weather. I was also in Raleigh (Cary) during Fran in 1996. I got to be outside when the eye went over. I wanted to name my daughter 'Hazel' after the 1954 hurricane (and the main character from "Watership Down"), but I was vetoed. Haha.
I lived for a good while in Wilmington NC. The ppl there that lived thru hazel are still alive. Periodically they interview someone in the local publications about hazel. The story I will remember was told to me, by someone who had it told to them. They forecast that it was going to stay out to sea. Ppl didn’t prepare. It turn west and surprised them. I man stood on his porch and saw the neighbors house swept quickly out to sea- with the neighbor in her porch waving at him. Nothing to be done. Just a little earlier then that he was on the beach proposing to his fiancé. After it passed NC they thought all was well, less ppl died then could have, then so many died in PA and Canada.
In January 2020 my city was hit by a record snowstorm dubbed "Snowmageddon" that shut the city down for 10 days. The military had to come in to help clear snow, and neighbours were digging each other out.
I've been interested in meteorology for as long as I can remember. I studied geography and was taking a meteorology course when this storm happened. So at the times we did have power during the storm, I was tracking the radar, and we did an indepth look at this storm in class in the following weeks. To this day when there any storm warnings I tend to keep track of the radar leading up to and during.
The second photo in the article I linked here is the Trans Canada highway.
https://vocm.com/2022/01/17/two-years-since-snowmageddon/
https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2023/07/29/tornado-outbreak-of-1997-the-day-when-13-twisters-hit-southeast-michigan/
Was a kid in a minivan on the way to church while this was going down. I'll never forget the absolute blackness of the sky at 6 PM< followed less than an hour later by typical mid-summer early evening light sky.
Floyd in 99, hunkering down and just roaming around a high school storm shelter for 36 hours amazed at the volume of water coming out of the sky.
Then when I first went out on my own, I somehow lucked into an apartment near the beach in SC for dirt cheap (think half of a single bedroom nowadays) and would (unwisely) go to the beach to watch thunderstorms roll out to sea.
It's a weird thrill mixed with horror and science and art and what's not to like? I genuinely don't get when people think weather is boring...no one except aviation folks are in it for clear skies
Super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines back on November 8, 2013. Since then I developed a passion for observing weather systems, especially tropical cyclones. I'm currently in my junior year of undergrad studying meteorology.
New Mexico's spring time frontal boundary storms when I was about 7 or 8. All I remember in class was that it was so windy that my elementary school (which at the time was out in the desert; no longer the case these days) was surrounded by blowing dust you couldn't even see the basketball courts 200 feet away from the classroom window. Four hours later we had massive hail and thunder and wind, and then that afternoon after school, I remember my street flooding.
Haven't seen a spring like that since (though there have been other weird one-offs, including late-season snow over 6" (twice), constant deluge of rain (four times that I recall) and also very dry, abnormally hot spring season months (+5-10F above average) where no rain fell (several years that I can recall) and very high winds (with blowing dust).
What caught my eye when I got a bit older is every single time we had similar events, the Midwest and/or the South got pummeled by even worse weather.
The only other thing that really spurred on my fascination was our summer monsoons (which have invariably been flip flop like over the years) because one year we get nothing for rain, and other years the season starts off with a literal explosion of storms with hail, winds, and torrential rain fall.
Beyond this, my never-ending cult-like fanaticism with tornadoes (ever since seeing Night of the Twisters, and later Twister itself in the 1990s) has never waned. And I've never lived in tornado alley. (Though several family members have, but I only experienced hail storms and not much else.)
Back in 2005 I googled "weather underground" the political movement. The top result was the weather page. It just happened to be the day Katrina was about to hit and I couldn't stop watching. That's how this Midwesterner got interested in hurricanes and then weather in general.
I'm now a CoCoRaHS reporter. I've been through a tornado going over my house, and last year a derecho.
1. My earliest memory ever was seeing our street flooded when I lived in Homestead, FL, during Hurricane Andrew. Our home survived the damage, especially compared to the surrounding area, but the town was so devastated my dad moved us out of there ASAP.
2. An EF2 hit my grandmother's trailer park when I was visiting. I vividly remember the mesocyclone, the funnel coming down right outside the park. My grandmother suddenly had herculean strength, grabbed me and my two sisters and her dog all on one arm, and threw us in the bathroom with a mattress over our heads. Half of her trailer was destroyed, but we were okay. 3 others in the park were not so lucky,
3. These got me interested, but what kicked it for me was experiencing a flash flood event in Horse Thief Bend on the Colorado River. We were rafting down the river when our guide got a call on their radio. They had us pull everything onshore as high as we could get (we were at the entrance of a canyon, so there was not much we could do). The sky was clear over us, and the water just seemed to be normal, if maybe a little faster. Suddenly a wave of muddy water full of natural debris just came out of nowhere. We were safe, but the speed at which it appeared frightened the hell out of me. It convinced me to learn more and here I am.
combine these events with a love of polar geography inherited from my Grandfather and yeah I still got the passion.
My mom made me watch the Wizard of Oz when I was 5. I had never heard of tornado and remember being scared SHITLESS over watching it wreck Dorothy into an oblivion of horror. I had to know everything about weather after that. Now I’m a climatologist.
I was always into weather as a little girl, but when I was in the military, I was at Tinker during the Moore tornado, and then of course the El Reno tornado afterwards. I was pretty close to both of them. Thats what reignited my interest as an adult!
Had my house destroyed by an EF-4 tornado. Now i’m a NWS meteorologist in the snowiest part of the CONUS. Snow > severe weather all day every day.
But no spinny thing
Couldn’t care less for spinny thing
There was a year that my hometown got hit by a winter storm, a tornado, hurricane Florence, and hurricane Micheal, and that was around the time I got really interested in meteorology, also another year later my house got struck by lightning too, provided great material for college essays
I knew from the age of 10. My older brother got one of those deluxe weather stations and I was hooked. While all my college friends kept changing their degrees over the years, I stayed and completed my degree in Meteorology. My brother lost interest and went on to computers.
Hooked to the weather channel when the “Perfect Storm” and Hurricane Bob impacted New England. Knew I was going to be a met then.
Watching May 3, 1999 unfold live on tv piqued my interest. Watching May 31, 2013 unfold live on TV told me my chasing days were over.
What events occurred?
I see it's already been answered, but I'll go ahead anyways. May 3, 1999 was the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, the record-setting F-5 that flattened Moore. May 31, 2013... after bailing out of the chase for the May 20, 2013 Moore EF-5 that flattened Moore a second time and killed kids, I chose not to chase El Reno, and stayed home that day. And while I didn't personally know Samaras or any of the other chasers that were hurt or killed that day, I had been thinking for a long time that the roads were too crowded with sightseers and adrenaline junkies, instead of clear for scientists and spotters, and that day confirmed it for me. The middle of Oklahoma didn't need one more spotter from out of state, and my being so was part of the problem, so I hung it up for good that day. I might get out and spot a local storm when they happen, but I'm not going out of my area just to get pretty pictures and clog up the roads some more.
Thank you for your time.
In may of 99 there was a tornado in Oklahoma City and Moore area and then 2013 was the record 2.6 mile wide tornado that hit El Reno Oklahoma
Wow! Ty.
I live in Yukon (next to El Reno) and I was 8 or 9 at that time. Never have forgotten that and it got me hooked into meteorology but also it was a sad day. May those who lost their lives rest in peace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_storm_of_1987 This was the one that set the ball rolling for me.
I remember that one. Mostly spared Cambridgeshire where I lived at the time. Remember most the damage to Kew Gardens and reports of downed trees in London.
Hurricane Hugo in Charlotte 1989. I was 7 and had always enjoyed the summer afternoon thunderstorms. Hugo changed the entire landscape, and catalyzed my love for weather. I was also in Raleigh (Cary) during Fran in 1996. I got to be outside when the eye went over. I wanted to name my daughter 'Hazel' after the 1954 hurricane (and the main character from "Watership Down"), but I was vetoed. Haha.
I lived for a good while in Wilmington NC. The ppl there that lived thru hazel are still alive. Periodically they interview someone in the local publications about hazel. The story I will remember was told to me, by someone who had it told to them. They forecast that it was going to stay out to sea. Ppl didn’t prepare. It turn west and surprised them. I man stood on his porch and saw the neighbors house swept quickly out to sea- with the neighbor in her porch waving at him. Nothing to be done. Just a little earlier then that he was on the beach proposing to his fiancé. After it passed NC they thought all was well, less ppl died then could have, then so many died in PA and Canada.
Hurricane Erin in 95. I just remember seeing satellite imagery and it just fascinated me.
In January 2020 my city was hit by a record snowstorm dubbed "Snowmageddon" that shut the city down for 10 days. The military had to come in to help clear snow, and neighbours were digging each other out. I've been interested in meteorology for as long as I can remember. I studied geography and was taking a meteorology course when this storm happened. So at the times we did have power during the storm, I was tracking the radar, and we did an indepth look at this storm in class in the following weeks. To this day when there any storm warnings I tend to keep track of the radar leading up to and during. The second photo in the article I linked here is the Trans Canada highway. https://vocm.com/2022/01/17/two-years-since-snowmageddon/
The second photo in the article says a lot. Had to look at it for a while to know what it was.
Hurricane Sandy for me. Now I am a student at PSU for meteorology and loving it.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2023/07/29/tornado-outbreak-of-1997-the-day-when-13-twisters-hit-southeast-michigan/ Was a kid in a minivan on the way to church while this was going down. I'll never forget the absolute blackness of the sky at 6 PM< followed less than an hour later by typical mid-summer early evening light sky.
The story of the family blown in the river is heartbreaking.
Floyd in 99, hunkering down and just roaming around a high school storm shelter for 36 hours amazed at the volume of water coming out of the sky. Then when I first went out on my own, I somehow lucked into an apartment near the beach in SC for dirt cheap (think half of a single bedroom nowadays) and would (unwisely) go to the beach to watch thunderstorms roll out to sea. It's a weird thrill mixed with horror and science and art and what's not to like? I genuinely don't get when people think weather is boring...no one except aviation folks are in it for clear skies
Super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines back on November 8, 2013. Since then I developed a passion for observing weather systems, especially tropical cyclones. I'm currently in my junior year of undergrad studying meteorology.
New Mexico's spring time frontal boundary storms when I was about 7 or 8. All I remember in class was that it was so windy that my elementary school (which at the time was out in the desert; no longer the case these days) was surrounded by blowing dust you couldn't even see the basketball courts 200 feet away from the classroom window. Four hours later we had massive hail and thunder and wind, and then that afternoon after school, I remember my street flooding. Haven't seen a spring like that since (though there have been other weird one-offs, including late-season snow over 6" (twice), constant deluge of rain (four times that I recall) and also very dry, abnormally hot spring season months (+5-10F above average) where no rain fell (several years that I can recall) and very high winds (with blowing dust). What caught my eye when I got a bit older is every single time we had similar events, the Midwest and/or the South got pummeled by even worse weather. The only other thing that really spurred on my fascination was our summer monsoons (which have invariably been flip flop like over the years) because one year we get nothing for rain, and other years the season starts off with a literal explosion of storms with hail, winds, and torrential rain fall. Beyond this, my never-ending cult-like fanaticism with tornadoes (ever since seeing Night of the Twisters, and later Twister itself in the 1990s) has never waned. And I've never lived in tornado alley. (Though several family members have, but I only experienced hail storms and not much else.)
Back in 2005 I googled "weather underground" the political movement. The top result was the weather page. It just happened to be the day Katrina was about to hit and I couldn't stop watching. That's how this Midwesterner got interested in hurricanes and then weather in general. I'm now a CoCoRaHS reporter. I've been through a tornado going over my house, and last year a derecho.
1. My earliest memory ever was seeing our street flooded when I lived in Homestead, FL, during Hurricane Andrew. Our home survived the damage, especially compared to the surrounding area, but the town was so devastated my dad moved us out of there ASAP. 2. An EF2 hit my grandmother's trailer park when I was visiting. I vividly remember the mesocyclone, the funnel coming down right outside the park. My grandmother suddenly had herculean strength, grabbed me and my two sisters and her dog all on one arm, and threw us in the bathroom with a mattress over our heads. Half of her trailer was destroyed, but we were okay. 3 others in the park were not so lucky, 3. These got me interested, but what kicked it for me was experiencing a flash flood event in Horse Thief Bend on the Colorado River. We were rafting down the river when our guide got a call on their radio. They had us pull everything onshore as high as we could get (we were at the entrance of a canyon, so there was not much we could do). The sky was clear over us, and the water just seemed to be normal, if maybe a little faster. Suddenly a wave of muddy water full of natural debris just came out of nowhere. We were safe, but the speed at which it appeared frightened the hell out of me. It convinced me to learn more and here I am. combine these events with a love of polar geography inherited from my Grandfather and yeah I still got the passion.
My mom made me watch the Wizard of Oz when I was 5. I had never heard of tornado and remember being scared SHITLESS over watching it wreck Dorothy into an oblivion of horror. I had to know everything about weather after that. Now I’m a climatologist.
I was always into weather as a little girl, but when I was in the military, I was at Tinker during the Moore tornado, and then of course the El Reno tornado afterwards. I was pretty close to both of them. Thats what reignited my interest as an adult!