I’ve lived in the southern part of the USA all my life! I’m accustomed to the occasional tornado warning, tornado watches, floods, flash floods, and hurricane watches and warnings that go on for days. My family rode out Hurricane Hugo in Charlotte, NC in 1989 as it hit as a mere Cat 1 (74 mph winds minimum) but did billions in damage. I’ve had my experiences with storms.
I’ve traveled the US before, driven through all the states, seen some amazing storm activity…. in the distance in most cases… but the last two nights in WI have been stranger than anything I’ve ever seen in the south! I’m about as north in the USA as I can get and I feel like I’m in FL.
I’m a self-taught internet Meteorologists. I’ve learned a lot by paying attention to cloud movement and watching radars, knowing where I am, what’s going on around me, watching the sky, etc. My family will tell you I should have been a meteorologist. I know I should have been! It would have been GREAT work! I would have loved it! But, I didn’t… I didn’t realize my love for weather until my late 30’s early 40’s.
However; at this point in life, it’s a great hobby! And I can still love it! Maybe some storm chaser will one day read this blog and realize my deep love for weather and ask me aboard. I would go!!!!!! (Maybe I should just reach out to them… that’s a thought).
I digress…. anyway….
I get a weather alert on 7/18/2019 – Storm prediction center… severe weather in your area predicted in the next 24 hours. That’s from MyRadar App and it came in about 10 a.m.
You could already tell by just walking outside it was hot, humid, the air was still, but nothing totally unbearable. But the locals were even saying this wasn’t typical. Hmmmm…
Check out the stats below… 11 p.m. 79% humidity and it feels like 94!!
And then 11:30 p.m. rolled around…. another alert.
As I’m looking at the radar, and Trapper’s in bed asleep, I see the blue block around the red cell (at the 9:00 position). Hmmm…. I don’t see a hook yet… we might be ok, but we’re not going to miss some eerie weather either way. It’s tracking dead towards us… we’re that little blue dot in the middle of the picture.
If this storm had combined the red area to the yellow area…. and hooked around we would have been headed toward the bath houses! And then all of a sudden – I couldn’t remember where those were! (Really Lynette – you’re suppose to self-aware)? I’m the only one up! This storm is getting worse but it’s also getting more eerie… where are those dang bath houses – where is that campground map?
Twelve minutes later…. it’s getting worse, the storm is getting bigger, and we’re getting something I’m sure. I just wasn’t sure what we were getting. No alerts but the radar is looking angry.
The storm rolls over us. It has spectacular lighting but with that comes horrendous thunder! The whole Coach was vibrating! And then I opened the front curtain and looked outside! It was pitch black out but look what happened when it started lightening!
The Jeep was parked in front of the Coach and you could NOT see it from the window. Until the sky lit up! I actually sat the camera in the window and captured this shot from the video! Also, we’re in a heavily wooded area.
So you’re asking yourself… what’s so eerie about a severe thunderstorm?
I was inside watching a video with my headphones on. I started hearing this strange rumble, not like thunder. I thought it was on the video so I took the headphones off and the rumble got louder! It sounded like a freight train overhead. I opened the window and realized yes, the sound was just like a freight train sound but way above the surface of the earth.
About that same time I noticed there was no air moving at the surface. The trees weren’t even blowing! Strange or what? Tornado in the making? I don’t know but, the next day everyone was talking about this storm!!
The next evening – luckily the storm stayed to our north but the sky put on another beautiful lighting show. I heard someone call it “heat lighting.”
These storms just pop up out of nowhere! Based on local information and weather info it’s a lot hotter here than normal and more humid. For the past four or five days we’ve had weather exactly like NC/SC. Interesting to me considering where we are.
And as we were planning to leave on Saturday… the sky did this! So, we decided to stay put for another day! No sense in pushing yourself to drive through craziness if you don’t have to!
The Hot Air from the plains picks up humidty from the gulf flow…. then hits the cold air that is always over Canada… Sometimes it dips down into the midwest and wala tornado Alley… actullay unique to the north american plains..
I had been watching the path of Hurricane Barry and watching the humidity levels rise in WI. It was almost the perfect storm. Lots of places up here got his hard with downed trees but EF0’s and EF1’s. 85 mph winds in a short burst is a lot for a camper or tent. So, all the folks we were around we definitely talking about the
“storm.” I only ever remember that eerie train sound during Hugo. Luckily we were in a good spot but I was still glued to the radar screen!