WATCH Out for Those Storms

[sourdough]

From time to time the question arises about whether to try to weather a storm inside an RV or not. Should I pull my slides in etc.

We had a sudden storm hit Saturday afternoon out of the blue. Looked like rain clouds all around but it was more than that. Standing on the back porch sorting out different things a wall of brown dirt hit (winds were later said to be over 100mph) followed quickly by large hail and then direction reversals. Crazy. Got over 5" of rain in about 45 min. Weather Service is still trying to decide if tornado(s), if so how many etc. DW's best friend's son said he saw at least one behind his house in his field. Lots of damage in some areas.

Attached are some pics I ran out and took of one RV park. I believe the pics speak for themselves and should answer the question of trying to "ride out" a storm in an RV.

[Weldon]

Good Lord. What's crazy are the campers with no damage sitting beside a larger one flipped upside down.
I grew up in Alabama. Although I never lived in a trailer, we always knew not to go near one when a storm was brewing....the whole "I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park" thing. Hopefully those folks are ok.

[sourdough]

We just got back to stay in town today since we lost power, had tree limbs down etc. All reports say there were no "serious" injuries thank the Lord. It hit about 6pm or so Sat. so figure there were folks in those RVs, just lucky. Talked to one crewman for one of the power companies and he said they alone had 28 crews in town working.....and this is a little place.

[flybouy]

That's crazy. I remember when DW and I were newly married one hit about 1/4 mile away. Looking down the street on one side every tree was gone, down, or twisted and broken. Many homes were missing all or parts of roofs. 50 feet across the stree the trash cans were still setting undisturbed for the next day collection. Jone were eving missing a lid. Seemed bizarre to see. Glad your safe.

[Vinnie]

Holy cow! The big one last year in Nashville missed the RV parks there by about a mile, but there was a ton of warning and we drove about 20 miles south before it hit. It was unnerving to come back through the damage just waiting to see what was still standing- the parks got lucky. That's wild that it just snuck up on y'all.

[RickV]

I try to stay aware of weather conditions especially when we are on the road. We spent a month last year just north of Rapid City and had quite a few storms come up outta nowhere. Lately where we been it is not so much about storms it is about excessive heat. We left North Florida and headed out to the Northwest to get away from the heat and it is cooler back home . At least the humidity is low.

[Badbart56]

Yeah, those storms are no joke. I drove our semi into a tornado last June in Nebraska on I-80 at 2:30 in the morning. It had been raining and blowing from the southwest all night coming from Iowa. Very little traffic thankfully. Two trucks ahead of me about a quarter mile. Going up a railroad overpass I saw the two trucks ahead hit their brakes and pull over on the bridge. I slowed down to see what the problem was and as I approached the wind just started buffeting the truck, making it shudder. My wife came out of the sleeping compartment just in time to see a wall of rain, spinning horizontally, moving toward us and brushing into the left front of the truck. I yelled for her to grab onto something! I thought we were going to get blown over so I steered to the center of the bridge. I remembered the two trucks on the bridge rail and wondered if they would get blown over the side. I hadn't realized how loud it was until I had to yell to my wife. And then it was over. The whole thing probably lasted 10-15 seconds maybe. I remember saying "Jesus!" at some point, because I guess I thought we were done for. I later told my wife that I was glad she had woke up and saw this, because I had no idea how I would have described it to her. Yeah, we were lucky that night. It could have ended badly. Had it been daylight I might have been able to see it coming. I'll never forget though, June 23rd, 2020 at MM 238 I-80 in Nebraska.

[flybouy]

A few years ago we were going to one our favorite CG and followed a storm for about an hour going ahead of us. I told the DW we may be setting up in the rain. The sky cleared and when we got there the storm had hit and left and a couple of campers were severely damaged. A large tree fell on the bedroom of a MH and crushed it down to the bed. They said the couple in it were lying on that bed and got up to see what the noise was about just a split second before the tree came thru. A fiver had front cap damage and another unit lost a slide out. No one was hurt thankfully.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Vinnie

Holy cow! The big one last year in Nashville missed the RV parks there by about a mile, but there was a ton of warning and we drove about 20 miles south before it hit. It was unnerving to come back through the damage just waiting to see what was still standing- the parks got lucky. That's wild that it just snuck up on y'all.

Seems they're still trying to sort out how many tornados but NWS confirmed what we're hearing is 2 along with multiple multiple what they call "gustnados".

I think it snuck up because as it/they approached town they took out the power transmission lines that feed the town so none of the sirens worked or anything like that. The PD was running on generators when I called them right afterward. The sky was very overcast with clouds with the "bubbly" looking bottoms and I was piddling in the back yard. It just got very dark and a wall of solid dirt (could not see our large pecan trees 25-30' in front of me so I got on my covered deck just as I heard the first big bang, then the hail started, then the torrential rain. They said they measured over 4" in 13 minutes at the local weather terminal. Weather folks said it was coming down at a rate of 13 1/2" per hour.

As I was literally standing on the deck watching this play out, hail pounding the snot out of everything I had no idea that one of the confirmed tornadoes was just to the W of our house.....moving our way! Guess it turned and skirted the other side of town thankfully for us. I'll try to get a pic of the pecan tree in front of our front door. After the hail knocked off the leaves it was hitting the tree; looks like someone took a 3lb. sledge and just beat the tar out of every limb on the tree (they all look that way).

My takeaway is that even though I'm generally cautious when bad weather is approaching when in the RV I think I'm just going to go crawl in a culvert somewhere until I see sunshine next time....

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Vinnie

Holy cow! The big one last year in Nashville missed the RV parks there by about a mile, but there was a ton of warning and we drove about 20 miles south before it hit. It was unnerving to come back through the damage just waiting to see what was still standing- the parks got lucky. That's wild that it just snuck up on y'all.

Seems they're still trying to sort out how many tornados but NWS confirmed what we're hearing is 2 along with multiple multiple what they call "gustnados".

I think it snuck up because as it/they approached town they took out the power transmission lines that feed the town so none of the sirens worked or anything like that. The PD was running on generators when I called them right afterward. The sky was very overcast with clouds with the "bubbly" looking bottoms and I was piddling in the back yard. It just got very dark and a wall of solid dirt (could not see our large pecan trees 25-30' in front of me) so I got on my covered deck just as I heard the first big bang, then the hail started, then the torrential rain. They said they measured over 4" in 13 minutes at the local weather terminal. Weather folks said it was coming down at a rate of 13 1/2" per hour.

As I was literally standing on the deck watching this play out, hail pounding the snot out of everything I had no idea that one of the confirmed tornadoes was just to the W of our house.....moving our way! Guess it turned and skirted the other side of town thankfully for us. I'll try to get a pic of the pecan tree in front of our front door. After the hail knocked off much of the leaves it was hitting the tree; looks like someone took a 3lb. sledge and just beat the tar out of every limb on the tree (they all look that way).

My takeaway is that even though I'm generally cautious when bad weather is approaching when in the RV I think I'm just going to go crawl in a culvert somewhere until I see sunshine next time....

[Steve/]

We were in Logan E New Mexico 20 miles from Texas Boarder Sat and had a little cloud
come over us and the next thing we had rain and 60 knot winds hitting us. the guy next to us said he been coming here since he was 7 (looked 45), said he seen rain but never rain and wind like that. the town had high water and lost some roof and an 18 wheel was flipped on the HY. Everyone in the campground was good.

[JRTJH]

About 10 years ago we were in the UP for a fishing trip. We set up the trailer on a nice level spot, put the boat in the water and headed out. "Bluebird skies" and calm, sunny weather. About 2 miles down the lake, the sky turned dark, clouds appeared and the calm water started getting rough. Before I could turn the boat around to head back to the trailer, we were in 5 and 6 foot waves with hail pounding the boat. There was no where to go, so we rode it out. Lightening, thunder, hail, waves as tall as the boat was long and then, all of a sudden, it was over. Blue skies, calm water, just like nothing had happened, except a mile from shore, there were leaves and twigs floating on the water. Drenched, we headed back to the trailer to get dry. As we walked from the lake to the trailer, I noticed a tree limb on top of the trailer. The closer we got the bigger that limb looked. As we got to the campsite, I realized a tree trunk laying against the back of the trailer with broken limbs on the roof. I unlocked the trailer, opened the door and there were as many limbs inside as there were outside... Had we been in the trailer, sitting in the recliners, we'd probably been hurt. There were broken limbs puncturing the seats in both recliners.

That's when I realized just how fragile a travel trailer really is and how fortunate we were to have been on the water, riding out that storm rather than being "warm and dry inside"....

Needless to say, we cut our trip short and the next day, ordered our new trailer.....

[flybouy]

Nowadays you could sell that as "an open air concept that lets you get in touch with nature" .

[rlh1957]

You make your own decision.
Many say ride it out and others say run like hell.

Fact is Nothing is tornado proof that’s above ground.
Few things can withstand direct high wind or water no matter what tie down you may have.