This week here in Iowa is severe weather awareness week. Being the outdoorswoman that I am, I have been caught in some bad storms on accident. I have done some stupid stuff and almost paid the price for it. Severe weather is nothing to mess around with here folks.
Here in Iowa we get thunder, lightning, downpour rains, tornadoes, high winds, straight line winds, hail, flash floods, flooding, Blizzards, ice storms, and freezing rain.
If you know that it's going to be potentially dangerous weather you should avoid going out, but if you're a die-hard like I am, you won't. So how do you stay safe and not get caught in a bad situation? Well I have several radar applications. My favorite for hiking and mushroom hunting is StormEye. It's great for knowing exactly what time a storm cell will hit you. I wish I would have had it 3 years ago!
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| Local news channel radar |
So 3 years ago I took Scott and my friend Jo out mushroom hunting. I knew that there was a chance for storms but I took the chance anyway. At first we get out there and get about half way up the trail and it starts sprinkling. No big deal, we just turn around and go back to the car to wait it out. While this is going on I check the radar to see another storm cell on its way. It was bigger and stronger but a ways away.
Once the first cell passes we start back on the trail.
So here we are deep down about 2 miles from the car. I got my face down searching around for the ever elusive morel. By now two more of my friends have joined us. From the right of me I hear Scott, "hey Randi I think we need to leave." I glance up to notice the clouds moving in and tell him that we are fine and go back to searching. A few minutes later I hear "Uh Randi, the sky qis pink." Now This gets my attention. I pop up and look around. It's far too early for the sun to be setting...
"Yep we gotta go, Now"
So here we are, 5 of us, making our way out of these woods attempting to beat the storm. Jo has bad knees, Kat is out of shape, I'm not in the best of shape either. As we make our way out I'm screaming into the woods knowing that others are also out mushroom hunting. Kat and her boyfriend fall behind. Jo starts having knee issues so Scott and I are cheering her on.
The thunder is getting louder and it's starting to sprinkle. Kat and her boyfriend fall behind, I yell to them to keep up. I get the reply of Don't worry about us, we are on our way out. So we keep going.
We are almost out, one last uphill to the car and Jo starts having issues. Scott and I each grab an arm and basically almost carry her up the hill.
Just as we close the doors on the car the skies open up.
As we are making our way back to town a tornado warning is issues. Funnel clouds have been spotted in the area that we are approaching, heading for us. I am driving head on into this storm. I am facing grey out conditions, large hail, straight line winds, and a possible tornado. Let's do this!
So here I am doing 45 in a 55 zone, I can see 1-2 foot in front of the car, just enough to stay between the lines. I got Scott sitting in the middle of this 2010 Pontiac G6, I got Jo leaning into the middle as far as she could, both are looking for any sign of a tornado. I have hail and straight line winds slamming the side of the car and I can just almost make out flashing lights in front of me. I can't tell how far away they are.
Suddenly I can see that they are a car stopped in the middle of the road with a bunch of debris in front of it. As I'm looking at all of that a white thing becomes visible laying on the road in my lane, I don't have any time to react, we go over it. Luckily it was flat, whatever it was.
2 miles later it was over with blue skies and a rainbow. I called Kat to make sure that they had made it out, they had. They had stopped and let the storm pass.
Looking back now I realize how stupid I was and how Lucky we were to have made it out when we did. The white thing I ran over was part of a barn that had blown apart just moments before we came up to it. I am pretty sure that a small tornado hit it, the wind was coming from the south, the barn had been to the north.
We could have been blown off the road, we could have been hit by lightning, we could have been trapped in the woods when the storm hit, we could have had a tree fall on us. Several trees down in the area that we had been in.
This is just one example of being stupid when it comes to the weather. Make sure you know what is coming before you go out. Do not go out if inclement weather is on its way.
Lightning can strike up to 20 miles in front of the storm. Tornados can form without notice. Hail can quickly go from sleet to golf ball sized. Wind gusts can come seemingly out of nowhere. Mother Nature is not to be trifled with.
Stay safe out there
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