What's the worst storm you've ever driven through?

[Childbride]

i was driving home tonight, and went through a badonka donk of a hailstorm. nickel to quarter size... said to myself as i watched the windshield to see if it was going to hold 'so this is what the inside of an empty beer can feels like'... :D [there's a tornado on the ground about a half hour south of us right now]

i've been through several horror stories with storms on I35, and have several friends who've been chased by twisters this time of year up the corridor, including one who actually saw the F5 chasing him to Salado when it touched down in Jarrell in 97.

got me curious. what is the hands-down worst storm you've ever driven through? feel free to embellish, makes a story better. ;) texans darned near expect you to. :rotflmao:

[just strum]

Three storms, not sure which one was worse.

In order of occurance:

1) Snow storm in 1978 - as I was getting ready to leave the apartment building to go to work, windows started breaking and section of the roof were flying through the parking lot. Got in my car and went to work.

http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/content/1978_blizzard.htm

2) May 2, 1983 driving home from work and it started hailing extremely hard and large hail stones. I stopped my car under the freeways overpass to wait it out. Within a couple of minutes it stopped. I drove another five miles to my house and found out as I was sitting under the bridge a tornado passed down the freeway I was sitting under. Three people killed just a mile from my house.

3) Don't remember the year, but it was a snow storm as I was going home from work and I couldn't see beyond the front of my car. I was on a road that was straight as an arrow and slowly made my way a few miles. I couldn't find a driveway to turn into and I couldn't stop for fear someone would plow into me. As approached an intersection it started to lighten up and I was able to pick up speed and eventually made it home with about 2 to 3 hours tacked onto the drive.

[Spudman]

Sideways snow at night with zero visibility driving at 5 mph from Idaho Falls Idaho to Jackson Wyoming over two mountain passes. It took hours and it's not really that far. I was never so happy to have a beer as I was after that drive.

The motion of the blanket of snow in front of the windshield was hypnotizing and it was all I could see. I just had to go from reflector post to reflector post and do it carefully. When I felt my tires go off the road I would gently steer back on to the road. Any quick moves would have been disastrous because the road was ice covered. I could only do this because I knew the road very well. There was nobody else on the road that night.

So ladies think about this...a man (me) will put himself at great peril to be with you if good beer and warm hugs await.;)

[luvmyshiner]

So ladies thing about this...a man (me) will put himself at great peril to be with you if good beer and warm hugs await.;)

Spud, I don't think wiser words have ever been spoken.:master:

[Childbride]

wow... [strum, the pictures really drove that one home]

my funny [in an ironic way, not a ha ha way] horrible storm story on I35 goes like this:

it was jan, 1997. mom was having a crisis, and i went to comfort her down in s.a.

i was driving back home to waco, and we'd had a VERY unusual weather phenomenon, an ice/snow storm that went from north texas clear down to the valley... normally, snow doesn't pass south of us, or maybe austin.

the trip from my front door at the time, to s.a., was 3 hours, 15 mins.

in reverse, it took seven hours. i crept along, in the ice and snow, passing car after car in the ditches on either side of the highway.

i got to south waco, called the ex, told him i was in town, he asked me to pick up something at the store.

just then, i hit a patch of black ice and slammed into an suv... who had just stopped to pick up the passengers of a car from another wreck. :rotflmao:

[street music]

Hard to decide on the worst, I remember a trip through OHIO to visit my brother about 5 years ago we kept noticing the sky getting darker, winds were very strong and the wif finally saw objects flying through the air, then we saw the funnel cloud and a overpass just ahead of us. We managed to get under the bridge and others behind us did to, lightning was horrible, hail balls huge, wife scared out of her mind(she stays that way a lot now) and it finally went cross the field and away from us.
I had a bad snow storm(96) I think, I was still working as a lineman at that time ad we were getting hammered, worked 36 straight ours driving was very dangerous because of falling trees, powerlines and the crazy people trying to see all the damage. That morning after running into a falling tree, I had one to fall on me while climbing down a pole. SNOW and ICE storms are not my favorites.

[sunvalleylaw]

I awoke one morning in May, 1980, at Bumping Lake, Washington. It was a beautiful crisp morning in the mountains. The sky was bright clear blue without a hint of a cloud anywhere. So I headed off to the rustic old boat rental shop on the far end of the lake, riding my trusty Hodaka mini-bike, in hopes of landing the biggest fish ever caught by man. After forking over a king’s ransom for a boat reservation ($14), I was headed back to the campground when I noticed clouds boiling in. Suddenly rain began to sting my eyes like thousands of tiny sewing needles, so I slowed the Hodaka down to a crawl. When I looked out at the lake to check out the raindrops bouncing on the mirror-calm water, I noticed there weren’t any. Just my luck, I thought. “It’s only raining on me.” I began to feel a little like a Charlie Brown character when I noticed it wasn’t rain that was now blanketing me, but ash. That’s when the horrible realization hit me like a blast from Mike Tyson. This is NUCLEAR BOMB FALLOUT!

When I reached the campground, I observed fellow campers scrambling to evacuate. When I heard one fellow yell, “St. Helens blew!” I was very much relieved. I had just survived what I thought was a nuclear war, so this little old volcano wasn’t going to run us off. The other campers, however, were screeching out of the campground in their motor homes. Many didn’t bother reeling in their attached awnings, and they were subsequently ripped off on trees lining the narrow campground road.

Everything else that was outside—ice chests, lawn chairs, fishing gear, or wives—remained behind. Heck, I felt like Yogi Bear! As I was trying to figure out how to get all of those pic-n-nik baskets into our 1954 Chevy pickup, the sky rapidly grew darker. I had to quickly light our lantern, and within a few minutes you couldn’t see the glow of the mantle from more than 10 feet away. The billowing ash choked our lungs so badly it was like trying to breathe at a Grateful Dead reunion. I now figured, being the last one there wasn’t such a good idea after all. Near tears at the thought of leaving all of those treasures behind, I stepped on the floor starter of the ‘54 pickup, turned on the powerful six-volt battery system’s headlights, and eased our way out of the campground.

Visibility was, at best, five feet in front of the truck. Ash was pouring in through every orifice of the rickety old bucket of bolts, making seeing and breathing even worse. We had gone only a mile or two down that mountain road when Mother Nature decided to make things even more interesting. All of the hot billowing ash mixing with the cool morning air produced a lightning storm the likes of which I’d never seen. So much, so close, it was rocking the ‘54 like a teenage girl at a hip hop concert. Though we tried to make light of the situation,we knew we were in serious trouble. We had already run off the road twice by this time, though fortunately neither venture was off a 1000-foot cliff. Admiral, on the other hand, was happy to be riding in the back of the truck with all of that ash and his new found pic-n-nik baskets.

After miles of rocking and rolling in the dark, we realized the dense ash was finally coming to an end when we spotted a state trooper near the city limit of Yakima. He had set up a roadblock to keep people from going into that from which we had just emerged. No one was leaving Yakima any time soon so we needed a place to stay. We trudged into the lobby of the nearest hotel. The folks that were gathered in the lobby buzzing about the day’s events all turned in our direction and stared in horror. The thought of having a giant booger on my lip passed when one patron spoke up. “Where in the hell have you guys been?” We realized what he was talking about. We were both shrouded in ash like gray ghosts. The hotel owners gave us a room at cost. Either they were the nicest folks I’d met in a long time, or they didn’t want us to haunt them. We were stranded in Yakima for a couple of days until the highway was cleared of the millions of tons of ash that had blanketed eastern Washington that dreadful day in May.




(ok, i wasn't driving that day, we were out water skiing on puget sound in Gig Harbor, near Tacoma, and received no ash. But it was a big deal, we did drive in fallen ash later, and it makes a good story. ;-))

Truly, I probably drove in some white out that was bad, and do have specific memories of rain that the wipers would not clear and the car was hydroplaning so badly I though we might slip into the next car on the freeway. No twisters or anything though.

[just strum]

May 18, 1980 - 5/18 is my birthday, so I will always remember Mt Saint Helens.

[Spudman]

Sunny boy, where did you get that story?:poke:

[sunvalleylaw]

Sunny boy, where did you get that story?:poke:

Story credited as follows:

http://www.northwestmagazines.com/northwest-mount-st-helens-1980.php :D


At the time, I was 17, and we had (still have) a cabin up near White Pass. It got plenty of ash, and it was a mess to clean. I worked at White Pass for my yearly ski ticket, and remember playing some two on two after work, while getting some coarse ash rained down on us from after eruptions in about August. I had friends that lost a cabin on the Toutle river, and the dad of that family had an old porsche that he taped furnace filters on over the air vents so he could drive the air cooled car in Longview, WA. Years later, if you would touch a tree near White Pass, or dig a few inches down into the earth, you would find the layer of ash. I guess you still could.

[markb]

The 1987 southern English hurricane. London didn't get the full force of the storm but I remember thinking "it's a bit blowy tonight" on my way home from a band rehearsal on the other side of town. The storm a few weeks later when all the stuff loosened up by the earlier winds was far scarier. I saw roofs ripped off buildings along the Embankment.

[player]

when living in Florida I very unwisely tried to beat out Hurricane Irene on a two lane highway from Key West to the mainland on highway A1A is the only way to or from the keys ,no shoulders - Ocean on both sides.made it to Miami proper before I could get on I 95 to West Palm where I lived.that was one scary drive but made it.even looking to move back there soon. after two the 2004 canes nailed us diirectly only to move here in Aug of 05 to say hello to a twister in Nov. of 05.there have been no hurricanes in FL since and at least you know when their coming.

[Katastrophe]

The storm CB drove through is now pummelling my home and cars. Thankfully, no hail... yet.

The worst storm I've ever been in happened when I was a kid of about 6 or 7. Family and friends went to Godfather's Pizza in Austin for some reason or another. We all pile in Mom's Suburban for the trip home and it started to rain. I then proceeded to count 6 small tornadoes touch down around us as we drove on down the road. Kinda scary, but we made it home okay.

[Childbride]

scary, funny, interesting... all of them. thank you for your stories! :)

[Kat, i hope y'all didn't get any damage y'all's way...]

[Katastrophe]

Nah, by the time the rain got to us, the storm had weakened somewhat, and all we got was rain.

I hope the Shiner residence didn't have to deal with hail or tornadoes!

[luvmyshiner]

Had some marble size hail for about ten minutes, but no serious damage. I still have to find a roof guy to take care of what blew off while we were out of town. I got up there and tacked it down . . no leaks so far but it won't last forever.

[piebaldpython]

Guys, I'm disappointed in you. How could ALL of you have missed the obvious.......being in a car, with no way to escape when your wife/significant other/girlfriend has a royal s**t fit tantrum!!!! You know THAT fit I'm speaking about, right?? The ONE where you PRAY that a tornado will come and put and end to your misery. :bravo: Just bustin' chops!!!

Seriously,.....hmmmmm....I wasn't driving in it but the Blizzard of '96 that dumped over 30 some inches of snow in as many hours had to take the cake. Philly was paralyzed for a week straight. Never saw anything like it.

[pes_laul]

The worst storm I have ridden through was probably last night driving home with my buddies from roller rink. To top it off we had 7 people in a two door car:eek: we had 4 in the back site and two people in the passenger side (no middle seat) and thenj the driver. It was raining and lightning so hard we couldn't see we went sideways a couple times. I finally got home around 12:00 only a hour or so late....

[marnold]

I think it's a tie for me. One was back in '93. I was driving from a conference in Brookings, SD, back to Mitchell. Nasty storms the whole way. Lightning striking to the right and left of us. Low clouds spinning, just begging to turn into tornadoes. Blech.

The other was I think the November of '06. I was driving home from Milwaukee in a downpour. Suddenly everything froze. It froze so quickly there were tire ruts all over the highway, jostling the car. They closed highway 41 both ways while I was in the middle of it. Then it turned to a blizzard. I was thisclose to stopping and getting a hotel room even though I was only about an hour from home (under normal circumstances). Then, just as suddenly, as I got north the snow turned to drizzle--and non-freezing drizzle at that. I was supposed to meet my kids in Green Bay for a hockey game. I thought I'd get there several hours early. I got there 15 minutes after the game started. It should take less than 2 hours to get from Milwaukee to Green Bay. It took me well over 4.

[luvmyshiner]

I've given this a lot of thought, and I'm going to have to say . . . the divorce from the second wife.

:saw:

Oh, sorry . . . wrong kinda storm.

[player]

I've given this a lot of thought, and I'm going to have to say . . . the divorce from the second wife.

:saw:

Oh, sorry . . . wrong kinda storm.

yeah shiner your definitely have a winner there with CB no doubt about it.seems like a great gal you're a lucky guy :D

[helliott]

21 or so years ago, driving to my new home in Southern Ontario from Grande Prairie Alberta. Riding in my '78 Bronco, loaded with books, records etc. Crossing the top of Lake Superior near a place called Schreiber, hit an amazing storm coming off the lake. Frigid wind (-20 or so), driving snow, zero visibility. Cops finally closed the TransCanada and a lineup of cars and semis pulled into Schreiber. Rooms sold out, but I found one in a motel that was opening up a wing not typically used in winter. No heat on at first.
We all plugged our block heaters in, one guy with a luxury Saab plugged in his block, oil plan warmer and an interior warmer. Threw the breaker for that wing of outlets, but no one knew til the next morning and all the vehicles were frozen solid. Took til 4 in the afternoon to get the Bronco thawed and get back on the road. I'll always remember calling my wife from a phone booth near the motel and telling her of my situation -- had to literally shout over the howling wind. Never, ever been that cold, don't want to be.
Great stories!

[Childbride]

helliott... brrrrr.... yuck...

player, thank you. :) i'm pretty sure i owe strummy a big ole thank you too... yeah, i'm sure i do.

strum, thank you, too. :D any day i can make you laugh is a Good Day. ;) [edit: cross reference to your Guy Talk thread]

[bigoldron]

When I was in college (MANY years ago), there were a few of us working with this company with whom we worked out of town every week. One of the nights, me and this other guy left Atlanta on another guy's company car headed home (about a 225 mile drive). We had already started drinking beer before we left and hadn't gone 30 miles or so before it ran hot. We pulled off an exit, waited for it to cool off. The dufus at the gas station made the brilliant statement that, "no wonder it's hot - all the water's gone!" I knew it was a stuck thermostat and I also knew it was useless to argue, so we told him to fill the radiator and we took off again. I knew we were only about 15-20 miles to the next exit and we'd get it fixed there. Well, we barely made it to the next exit and we left it with the mechanic and hit the Holiday Inn lounge and went back to sucking down more beer. After several beers, he had it fixed, so we paid him and left.

After about 3 more hours (many bathroom breaks and more beer purchases), we got close to a small town about 40 miles from home. It was getting late, around 10 p.m. or so, when we ran into one the worst storms that I've ever driven in. (I was the one who was still able to drive.) Anyway, it was the heaviest rain I've ever seen - you couldn't see the end of the hood, much less down the road. And the LIGHTNING was TERRIBLE! It was striking in the trees and ditches on either side of us and was popping so fast and so often it looked like a strobe light!

Well, we finally got to the small town and it was still storming terribly and, of course, we had to pee again. We stopped at this small convenience store and asked to use their bathroom. Well the sweet young lady working wouldn't let us, so we walked out front and looked around. Using beer induced logic and reason, plus the fact that it was raining so hard you couldn't see the street from the store front, we walked to corner and let it fly right there. It was probably a good thing the police weren't riding by, cause that would have more than likely gotten us put UNDER the jail. But, no one saw us, and we cruised on home without further incident. Guess someone was looking after us after all. :beer: