Anyone been in 'interesting' weather?

[GoldStarAngel]

I was on the edge of a rain storm today. Literally being rained on one side of the street but not the other. Loved it - felt v cool and like I was inside a scientific experiment. Any others?

I used to live in South Florida, so I've lived through hurricanes, the creepiest part is not the rain but the eye where it's just complete silence but you know it is all about to start again.

Loved reading these last night

@MarcelineMissouri

In Boston a few years ago. I said to dh it was forecast to rain so let’s get back to our hotel. The clouds were gray but it wasn’t actually raining at all yet …… Until it was. It literally was like someone pouring a bath full of water over us. We went from dry to completely drenched in a millisecond. I’ve never experienced rain quite like that, no build up at all, just instantly torrential.

I had that when picking kids up from the primary school disco a few years back. It was actually shocking how torrential it was. It started the minute they came out the building.. We all had coats on, were only out in it for as long as it took to get back to the car, so 5 mins max, but ended up soaked through. I mean, literally, our underwear was wet. I had no idea it could rain so intensely, it was like Armageddon! Never happened before or since.

@Isababybel

Saw a smallish tornado in Florida in 1997. Ive tried to look it up as i remember it being on the local news as it caused damage but can find no evidence of it.

Though Florida does get tornadoes, you might be thinking of a hurricane. Search hurricane Danny Florida 1997.

My own are:

Watching a tornado approach my office on the 26th floor of a high rise;

Driving (crawling) through a blizzard on a motorway traffic where the visibility was about six inches in front of the car—absolutely terrifying, nowhere to stop, nothing to do but keep inching forward;

Literally cooking an egg on the pavement during a massive heatwave (but not eating it).

All in the same city of Denver, Colorado.

We drove through Hurricane Charlie (it was the one time my DPs ever stopped for us to eat in a restaurant on that trip - sausages and beans- as they were afraid there'd be no power when we got home). I remember a number of times when standing water on the roads came well up the car.

DH and I drove "home" for Christmas on 24th Dec, with very high winds, almost the last year before the full motorway opened. Driving through 1 town renowned for the river breaking its banks and flooding (and cutting off 1 side of the town from the other on the main road), there were slates flying off roofs in front of us and the water was already sloshing on the road either side of the bridge, Gardai were on 1 side and another Garda car was about 4 cars behind us so we think we literally just got through before they closed the road...detour, at best, was an extra 40 miles on country roads, depending on state of the river upstream. (Motorway now has a bridge 100 feet above river...).

We "survived" Tropical Storm Arlene, when we were in Cuba and I was 12 weeks pg. Pool shut for 3 days of our 1 week stay, beach closed, spraying for bugs in the aftermath (I didn't want to think what they were spraying), but the actual "storm" felt far less stormy than a normal Winter's blow here. Just a stiff breeze and couple of hours of heavy (but not torrential) rain.

I was in the play park with the kids. It was a beautiful, red hot sunny day. Not a cloud in the sky. Out of nowhere, small flurries of snow started falling. Everyone in the park was confused that day and looking up. Still no clouds in the sky, the sun was still beaming and it was still red hot.
No clue how and why the snow fell. It didn't last long, but it made no sense that it was happening.

When I was 8 there were a few days and nights of torrential rain and our house got flooded up to a depth of 3 feet. I remember clearly the mess and smell and the milk being delivered by boat. We had the army in with huge driers to dry out the walls once the water receded.

On holiday in the French Alps there was a thunderstorm which started in the valley below us and gradually moved up the mountainside. Only time I have seen lightning from above while still on the ground!

A sandstorm in the Abu Dhabi desert where we were living at the time. Couldn’t see a thing out of the windows, and it took me ages to clean up all the sand that made its way in around the window frames.

An almost-hurricane (tropical storm) in Barbados. Wind howling all night, lashing rain, sea the next morning looking like the North Sea on a bad day in winter, grey, stormy, full of debris. Lots of lovely old trees blown down, hotel gardens littered with debris. Breakfast next morning involved paddling to your table (roofed open air dining room).

Amazing how quickly the Bajans cleared it all up, though - hotel staff were fantastic, and the sea was soon back to its calm, turquoise self.

Not me but my brother was walking home from school and ball lightning appeared and broke the pavement right in front of him. He said it was so loud his ears were ringing, but I don't think he ever realised how close he was to being killed.

Brilliant thread, OP...really fascinating.

Not particularly odd weather, but I was once in Chicago in a major winter storm. We had to go and buy more suitable clothing, despite having packed our winter walking gear, and I learned that windchill of minus 40 means that the wind seems to physically assault you at every corner.

Thundersnow in Stoke on trent. Not as exciting as some of the other tales.

Actually, I forgot what had been a lovely, scattered clouds and sunny spells day, very gentle breeze going up the hill, on a hike with my Cub pack. Went into the small bit of treeline near the top, came out into still lovely weather, climbed the last 100 feet or so across boggy field but the weather suddenly turned with wind whipping up from nowhere. Cubs thought it was hilarious (all 22 of them!). Leaders - eh not quite so. All had to stay very low to the ground, 1 got blown down a short distance, but we had to huddle them in the small space behind 3 large rocks on the peak for it to die away before we could move.

15 minutes later, it was again beautiful autumn sunshine and grass barely moving in the gentle breeze.

If 1 of the Leaders hadn't taken a quick video, no one would have believed us how wild it became up there!!

@MadameOvary81 thanks. I can't imagine being on a ship nearby!

In France one year woken up by a huge thunderstorm. Stood at the window watching full horizon of lighting strikes over and over like war of the worlds. Never seen anything like it again and it really scared me at the time.
We had young DC and I was thinking should we leave/ get in the car I didn’t know what to do. Just stayed watching it for hours until it moved away.

My last house was weirdly prone to lighting strikes. Perfectly ordinary terrace, but storms seemed to love that street.

Had our boiler taken out by a lightning strike, at least the repair man said that was the only explanation for just how fried it was.

The worst was the time I opened the door, turned back for something and that precise moment lightning hit outside the front door, which was still open. I was just inside the doorway, not actually looking outwards but there was a split second searing white light and a strong weird smell and a sort of metallic ... something in the air. And a serious adrenaline hit when I realised just how close it'd been.

We had several more unnervingly close lightning and thunder storms in the years I lived there. When the gap between the thunder and lightning started closing I'd get the kids in and if it closed to zero, I'd turn the pc off.

We once went to Thailand and the hotel served tea and cake every day at 4pm. We soon learned it was because there was a storm and downpour just for an hour at that time every day. It was mad!

Was in Tucson and it started raining. Sky was purple. People were driving on the wrong side of the road because theirs was flooded. It was very dicey.

Got back to the built-into-the-mountain hotel and was told to get a complimentary bottle and sit in the bar while the staff moved our luggage. Our original room had flooded. The morning news showed cars floating down the street. Was an interesting time!

We went on holiday to Finland, went on a reindeer sleigh ride. It was about -25, we were in survival type suits and all sorts, but the cold got through easily. Felt quite panicked as we got further away from the lodge!

The most extreme in Ireland might have been the time I drove into a rainstorm on a really hot day. It not that unusual to drive into rain but it was really warm and sunny, I think 22C, and we drove into a wall of rain from the sunshine and the temperature dropped to 10C and the windows were instantly covered in condensation on the inside.

When I was leaving Canada there was a tornado on the way to the airport, but it wasn't that close to the road so it was interesting rather than scary. The plane was delayed because there was lighting with the tornado so they couldn't refuel and then after we took off we had the worst turbulence I've ever experienced (might have been a different storm).

The same Canada trip had the biggest hailstones I've ever seen too. Up to tennis ball size. The noise they made hitting the cars was unreal.

Years ago I was dry on one side of the road and it was hailing really heavily on the other side of the road. I was on my own on the dry side while all the mums outside the school gates on the hailing side were getting absolutely pelted. They couldn't tell my side was dry. It was most surreal as I felt like I was watching something from outside. I was a young 20 y/o nanny so I was mostly on the outskirts anyway.

We (Yorkshire) had an electrical storm a couple of years ago. The thunder and lightning just didn't stop for a full 30 minutes. It was literally constant. Never seen anything like it.

We'd been out for a walk on a really stormy day and as it got more severe we thought we'd better get home. Two huge trees came down in the car park as we were about to leave. Scared the shit out of me.

When I was a teenager we were sailing in Greece. We were dropping anchor in a really quiet bay and this hot wind came over us. It felt really creepy. Apparently they're called catabatic winds as the air falls down from the higher ground, in this case it was hot after a 40 degree day and the air from the hills was much hotter than the air over the water. Not severe, just uncommon to experience it.

In Christchurch, New Zealand we went to the Antarctic centre where they have a kind of snowstorm simulation room. You get all kitted out in special clothing (maybe it was just a big coat), there's real snow in there and and they turn up the wind. It gets to -25c. You'd think knowing it was just a room and a bit of fun, it would be ok for 10 minutes but it was horrible! I lasted three minutes!

Mini tornadoes on the beach in Italy as a child, watching parasols and clothing spiralling up into the air.

-27c in Moscow, swimming in a heated open air pool with everything turning to ice.

Monsoon in Thailand, as pp said, like clockwork every day, a strange mist rose up over the trees and it bucketed down like nothing I’d ever seen, before abruptly switching off. So odd.

Sydney - THE best lightning storm I have ever seen in real life or on tv. Mesmerising and terrifying all at the same time!

Years ago in Australia outback. They had fires one week. The next week when was there it was raining at Uluru which was told was the first rain in two years! Then it got hot again. We saw rain, sand storms, burnt trees and Bush then culminating in the most scary flood in Alice springs. We went to bed to backed soil and a dry river bed and woke up to river flooded. Terrified does not touch it. But the was a storm in the UK years ago which involved the holiday park we was staying on being evacuated. Me and dh was asked to leave at 11pm but we was pissed socouldnt drive. Woke up to the news of the parks evacuation on the BBC news in the morning. I did think that one was one the most scary nights of my life. Dh slept through it!

@MadameOvary81 my Dad was on that ship too! Someone was live blogging the whole way across which was reassuring as I waited for him to arrive.

My weather: used to live in the states and we had a massive ice storm. It was beautiful the next day - ice sparkling over everything - but so much destruction! We lived in a forest and so many trees came down our house and car were totalled (we rented, they eventually moved us to another property as the damage was so extensive). It was terrifying lying in bed at night in the dark and cold - power was out and stayed out about 2 weeks - listening to the crack and fall as the trees fell. And an occasional massive crash when one hit the house. In the morning we found one had nearly come through the bedroom roof.

The great storm of 1987, watching big stone roof tiles frisbee off the farmhouse roof and burying themselves into the lawn, trees crashing down and the sound of the wind screaming around the house.

-46° in Leningrad where the air sparkled like glitter in the sunshine and your eyelashes and nasal hair froze.

Laying on the beach in hot sunshine at Sidmouth and watching sea mist roll in until you were in a thick fog, very atmospheric and creepy!