Have you ever seen a tornado? Or felt a proper earthquake?

[CiaoBe]

Both fascinate me.
I felt a TINY earthquake in the UK many years ago. Woke me up from a sleep and felt the wardrobes shake.

Thought it was a dream till next day but I can't imagine what a proper earthquake feels like. To have the actual earth move under you.

Also I have a morbid fascination with tornados. They terrify me but I would absolutely love to see one in real life.

We had a proper earthquake in New York last week. A tornado passed about ten miles south of me some years ago, but I didn’t witness it.

Yes, a proper earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia, a few years after the tsunami - a dd was working there. Woke in the middle of the night to feel the hotel room bed shaking as if a giant had got hold of it, and all the hangers in the wardrobe rattling like mad. It was bloody scary! Dh, of course, had to pretend he didn’t find it scary at all….
Thank God it was a modern hotel, supposedly earthquake proof. Staff were quite unconcerned, since it was ‘only’ a 6.1.

Years before, a minor one in Greece. Again in a hotel, having breakfast - there was a slight tremor, as if a huge heavy lorry had just driven right past. All the guests looked at each other - was that what we thought it was?

I don’t think the waitress even noticed - she was a student, apparently doing a maths degree when it wasn’t summer holidays, and often seemed to be away with the fairies anyway!

I was in the USA last week, I felt the earthquake but didn’t realise until afterwards when the news came on what it was! I was in the hotel and thought someone was moving furniture around.

Grew up in Nz. Loads of earthquuakes all the time. Now live in the US and we get tornadoes but haven’t seen one.

last week one touched down in our town and a firestone was wiped out.
mh friend had one go through her backyard and took down the fence.
2017 a friends husband heard one go past their house down the utility corridor at the back. No damage with that one. Don’t really want to see one, I do really, but if I’m seeing it, it can’t be good. We don’t have storm shelters/basements here due to the ground type. We used to get loads of warning and I’d ignore them, meanwhile my friends were hiding under the stairs.

Yes and yes yes. Tornado somewhere in far North America, somewhere in the desert., driving in the middle of nowhere and watching the tornado dance and swirl ahead of us. Was a small one.

Earthquake in Hondurous. Also a small one. Also in Wimbledon several years later :)

Worse for me was a cyclone. Cyclone Joy, Queensland. Out sailing. Scariest time of my life. Fortunately it was a big, sturdy yacht that had previously competed in tough Aussie races, but I feel lucky to have lived through that experience. Knew if someone had lost grip and fallen in we'd never have got them out. Still makes me think about it.

Didn't see it in person but I definitely heard the great Birmingham tornado of 2005. The sky went completely black and I've never heard a storm like it. It passed close by our house.

I shit you not.

Also saw first-hand the aftermath. Was unbelievable that no-one was killed. Knew several people whose homes were severely damaged and had to be housed in temporary accommodation for months.

Yes to both. We have several earthquakes a day on average and I have felt a handful.

A tornado passed within 50 ft of our house about ten years ago

Quite a few earthquakes but no tornadoes. I live in NZ so EQs relatively common. They definitely feel strange/scary and you always wonder just how big and just how long they are going to be.

I also live in NZ and have felt lots of earthquakes. We are expecting 'The Big One' also, but ours is from the Alpine Faultline in the South Island. Our former family house and my former workplace were both demolished after the Darfield quake (I wasn't living, or working, in them at the time).

There was a tornado near my town a few years ago, but I knew nothing about it until afterwards - thank goodness.

I live in the Southern US, so I've experienced a lot of tornado warnings, but only seen one in the flesh so to speak. It was fairly small and weirdly to me it was green because of all the shrubbery that was mixed up in it.

I experienced very minor tremors from an earthquake when we were on holiday in rural New York State several years ago.

There was a tornado in North London about 18 years ago. A house round the corner from me had its roof and two walls ripped off. It was crazy.

Most of my life has been spent living in various parts of tornado alley. Funnel clouds and tornados are common sights. Though seeing a funnel cloud is more likely because if its an actual tornado, I’m going to be in a shelter as quickly as possible.

plenty of earthquakes because I did a decade in Southern California.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006Londonn_tornado

I felt a decent earthquake in 2002. It was a sunday night and I'd just got in from a karaoke at the pub. Epicentre was in Dudley I believe, and I was living in Brum with my parents.

I haven't properly experienced a tornado, but when I was about 20, I went into Birmingham city centre on the bus to run a quick errand. 30 minutes later, I was back on the bus travelling home through sparkhill, and all of the building rooves and shop frontages were missing. It was so surreal, as everything had been normal half an hour ago. When I got home, the lunchtime news announced a tornado in Birmingham, and it all made sense!

No, but I’ve experienced a proper hurricane. Does that count?
And I went home the day before an earthquake, so I count that as an almost. 😀

I've been through a few British ones, but the hardest was in Antigua where it lasted for about 10 seconds and I was woken up because the bed was rippling.

I've never seen a tornado, but I have a funnel cloud and possibly a waterspout. I've also seen a dust devil

We were in new york for that recent earthquake, we were in a lift at the time but didn't feel anything. More worrying was the constant noisy alerts on our phones warning us to stay indoors.

A minor one in Cumbria around 2010. Initially I thought that it was a truck or something.

One earth tremor in the UK, very early 70s. It was the Pendleton Fault slipping. It felt as though my bed had jumped an inch, but it was the bed catching up with the floor dropping.

Three since I've been in Melbourne, proper rumbling and house shaking. I'm amazed at how common they are here.

A small tornado - the sky went black, the pushchair nearly flew out of my hands.

We made it inside, and a large garden table was thrown against the window. Garden umbrella with 4 paving slabs with heavy terracotta pots holding it down flipped over and smashed into the satellite dish. Large trees came down, it was a terrible mess.

4 streets over, no damage whatsoever.

Yes, a tiny one in south of UK, I was a sleep-in carer in supported living for adults with disabilities, was late night and I was watching TV after adults had gone to bed. They had a parrot who usually with a cloth over it was asleep for the night, he suddenly started going crazy i was shhing him not to wake up the adults when everything shook only a few seconds. I was very confused I thought one of the adults had woken and was shaking or stomping or something in their bedroom. My dad called me asking me if i had felt it? Felt what I said? The Earthquake! Oh, thats what that was / was very odd feeling.

I remember having a very strange dream once, then in the car on the way to school the radio was talking excitedly about an earthquake!

Small one in San Francisco years later. I was in a shopping centre, everyone just stopped for a moment, then kept going when it was only tiny.

Much bigger one in Asia a few years later. Was sitting on my sofa when it started sliding back and forth across the room. Only about 6.5, but enough to make me never want to experience a bigger one!

Felt aftershocks in Kefalonia in 2003. Felt the bed shake one morning and the sofa shake one evening. I didn't realise what they were until someone in another apartment told us there had been an strong earthquake the week before we flew out.

I experienced a 6.2M earthquake. I was some distance from the epicentre but it still felt strong because it was shallow. I had the telly on watching a local news programme and there was an almighty rumbling and shaking and the presenter yelled "this is it, this is a big one, we will all die" then the broadcast cut because the power went. I checked a few days later and he did not die but sadly lots of other people did. It was frightening and the aftershocks spook you badly - you imagine you feel them even when you don't, in the end. It's such a fundamental thing, to not trust the ground beneath your feet.

I’ve ’felt’ quite a bad earthquake in Turkey when I was a kid. I use the quote marks because I actually completely slept through it. It was about 7.8 and my mum still mocks me for
my ability to sleep through anything now.