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Hot Hot Hot!!!

Debbie

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Camelot
No surprises here in New Orleans....it's about 85 (feels like 88).

Summer has arrived in the Big Easy, no doubt about it...:)
summer has arrived along with the mosquitos:(
 

Fievel

RunDisney Addict
I used to live in an area of wisconsin known as "tornado alley" because of the way the area got constant tornadoes during the summer.....we actually were really used to having a tornado warning every couple weeks.....still do.....
 

TURKEY

New Member
Originally posted by Debbie

summer has arrived along with the mosquitos:(

Keep the mosquitos down there. They haven't made it to Arkansas yet. We just have knats. The wasps are out big time already.

The gators have already shown up too.
 

The Mom

Moderator
Premium Member
Originally posted by s25843

We have Had one serious night here where they were actually issuing Tornado Warnings (May of 1999) but we really dont get many warnings...

You guys (or most of you in FL) also live in Hurricane Proof Houses......I would rather live in a concrete house than have a cellar!!!!

Actually, my house is brick and wood frame! But it's almost 100 years old, so has survived hurricanes. The new addition was built post-Andrew, so it is as wind proof as possible. (fortunately,(for me) the closest tornado hit the next street over....but it was scary! It was classic...black sky, "train" noise,so everybody ran into the bathroom!) We didn't have power for a few days...right in the middle of my daughter's finals!)
 

Maria

New Member
When I moved to Orlando, I wasn´t afraid of hurricanes (I survived Gilbert passing right on my city... scary), but I was afraid of tornadoes! I don´t know if Orlando gets many though... I don´t remember any, but I do remember Floyd while being kept in the aprtment complex everybody playing soccer under the rain :rolleyes: :animwink:
 

Nut4Disney

New Member
When I lived in Kansas city, we had a tornado come down our street. It didn't touch our house, but several others on the street were destroyed. I remember a Dunkin Donuts sign being in our backyard, and the closest Dunkin Donuts was over 30 miles away. :lookaroun
 

howlin_mad

New Member
Originally posted by Maria
I don´t remember any, but I do remember Floyd while being kept in the aprtment complex everybody playing soccer under the rain

And of course Floyd also closed all the theme parks in Orlando for a couple of days. That must have been a sight to see the parks closed and braced for the upcoming hurricane. In my severe storms class last spring my class had to do group presentations on a specific severe weather event, and my group presented on Hurricane Floyd. Cool stuff.

As for my worst storm experience, I guess it would had to have been the derecho that hit in February of 2001. The storm practically originated over my campus (Mississippi State University, located just 15 minutes west of Columbus, MS) with 85+ mph winds, and basically traveled in a straight line to South Carolina. I was at home in Atlanta, GA that evening (I finally left campus and something exciting actually happened there :rolleyes: ), and the winds were still clocked in the upper 70's when the storm passed through my area. As a side note a hurricane can have a windspeed as low as 74 mph. Here's a website about the different hurricane categories: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.html
 

The Mom

Moderator
Premium Member
Originally posted by Maria
When I moved to Orlando, I wasn´t afraid of hurricanes (I survived Gilbert passing right on my city... scary), but I was afraid of tornadoes! I don´t know if Orlando gets many though... I don´t remember any, but I do remember Floyd while being kept in the aprtment complex everybody playing soccer under the rain :rolleyes: :animwink:

The Orlando area has had many tornadoes...one especially severe, with ?deaths. (I can't remember the number...it flattened a whole neighborhood)

I "boarded" up for Floyd...I don't think we even got much rain. HOWEVER, had it not shifted, it would have been tough. At least Jacksonville learned that they couldn't evacuate the beaches...people were stuck on I-10 and elsewhere for hours...that's where they would have been had the hurricane actually hit here. I live on relatively high ground inland(some of my neighbors have basements) so I opted to stay put.

And yes, WDW was only closed for 1 day.
 

s25843

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Most Hurricanes dont make it up all this way before downgrading into Tropical Storms or lighter, but It still can get pretty windy around here. The summer of 2000 was really bad, I remember one day I was stuck in 16 ft seas out in my boat coming home from Boston......
 

tenchu

Well-Known Member
Last time i was in Florida, a ball of lightning or something flew over my mum and dad's car and hit a telegraph pole right behind them. Anyone else every seen anything like that. I was really dissapointed i missed it. I would have liked to have seen that! Damn me for staying behind to go on space mountain again!
 

s25843

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by tenchu
Last time i was in Florida, a ball of lightning or something flew over my mum and dad's car and hit a telegraph pole right behind them. Anyone else every seen anything like that. I was really dissapointed i missed it. I would have liked to have seen that! Damn me for staying behind to go on space mountain again!

One day when I was coming home from a trip, a bolt hit about 20 feet away from my boat. Very Very close and loud, we lost all electrical systems from it
 

tenchu

Well-Known Member
It did sound pretty freaky. You get some damn good electrical storm out in Florida though, one of my favourite past times is watching a good storm. (from the safety of a nice dry house)
 

The Mom

Moderator
Premium Member
Florida is the lightning strike capital of the world! I have a whole house surge protector (installed by the utility company) plus outlet and phone protectors at my computer and TVs. I lost a TV when lightning struck next to our house...my neighbor lost 2 TVs, his phones, and his computer.

My husband lost a patient who was struck by lightning at the beach, and we lost 2 neighbors at our weekend house who had made it back to their dock, but were hit getting out of their boat. The custodian at my son's school was also hit by lightning when he used to work for the electric company. This is all in addition to the many strangers who are hit every year!

Needless to say, I am very respectful of lightning! A meteorologist friend remarked that if you can hear the thunder, you can be struck. He rows with my husband, and is always the first one off the water when a storm is approaching.
 

s25843

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by The Mom


Needless to say, I am very respectful of lightning! A meteorologist friend remarked that if you can hear the thunder, you can be struck. He rows with my husband, and is always the first one off the water when a storm is approaching.

Very Very True

The worst situation I was ever in, was when I was stuck in a lightning storm in the middle of the Merrimack river, in a 12ft Rubber raft, i suppose rubber dosent attract electricity but it was scary!!!
 

howlin_mad

New Member
Originally posted by The Mom
A meteorologist friend remarked that if you can hear the thunder, you can be struck. He rows with my husband, and is always the first one off the water when a storm is approaching.

There are also cases of lightning strikes called bolts from the blue, where the actual lightning strike will be miles away from the storm. These can occur without warning and there's almost no way of detecting where they will strike next. These can occur so far away that you won't even hear the thunder from the other lightning strikes around the storm. One of my former teachers was killed by a bolt from the blue a couple of years ago.

Remember that it's always good if you can hear the thunder. It means that you just survived the first lightning bolt, and you can run for shelter to avoid the next one.

The two worst lightning areas in the U.S. are both in Florida. Jacksonville is often referred to as Lightning Alley, but statistically the most number of lightning strikes each year occurs around everybody's favorite city: Orlando, Florida. That's right, central Florida receives more lightning strikes than any other area in the U.S. Kinda makes you wonder what they were thinking when they built all of those outdoor and elevated rides in Islands of Adventure.
 

DisneyHog6

New Member
All I have to say is "Thank goodness the warm weather is here!" I'm a Southern boy from Arkansas, and it gets too cold for me there. Now that I'm stationed here in Delaware, it's just to darn cold for me. I've been dying here all winter (it was my first winter here) and everyone here tells me it was a mild winter. I'm gonna die if it gets really cold next year. I'm just so happy it's hot again. Shorts and t-shirts baby, that's what I'm talking about! It's not quite Florida, but if I close my eyes, I can pretend that's where I am...stupid Delaware!:mad:
 

TURKEY

New Member
Originally posted by DisneyHog6
All I have to say is "Thank goodness the warm weather is here!" I'm a Southern boy from Arkansas, and it gets too cold for me there. Now that I'm stationed here in Delaware, it's just to darn cold for me. I've been dying here all winter (it was my first winter here) and everyone here tells me it was a mild winter. I'm gonna die if it gets really cold next year. I'm just so happy it's hot again. Shorts and t-shirts baby, that's what I'm talking about! It's not quite Florida, but if I close my eyes, I can pretend that's where I am...stupid Delaware!:mad:

What part of Arkansas are you from?
 

Sansaarai

Account Suspended
Three days ago here in Buffalo it was 80 degrees. Rignt now it is a balmy 42 degrees. THank god Im leaving for WDW in 7 days!
 

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