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Sierra Echo
11-30-2010, 18:55
Has there ever been an instance of a tornado hitting the AT and harming any hikers? We were hit by a F2 tornado at work today, I thank God that i had just gotten off my route because the tornado cut right through it. But out in the woods with all those trees that could almost be a death sentence. What on earth would a person do?

Storm
11-30-2010, 19:09
I think the likelyhood of a tornado in the mountains is a lot slimmer than on flat ground. If one did occur you'd want to find a good sheltered area to get into. Like maybe a gulley or revine.

Sierra Echo
11-30-2010, 19:12
If there was one near. Probably wouldnt get much warning. We didnt get any warning and people were listening to the radio.

Luddite
11-30-2010, 19:15
If there was one near. Probably wouldnt get much warning. We didnt get any warning and people were listening to the radio.

Yeah they're pretty unpredictable. They know what kind of weather cause them but thats about all.

I remember being in N GA and seeing this huge line of downed trees going up the side of the mountain and supposedly itwas from a tornado.

Sierra Echo
11-30-2010, 19:18
Very possible. This was my second tornado.
I remember a few years ago when a tornado hit downtown Atlanta. It sucked furniture out of the broken windows in the Omni hotel.

Luddite
11-30-2010, 19:20
I remember seeing that on the Weather Channel...crazy.

Daydream Believer
11-30-2010, 19:20
Glad you are OK. A few years ago...April 2008... a F4 tornado cut through Suffolk, VA. I had a front row seat as it cut across the highway in front of my truck. I was too stunned to do anything but sit there like a deer in the headlights as trees were flying over the road...trying to figure out what in the hell was going on... and then the tornado appeared briefly with multiple vortexes. I did think at one point of driving somewhere but there was no where to go, and I could not figure out which way it was going...it appeared so suddenly in my field of vision and then moved over the road sort of diagonally and towards my left...and then it was gone. I pulled debris out of the grill of my truck but no other damage so I was really lucky. It scared me more afterward more than when it was happening as there was just no time to be scared...it was fast.

I would imagine a tornado on the trail would be a lot like that. You'd never likely see which way it's coming but you'd hear it long before it got to you. What I've read is to find a low spot..a ditch or hole and lay flat and pray. Get under something solid if you can or up against an overhang of rocks...at least that's what I'd do. You can't outrun it so don't try...and most likely you'll not know which way to run anyway.

I was on Albert Mtn at Big Spring Shelter in May when a really bad thunderstorm just started up suddenly with a big crack of thunder and then hail started. I was very happy to be in that shelter but honestly if a tornado had come up, I'd of just laid under the picnic table there and prayed...if I'd of had any warning at all. Thankfully it was not that bad a storm and there was no damage to me or the two hikers who were caught out in it and ran for the shelter.

Sierra Echo
11-30-2010, 19:37
Daydream, that would be scary!
We had carriers still outside unloading their vehicles when it hit. They saw the funnel but since I was inside I never saw it. In fact, I didnt have time to run all the way to the bathroom before it ended.
We lost a lot of awning that we stand under while we load our vehicles. All the doors blew open, we got to hear that horrid tornado sound, carts and u carts blew all over the parking lot and some of them hit cars. We got lucky. That tornado ended up destroying a few homes.

johnnybgood
11-30-2010, 19:49
Not sure if a tornado has caused any injuries along the AT , but I once experienced a confirmed F-0 , ( winds up to 80 mph ) while camping at SNP .

It suddenly became dark and a roaring sound was soon followed by intense winds that blew everything on our campsite into the surrounding scrubbery.

The AT runs the perimeter of the campground.

Sierra Echo
11-30-2010, 19:51
Not sure if a tornado has caused any injuries along the AT , but I once experienced a confirmed F-0 , ( winds up to 80 mph ) while camping at SNP .

It suddenly became dark and a roaring sound was soon followed by intense winds that blew everything on our campsite into the surrounding scrubbery.

The AT runs the perimeter of the campground.

What did you do? Just sit there and take it like men?

Serial 07
11-30-2010, 19:58
in 07 just outside of hanover, nh a tornado went over my head...the sky got crazy green and the winds started picking up...out of sheer panic i ran towards mooose mountain shelter and got hit in the back of the head by a flying stick...i took cover under the biggest spruce i could get inside of...the classic train rumbling noise went over my head, it was very scary...a few minutes went by and i heard a tornado siren in the distance...

one of my more crazy life experiences...

johnnybgood
11-30-2010, 20:00
What did you do? Just sit there and take it like men?
Well , not exactly . It's really happened so fast ,we had barely enough time to figure out what that Roaring noise was and by that time the wind was already snapping branches off trees like matchsticks.

By the time we got to the tent and batton down the hatch(so to speak)it was pretty much past us.

Cabin Fever
11-30-2010, 20:05
Not sure if a tornado has caused any injuries along the AT , but I once experienced a confirmed F-0 , ( winds up to 80 mph ) while camping at SNP .

It suddenly became dark and a roaring sound was soon followed by intense winds that blew everything on our campsite into the surrounding scrubbery.

The AT runs the perimeter of the campground.

During the winter months, Grayson Highlands and the Roan Highlands are in a permament state of F-0.

Blissful
11-30-2010, 20:17
What did you do? Just sit there and take it like men?


...Pray! :)

Joshuatree
11-30-2010, 21:08
I grew up out in the midwest in the northern part of tornado ally. They always told us to find the lowest spot lay flat toes pointed into the tornado arms covering your head and think happy thoughts. The most dangerous part of a tornado isn't the wind it's what it picks up and throws. I've been in more than a few nasty storms. both tornadic and others with micro burst winds which can hit a hundred plus mph's. I've watched micro bursts tear up the Golf Course I was working at. I've also had them flip over our fishing boat and trailer when I was younger. Normally you can hear storms moving in, but if you keep your eyes open to what the sky is doing during the day you can learn what to watch for on days its favorable for bad weather. In most of the bad weather I've been in its falling tree limbs that do the most damage, I like to watch out for widow makers now that I've had a run in with a good sized one out in central South Dakota weighed about 90 lbs fell dead center on the tent. I almost wish I still had that little dome tent that thing took many a beating in storms but stay standing and kept us dry in the worst of it

Daydream Believer
11-30-2010, 21:22
I experienced a microburst once here on our farm. It went from no wind to about 100 mph or more in seconds following a thunderstorm. Unbelievable! I dove into a stall in a shed row barn for cover and it just launched anything that was not tied down. We get some crazy weather here near the coast. Nor'Easters are fun too but you get lots of warning with those as well as hurricanes.

Carbo
11-30-2010, 21:34
When the sky has that pea-soup green color, and it looks like a wall of clouds, head for cover! Often thought a good place for cover would be near the base of the root ball, torn up by a large blow-down.

HeartWalker
12-01-2010, 09:29
On my thru attempt in late March 2010 after Bison and I went over Clingmans Dome we found out that night that a tornado had passed thru. The weather was so bad all day with snow, sleet and wind that we didn't notice any difference. Of course I am sure we weren't directly in it or we would have known it. Still that was the worse weather I saw on the hike.

Rick Hancock
12-01-2010, 18:53
During my thru-hike in 1980 there was a tornado watch in the Winding Stair Gap area. We didn't know it until the next day, only knew that there were high winds and a ton of rain.

A few years ago up on Old Rag in the central section of SNP we were camped near Byrd's Nest shelter (cooking supper at the shelter) when 2 hail storms hit with wind, rain, and large (marble/pingpong ball) size hail! We jumped into the shelter and watched the storm. A while later he heard a sound just like a freight train coming up the ridge we were hit by intense rain and winds that I estimated at over 50 miles per hour, we were actually being knocked around in our tents and several collapsed. One guy headed to the shelter, his tent ended up in a tree. the next morning we hiked out near the fire road out to Nethers we met a small troop of Boy Scouts they reported no rain/no wind. As we got close to Gordonsville, Va. along Rt 231 we ran into several areas with downed trees 20 or more. Seems that the storm hit and bounced over a large area. Old Rag isn't too far from the AT.

mweinstone
12-01-2010, 19:28
one of the smokeys shelters.2006, 70mph wind and hard rain. megamid stood while many tents kneeled to its power.inside my tent juliann and thoroe her husky took cover as her tent failed. we made a vid of the tentpole traveling bout 6 inches each way. but nary a drop or colapse. 20 some tents that night outside a fulll shelter.

nufsaid
12-01-2010, 20:19
The odds of being killed by a tornado on the AT are less than the odds of being killed by lightening. Or by a human.

Lots of things to fear.

Luddite
12-01-2010, 20:44
The odds of being killed by a tornado on the AT are less than the odds of being killed by lightening. Or by a human.

Lots of things to fear.

And trees don't need a tornado to knock them down.

nufsaid
12-01-2010, 20:48
Things to fear may include black bears, shelter mice, snorers, snakes, hammocks in shelters, insects .....

nufsaid
12-01-2010, 20:51
And trees don't need a tornado to knock them down.

Seriously, you are correct. Widowmakers are more of a hazard than tornados on the AT.

garlic08
12-01-2010, 20:53
In '08, just heading into Salisbury CT, a tornado passed overhead in the late evening, right at dark. Sounded like a train. Snapped trees all around (mature oaks snapped off 15' high, not uprooted, which I hear is a sign of tornado damage). I lay in a fetal position under my tarp, hands over my head. My hiking partner was nearby in his tarp, and he was dreaming about the Battle of the Bulge, German tanks coming. His tarp was a lot more fun than mine. I swear I did not whimper. The next day, Salisbury was out of power and the grocery was giving away all perishables. Feast time! As far as I heard, the tornado did not touch down and there were no injuries. The silnylon tarps held fine.

Sierra Echo
12-01-2010, 20:59
Things to fear may include black bears, shelter mice, snorers, snakes, hammocks in shelters, insects .....

I'm not afraid of tornados on the trail. I was just curious as to what happens to hikers caught out in them. And I like snakes and bears.

Skidsteer
12-01-2010, 21:06
I'm not afraid of tornados on the trail. I was just curious as to what happens to hikers caught out in them. And I like snakes and bears.

Pretty much what garlic08 said I imagine.



I lay in a fetal position under my tarp, hands over my head.


:D

Harrison Bergeron
12-02-2010, 19:43
Here's a short list of other far more interesting things to worry about that you can neither control or prepare for and that are about as likely to happen as a tornado killing you while hiking on the AT:

-- You could die in your sleep from having a dream so frightening that you die in your dream.

-- You could be struck by falling debris from a passing airliner

-- The scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider might create "strange matter" -- matter so stable that it would begin to all consume normal matter in this section of the galaxy, much like a black hole, only on an even more cataclysmic scale.

-- Alien super-scientists in another part of the universe could accidentally create a new form of matter we haven't even thought of yet that could instantly destroy the entire universe.

-- The Earth, in its wanderings though the emptiness of space, could stumble across an unforeseen black hole.

-- A mega-asteroid similar to the one that destroyed the dinosaurs could strike the earth. We're actually overdue for a strike of this size and narrowly missed one last year, which astronomers didn't discover until about a week prior to the near miss.

-- You could be struck by a micro-asteroid -- thousands of which hit the ground every day.

-- The world could end tomorrow because all of the "signs of the apocalypse" have been fulfilled.

-- A new germ or virus could suddenly arise and wipe out humanity.

-- You could get a drug-resistant staph infection from a hangnail and die an agonizing death from "flesh eating bacteria".

-- A massive solar flare could incinerate the earth (one such flare happened in the 70's but Earth happened to be positioned elsewhere in its orbit so that the cosmic radiation from it merely blacked out the entire eastern seaboard).

-- A crazy forging regime with one nuke, one Scud missile, and a boat could explode the nuke 100 miles over Kansas and destroy America from the EMP pulse.

-- Your chosen (or inherited) religion could turn out to be wrong and some other guy's god could decide to kill you and condemn you to eternal hell for not believing in his religion.

-- The sun could go super-nova. In fact, it may have already happened, but we won't know about it for 10 minutes, until the surface of the sun reaches us.

-- The mega-vocano we call Yellowstone Park could explode, burying 1/3 of American in ash.

-- A hamburger you ate sometime back in the 80's is about to make you crazy from Mad Cow disease.

Shall I continue or is that enough to worry about for now?

Luddite
12-02-2010, 19:49
-- The scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider might create "strange matter" -- matter so stable that it would begin to all consume normal matter in this section of the galaxy, much like a black hole, only on an even more cataclysmic scale.



I read about that thing. They scientists claim it can't create a black hole.