Storms like I've never seen.

Ambush Bug · Post by **Ambush Bug** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:29 am

... or heard, to be more precise. A major system rolled through last night, one that's spawned several tornadoes out in the Dakotas, and apparently did some major straight-line wind damage in Minnesota.

No such cyclonic events happened in Rochester to my knowledge... but man, I heard something last night that left me quaking in bed around 3 AM.

It was very strange--a single flash of lightning, and then a crescendo of thunder that started off pitifully weak, but over the course of what seemed to be about fifteen to thirty seconds, built up so loud that it was setting up harmonics in every part of the house. This was accompanied by either a massive increase in wind or rain--a higher frequency rumble that sounded almost, but not quite, like a tornado's signature fright-train rumble.

I counted six of these. The delay between the light and the sound was near non-existent, so they were practically right on top of us.

Now the screwball thing is, I've had lightning strike within ten-twenty meters of me on a couple of occaisions. None of those were rumbles that built up, but rather hair-flattening blast waves as if someone had set off a stick of dynamite. I've also had such encounters with similar light/sound delays as the ones last night, and those were also very short. This build-up style is entirely new to me.

It left me positively spooked. And yet, checking the neighborhood and the house this morning, I can find no real damage to the area. I was expecting at the least cracked windows in the house, because the harmonics were so unbelievably powerful--I could hear the doors shaking and rattling locksets against strikeplates, not to mention our I-beam supported floor doing something similar. And the build-up was incredibly smooth, as if one were carefully cranking the volume on a stereo from zero to ten over a period of time.

I'm at a total loss on this one. I've been in, sheltered from, and driven through countless powerful storms (ahhh, the joys of Tornado Alley!), and I've never encountered anything that behaved like this.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:22 am

It was aliens. Seen the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds?

Seriously, does sound peculiar.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:14 pm

Actually, AB, could it have been a single strike, but because you were sleeping 10 microseconds prior, everything was different?

I've woken up in various places (house, camping, at friends', etc), and would hear a build-up to sounds or sights. And one time I was at my parents' and woke up just before 4 am (just after I finished grad school), and I could not move. Sounds and lights were very strange, and I felt like someone was behind me on the bed. Then my dad's alarm went off, and I literally sprang up out of bed, twisted around, and was ready to kill whatever was behind me. There was nothing there. One time when camping, there was an outhouse door that was loud, and I was just waking up when someone walked over to open it. The sound volume actually increased, and I could feel it reverberate throughout my body and the tent. It was a loud *BANG* spread out over several seconds.

My point is, waking up to something can be a bit tricky sometimes because your brain has to readjust to the new sense of time. (Time can appear to be much faster when you are sleeping, as in dreams.) I've even done things while playing sports where I could actually see where my opponent was going, and adjusted myself to catch their arm in wrestling or hit them harder in football. It was like time slowed WAY down for everyone else except me.

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 10:06 am

Asha's got some super secret space alien ties or something..

The storms up here were something wicked. I didn't get anything in North Minneapolis, but a few miles further north of me got absolutley pounded by rain and thunder and lightning. And it was actually an F2 Tornado that went through Rogers AB, it was on the ground for about 8 miles. We don't get many Tornadoes through here, usually they're off in a corn field somewhere, but we've had a few damage cities this year, very strange.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 10:34 am

We get a few through our trailer parks every couple years. Though 5 years ago one tornado did get lost and went through a high end development. We were all very confused.

Ambush Bug · Post by **Ambush Bug** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 12:01 pm

I should have been more clear. I had just gotten into bed, nowhere near getting sleepy or dozing off.

Reason for that: having had tornadoes rip up my hometown way back when, I'm paranoid about storms that can spew them. I was up and keeping any eye on the regional Doppler radar, and didn't head back to the bedroom until I was satisfied no supercells would be going over us.

So I was indeed wide awake for these.

On the plus side of things, the next day Mrs. Bug and I went to see that Bodyworld exhibit up at St. Paul. Fascinating.

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:30 pm

You were in town and didn't call? :p do you know that you were 20 minutes from my house? :p

Ambush Bug · Post by **Ambush Bug** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:07 pm

Ah, your new place? Drop me line with your new contact/address. We're thinking about doing that Segway tour sometime (maybe next spring), and that'd be a fine time to get together. And we didn't think to call; we were tired and grumpy from the storms. Sorry, Hat.

On topic: After reading some more news, it appears those sounds I heard may very well have been some kind of freak mini-cyclone. The tornado that ripped through Rogers apparently formed without any warning on radar, and given that it's the same storm that hit us... well, I suppose we got lucky.

Brrrr.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:23 pm

*cue "wicked witch" theme from Wizard of Oz*