My frist tornado

Wow man.... I've only seen one tornado touch down in my life (in person), but what I just went through was AWESOME and really scary at the same time.
I live in Aurora Colorado in some condos on the first floor, I had just gotten off the phone with my sister about 10 min prior. She had said that it was hailing where she lives, which is north west of us.

So I go outside on the back porch and saw the angry clouds, and before I knew it, a huge gust blows through, and didn't stop, I started seeing crap flying around. And I ran right back inside. This wind did NOT feel right.
Up rooted a few trees and smashed a large portion of a fence. Shingles have been ripped off our place, my room is a mess as I ripped every thing out of my closet to have access to the crawl space.

When things calmed down, we went back out on the back porch and looked to the east, and saw the funnel cloud coming back down, and did a full touch down. Then preceded to grow, I would guesstimate to almost an ef2. It was nasty.

We're still in a tornado warning for about 20 more minutes, but the clouds around us are looking okay. I dunno though, I keep going out and checking. I can't believe it, I just went through my first tornado.

My folks and I are okay, no broken windows or damage to our place besides shingles, my cats are freaked out and so are we.
We have some pictures, I'll see about posting them later.

Here's my local news station. 7 News

[edit on 6/7/2009 by Slash]

glad you are ok slash..scary moments, i know.
i have been through two.
take care and stay safe.

Thanks for the well wishes.

I've always loved tornadoes and watching them in videos. But man, they were not kidding about the fear you feel and that train sound. We were lucky, that's for sure. My mom has been through 3 now, and said this was her 2nd worst. Her first was an ef4 that hit some camp grounds where she was camping. Scary stuff.

[edit on 6/7/2009 by Slash]

reply to post by Slash


oh yes..camping..i ran outside in a tornado to save our new tent from the backyard that was blowing into a river behind our house. WTF was i thinking????

I know what you mean. We have plants on our back porch in pots. When that huge gust started blowing through, we grabbed them and brought them inside. What were we thinking? lol

I think my avatar demonstrates what's going on east of me right now. Joking aside, there's been some damage to a mall, worst injury is a broken collar bone from what I've heard.

I'm countin my lucky stars that we're okay.

[edit on 6/7/2009 by Slash]

Originally posted by Slash
Thanks for the well wishes.

I've always loved tornadoes and watching them in videos. But man, they were not kidding about the fear you feel and that train sound. We were lucky, that's for sure. My mom has been through 3 now, and said this was her 2nd worst. Her first was an ef4 that hit some camp grounds where she was camping. Scary stuff.

[edit on 6/7/2009 by Slash]

I love in Tennessee and we get alot of tornadoes here and they can ruin lives in a heartbeat.

Alien Mind

reply to post by Alien Mind


No kidding. They're not to be taken lightly, even as an ef1, which is what hit our small condo complex before growing. There were kids out side playing and I heard them start screaming and running inside, then the big gust started hitting us as it formed right on top of us. My back porch faces south, but the tornado was north west, and from my view point, I couldn't see it. I didn't see it till it hit, then I freaked out. I'm still working on the pictures, gotta get em from my step dad when he gets them on his computer.

[edit on 6/8/2009 by Slash]

reply to post by Slash


I was pretty close to the Greeley Tornado(Colorado) this time last year and man, that's not a fun experience at all!
I'll take a good ol' Southern California earthquake over a tornado any day.

Slash... so glad to hear you and your family are ok. Living in tornado ally myself I can sympathize with your experience. I assisted with the clean-up of Greensburg a few years ago and to see the damage and talk to person after person affected really changed my life.

I have seen an F5 and will never forget it. I was about a mile away and that was way to close. The strange thing was the tornado was white when I saw it. It had not picked up the debris at that point. The sound was just haunting.

reply to post by fishneedh2o


Ahhh, I'm betting the tornado was white because the sun was hitting it and lighting it up, like it does to clouds. The one I saw was white because it was east of us and the sun was a bit west since it was between 1:30pm and 2:00pm when we got hit.

Edit to add: Heres the first pic. More to come.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/73bb34e12fc2.jpg[/atsimg]

This is what hit us when it started forming, it went back up then came back down (a jumper) and grew. This pic was when it was coming back down, east of us.
This pic wasn't taken by us, but by a neighbor down the street. Our pics were taken by an old cell phone, so they need to be fixed up as the pics are small. My step dad is working on that now, so I'll have more pics later.

[edit on 6/8/2009 by Slash]

reply to post by Slash


is that your picture Slash?

nice - whoever took it

my stepsister lives pretty close to where it hit too - she sent me some crazy photos -

eerie

we've had a couple touch down inside Denver itself - I'm always surprised when they don't do more damage - considering what they can do

glad you all are OK