5 Deadly Natural Phenomena America Has That Britain Doesn't

[@dwayneharris9591]

When picking a place to live in America, you also have to pick the disaster you want to endure.

[@harrysweeten9417]

Never has a truer statement been made. In N.J. we get hurricane's and the rere blizzard.

[@irritated888]

Snake River plain in Idaho. Other than a small fire here and there its fantastically low every other disaster. Until Yellowstone goes kablooie.

[@dawnjackson6299]

Why I don't live in California...

[@kaned5543]

I live in coastal Southern California and I do love it but GodDAMN if there aren't a few tradeoffs hahaha

[@kaned5543]

@@irritated888 also didn't y'all just have an earthquake

[@courtneyphillips1234]

The stuggle: If you live in tornado ally- build your house low and have a basement If you live in a flood zone- put everything on stilts and basement is a bad idea If you live in both at the same time- suffer

[@5thRing]

A houseboat in a hole in the ground.

[@AlphaMom55]

*alley

[@ConstantChaos1]

I can't imagine living off ground level, like I used to have a 3rd floor bedroom when my family lived near DC but now? A ranch style manner house is enough altho I do currently live in a 3rd floor flat so I guess I'm back up here

[@hailexiao2770]

If you live in both at the same time, pretend you're in Miami and build a concrete house on concrete stilts

[@daniweiden2458]

The struggle is real. Make sure you keep your most precious possessions in air tight containers. Unless they are things that need air. Have about 500 emergency plans. Oh yeah. Label everything in weather proof ink and then add about 4 layers of clear duct tape to make sure the weather doesn’t actually erase it.

[@pattymelt6577]

As a child, I lived on a farm in the Midwest. We were on a party line. After tornadoes, the party line would be abuzz. "I have the top to somebody's silo here, and a shaggy brown dog. Anyone seen my mailbox or patio table?" I loved the adventure of checking the fields and ponds for our neighbors' missing items.

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

6) Americans with assault rifles!

[@edgarbanuelos6472]

This raises my curiosity. What is the best story you have from these little adventures

[@MistDancer]

Greetings. I'm a native North Dakotan, presently an old man living in a more temperate region. Growing up I lived through many blizzards which have to be experienced to be believed. Anyway you asked about tornado stories. I was 16 years old and was sitting on the front porch of my home as a storm roared into town. My dad came to the doorway to suggest I go into the basement. I looked up into the pitch black sky ready to make a snide teenager statement when a barrage of lightning lit the world and revealed a tornado going by me about 50 yards away and going about 50 mph. It is an event I've never forgotten. Mostly in those years I saw the sad aftermath of their passage. Have a good day.

[@ajb.822]

Wow. We almost never actually get one here in western ( Dunn co. ) WI, but serious watches most summers. But a deadly one happened when my dad was young, a man about his age I grew up knowing, a fellow local dairy farmer, lost his parents & baby brother to a silo going down on top of them. More recently, and strangely enough while I was living in northern IL for a few years, where they get more actual tornadoes more often, there was one not too far from my home town area back home. But while we have nearly as bad of winter weather, the severe cold etc. here, we don't have it quite as bad as ND ( would here all the temps etc. when listening to the weather radio carefully, on the farm ).

[@MistDancer]

@@ajb.822 The whole northern stretch from Idaho through to New York has one variation of another of the weather that looks good on Hallmark cards but otherwise has to be lived through to be believed. The Derecho that blasted Iowa last August brought back big memories for me, boy howdy.

[@billolsen4360]

Whoa! If that would happen today, the teenager wouldn't seek cover until he had taken a vid of it.

[@moviegirl1100]

wow. I would have probably needed a clean pair of pants after that. I Live in NC and have been very luck to have gone through a tornado (knock on wood) they have hit around where I live but have never personally affected me before.

[@MistDancer]

@@moviegirl1100 I pray that you always remain safe from such catastrophes. The one I witnessed did a great amount of damage.

[@kayleekat8895]

And if you think you’re safe in the American desert, you’d be wrong because we’ve got sandstorms/dust storms and monsoons.

[@lavenderandwine]

I moved from Kansas to Arizona a few years ago and the first year I saw a massive dust devil that even had my roommate who was born there going wtf. The monsoons were wonderful to experience because it was almost like being back home.

[@darrenmclaughlin1362]

Flash floods.

[@RobGamesOn]

I was born in New Mexico and can attest to this. Dust devils were the desert version of tornadoes. I was always fearful of those blackish brown walls that were sand storms in the distance. I live in Georgia now and deal with severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, black ice in the winters, COVID-19 like mass panic but with bread and milk for those awesome milk sandwiches instead of toilet paper when a snowflake falls.

[@louisc.gasper7588]

And don't let's get started on scorpions and rattlesnakes.

[@Apollonos]

Don't forget the sandworms!

[@thebigpussycat7475]

My mother was born and raised in Texas she used to tell stories about the quirky behaviors of tornadoes. She once told me a story about a tornado that destroyed a house and left an infant untouched in its crib. Once an F3 tornado went past our house no more than an eighth of a mile away. I slept through it and only noticed the damage in the morning on my way to work.

[@natebit8130]

Once, a friend of mine woke up in the morning to find his roof was missing, and the night sky was seen above.

[@yomogami4561]

lol. grew up in southern wv and fell asleep one night to thunderstorms. apparently there was a tornado and everyone but me woke up. it was a mountaintop city and the tornado jumped over it. of course, it came down on a trailer park

[@cwavt8849]

My father, born into the a Great Depression in September 1929, told me that, when he was a small child, a tornado passed over the shack that they were living in at the time. His older brother was asleep in the bed and the roof was pulled off of the house. The water was coming down in buckets, but my uncle slept through it all 🙄

[@brendak75]

San Franciso earthquake was bad. However there was a series of earthquakes that happened 1811 -1812 called the New Madrid earthquakes. They took place in Illinois and Misouri. They were so violent that the Missippi River flowed backwards for 3 days, created an island in the river, and communities were completely wiped out. Experts have said were suppose to have another.

[@lm1314]

I was checking to see if someone wrote about those earthquakes. They had 7 between 6.0 and 7.5 magnitude. It was a blessing that the area wasn't populated like it is now. Since the rocks in the eastern United States have few active faults to interrupt the propagation of seismic waves, ground vibrations from earthquakes generated in the region may travel thousands of miles. Shortly after the earthquake began, ground shaking was felt as far away as Canada in the north and the Gulf Coast in the south. Eyewitness accounts noted that the shaking rang church bells as far away as Boston, Massachusetts, and brought down chimneys in Cincinnati, Ohio, about 360 miles away.

[@alanrobinson4318]

The Alaska quake, recently upgraded to 9. on the Richter scale.

[@AcridSoul]

Iowa's only island is on the Mississippi, it's called Sabula.

[@AmberWool]

The little town I remember living in in Southern Illinois has flood gates in case the New Mad-rid ever gets angry again. There's a rest stop on 55 that does a really good job of showing where the the fault line is and what happened in the 1800's.

[@operator0]

It's very interesting reading the accounts of the settlers about that series of quakes. The people slept outside, in the winter, for more than a month because the ground didn't stop shaking in between the second and third quake.

[@BritIronRebel]

" Mother nature has it in for you".... Nearly made me spit out my coffee! Great line....

[@x31omega]

Mountain dew burns coming out the nostrils. That line killed me.

[@drunkbuzzard3237]

Mother Nature brought you into this world and she can take you out.

[@KenR1800]

A couple of thoughts. The largest earthquake actually occurred in New Madrid, Missouri in the early 1800's. Alaska also gets some very strong quakes, close to 9.0. Also a hurricane doesn't have to be a category 5 to be bad. Even a "mere" tropical storm can be devastating.

[@infledermaus]

Alaska suffered the 2nd largest earthquake in history after the Chile earthquake of 1960, a magnitude 9.5. On Good Friday, 1964, Alaska experienced a magnitude 9.2 quake resulting in wide spread destruction and very large tsunami that killed people in Hawaii, Japan and California to name a few locations where tsunami came ashore. The quake lasted 5 minutes.

[@angelacrabtree2847]

That quake caused the Mississippi to flow backwards temporarily, or is supposed to have.

[@ssokolow]

Deep Dive did an excellent half-hour video on that named "Why Earthquakes in the East are so much more Dangerous". While I still HIGHLY recommend people watch it, the TL;DR for the title is that the underlying rock is much more solid, which causes the energy to transmit much further and more strongly and absorb and dissipate less. (i.e. The bedrock behaves more like a ringing bell and less like something that makes a thudding or thwacking noise when hit.)

[@williamscoggin1509]

I live in East Texas and have experienced two tornadoes up close. Definitely a good way to get your attention! 😉👍🏻🇺🇲

[@ssokolow]

@@williamscoggin1509 Funny thing is, a lot of people don't realize Tornado Alley extends up into Canada and we get the second-most in the world. If I'm reading the numbers right, we get about the same occurrence per square mile/km... we just have less absolute land area that's part of Tornado Alley.

[@flyinggirl3121]

I was 3 years old and living in Washington state when Mount St. Helens erupted. I remember asking my parents why it was dark (at about 2 pm) and later why it was snowing (watching the ash fall outside). They told me about the eruption, but it didn't really make sense at the time. We have home movies of my dad sweeping ash off the roof of his shop. And as he cut his hay crop, ash billowed up behind the swather. He had to sharpen the blades on the swather after every pass down the field because the ash dulled them so quickly. Amazing!

[@brrjohnson8131]

In "80 my car was repainted & it was supposed to be sanded before the clearcoat put on. Instead, my hubby and I drove it to Seattle for a long wk-end then back to Idaho. When we got back & washed off the thick coat of ash, the rough coat of paint felt like glass. No one could have polished it smoother. It was an amazing surprise.

[@mwhitelaw8569]

I was less than 70 miles from it when she popped. It was incredible to me , as the year before I was on top of it staring at the vent. We're all still waiting for Rainier

[@Liutgard]

I was in high school when it blew. We lived in Lake Tapps, about 30 minutes east of Tacoma, up on the hill. Was a Sunday morning, and we were getting ready for church. Heard a muffled *WHUMP* and my mom said "I think the mountain blew!" My dad scoffed and insisted that it was maybe a car accident, or maybe just something falling over. We got to church and everyone was abuzz with news oh the eruption. Ha, Dad! We didn't really get any ash, but Eastern WA did, the Toutle valley, and the Portland metro area. Quite a few people still have jars of ash that they collected.

[@wehvgirlpwr]

You must have lived in Eastern Washington.

[@danielm5535]

Volcanic ash is basically sand and aerated glass (pumice). It’s been used for millennia as a smoothing/sanding compound.

[@rebeccatrishel]

I've seen so many tornadoes I can tell from the color of the sky if one's coming

[@coldfoot99]

As a young boy growing up in south western Ohio we knew that if the sky turned green to the west during a storm it was time to head to the basement, quickly. Got very little warning in those days of tornadoes on the way.

[@rebeccatrishel]

@@coldfoot99 exactly

[@midwestmatthew9752]

@JM Saultz I know that smell well. There can also be indicators much earlier in the day. More than once I've been out and about on a beautiful, sunny summer day, and my friends and I have commented "feels like tornadoes might be on the way," and sure enough, they show up later that evening. It's hard to put your finger on what it is, but I think it has something to do with the attitude of the wind and a certain brassy look to the sky. Also, "the calm before the storm" is a very real phenomenon.

[@Dracule0117]

@@midwestmatthew9752 Part of that instinctive foreboding is probably also our bodies subconsciously sensing the drop in barometric pressure as the storm approaches.

[@381delirius]

Same

[@bemusedbandersnatch2069]

Question: What about sinkholes? Florida gets some pretty bad ones sometimes. You know where the ground just opens up in the middle of the night with no warning and eats most of your house/possibly you?

[@sueregan2782]

Sinkholes in Florida are a man-made phenomenon. Caused by overpopulation, resulting in draining the aquifers. Then, when the upper layers of soil get saturated, they collapse into the empty caverns where the water used to support the upper strata.

[@arasdeeps1852]

@@sueregan2782 While what you say is partially true, that's only for some of the recent ones. There are sink holes in Florida that have been here for hundreds of years as well, and folks didn't get their water from aquifers back then. Most of the underground stone in Florida is limestone, leading to the possibility of the ground just wearing away over time until the surface just collapses.

[@jengeorge9919]

I grew up in the Midwest before moving to Brazil for a while. I never considered how weird my childhood tornado drills would seem to my Brazilian friends.

[@constancedowning1490]

You forgot floods and mudslides. I'm a midwest girl-- yes, we really do go out to watch the tornadoes lol

[@n701204x]

As a native Californian I dont even get out of bed for earthquakes.

[@adriennegormley9358]

Not a native but a long term resident here. One place i worked back before tje web and email we had magnitude pool. Make your guess put in your quarter then listen to the local news station give out what the usgs in menlo said the magnitude was. To this day i can still guess within 0.2 what ill find on the usgs site a minute later. And have freaked out some of my o.line friends. Me: baby quake? 3.5-3.8. Lemme check. Friends: huh? me after checking: usgs says it was 3.6 epicenter abt 1 mile south of Hollister. Def baby quake.

[@kristie9144]

Same. If it shakes longer than a handful of seconds or increases, I might sit up and take notice. Otherwise nah. No point.

[@baddog711]

@@adriennegormley9358 We definately don't even wake up for those.

[@beachie]

During the last three quakes, I nudged my dog to stop scratching because I thought that's what was moving the couch. Rest assured, when I realized they had been quakes, I apologized to him. He grudgingly accepted the apology.

[@7RockyHorror4]

That's so funny to me. I've lived here in SoCal all my life, and I am so terribly afraid of earthquakes! We had a tiny little shake a couple nights ago and I was instantly poised and ready to grab baby, dog and cat and bolt the hell out of there LoL

[@scarletstar3168]

4:16 Yellowstone. I am terrified when I think about Yellowstone.

[@christelheadington1136]

We made it through 2012.

[@ssssaa2]

There are a few other volcanoes just as large globally the next to erupt probably won't be yellowstone.

[@battleship217]

@@ssssaa2 honestly the cascades are far more likely to erupt than Yellowstone

[@scarletstar3168]

@Google made me change my name damn it ya but it still scares me.

[@goldenknight578]

​@@battleship217 Only because of the minor problem of there technically being three active volcanoes in WA at the moment.

[@judycolella5554]

"Mother Nature has it in for you..." LMAO! And I'm an American who lives in Florida, where the Hurricane season has specific start and stop dates (and from where companies that sell generators get most of their income).

[@laurabeane8862]

We're having another drought year in California. Some homeless guy hit me up for a dollar because the price of bottled water went up again. No seriously. The pantsless guy ACTUALLY took a gallon of water from the cooler at the Walgreens, paid for it, and went back to hide in the shade because it was 101(F) out .He ACTUALLY bought what he said he would with my dollar. Cool. (TBH, my "water" is ice brewed for a smooth taste😝)

[@MKahn84]

If I recall correctly, Florida actually gets more tornadoes (or at least more per square mile) than Oklahoma. The difference is Florida doesn't get as many powerful tornadoes. Hurricanes AND tornadoes - that's crazy!

[@fulanadetal6099]

Recently had a harrowing experience with a tornado last year in Chicago. I was out running errands with my kids (we were on one of those long tail cargo bikes where the kids sit on the rack in the back). It was cloudy and everything seemed ok outside. I stopped to pick up some McDs a few blocks from my apartment. My husband was on his way home from work. He was going to stay and work longer but something told him to just come back home and not stay. After I pick up the food I get the tornado warning on my phone to seek shelter immediately. As I’m rushing home the cloudy grey sky suddenly turns dark and I can see the supercell forming in the sky right above our neighborhood. I’ve seen supercells and tornadoes on tv but seeing it in real life is really something else, and I’m outside on a bike with my kids which makes it even scarier. I’m a few streets away from my home and my husband is calling me to get back immediately. The rain and winds start and debris and tree branches are flying everywhere. I’m riding against the wind and can barely see anything because there is sooo much rain. I was terrified and just praying we would get home safe. The only way I was able to ride so fast with all that rain and wind going against me was the adrenaline. My kids had no idea the danger we were in. My daughter was just laughing and amused the whole way (we nicknamed her StormChaser after this incident). We get home and my husband is outside our home just screaming “GET IN!!!”. We ran inside with the kids and he went outside to grab the bike. Luckily we made it home safe. The supercell moved towards the lake (Lake Michigan) and touched down in the Rogers Park neighborhood (on the north side of Chicago next to the lake) where it made its way to the lake and turned into a waterspout. I know I’ll definitely never forget this experience and will always remember that feeling of awe and terror at seeing the supercell forming right before my eyes. I’ve lived in the US my entire life but we don’t get tornados often in Chicago so I never thought this was something that would happen to me. Definitely gave me a bigger respect for how unpredictable Mother Nature is. And if you guys ever get a tornado warning take it seriously and get the f**k outta there to shelter immediately, the weather can go from nice to deadly in literally seconds. Tornadoes form fast!

[@bseidem5112]

You were praying. He was listening, granting wishes everywhere.

[@irhonda31]

Wow, you had me captivated with this story! I’ve lived through some big quakes in CA, but that tornado story is SCARY.

[@janicewolk357]

When the sky turns green and birds stop singing head for the SW corner the basement. I am from Indiana and have been in three earthquakes in the East, one very major tornado, several smaller tornadoes, three hurricanes and One blizzard.

[@wulffy54914]

Green sky is almost always a guaranteed tornado, Followed by the blackest skys during the tornado.

[@ceciliag2929]

wulffy54914 didn’t know that, we don’t get hardly any tornadoes in Florida but we do get freaking hurricanes!!

[@Markle2k]

@@ceciliag2929 Tornadoes are what did a lot of the damage in Hurricane Andrew. Tons of little F4s popping out of the clouds and razing my ex-father-in-law's boyhood neighborhood to the ground. The big storm and the broad winds get all of the sexy coverage, and storm surge often does the majority of the damage, but hurricanes spawn tornadoes within them.

[@smartbecauseiam864]

I was a little kid in the 70s when a huge tornado destroyed the high school in my area of Indiana. I remember playing outside with my brothers and cousins when the sky turned a really freaky shade of green and it got really quiet. That's when my uncle rushed us all inside and crammed a bunch of scared and confused kids into an interior hallway because there was no basement.

[@kdrapertrucker]

@@smartbecauseiam864 broomstick, Indiana tornado?

[@moonshadow--1207]

Living in tornado alley, we live through several super cell thunderstorms every year. They are very scary even if they don't produce tornadoes, with wind strong enough to knock over trees and flash flooding washing cars down the street.

[@garysturner1]

Lawrence, I'm originally from Massachusetts and have experienced mumerous hurricanes. I lived in L.A. for many years and experienced severe brush fires, mud slides and quite a few earthquakes, including the 6.7 1994 Northridge earthquake. (We moved out of CA shortly thereafter). Since then we've been in metro Denver, where we've had a couple of smaller tornadoes. If you move around enough, you get to see quite a lot of what the USA has to offer 🙂.

[@twohipp2tripp]

You spoke about hurricane Katrina. Well my mother my daughter and myself stayed in Biloxi Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina. And if the news hasn’t reported everything about New Orleans. You would’ve seen the devastation from Waveland to Pascagoula Mississippi was destroyed. The surge came all the way across the coast and around through Biloxi VA back around through the rivers and marshes. And sweat the houses off their pylons into Interstate 10. It truly broke my heart to see my home pretty much wiped off the planet. Childhood landmarks in memories were gone. The only good thing about hurricane is that you can prepare yourself for the worst and expect the best outcome. And I still live here today. Because this is my home

[@GCMickens]

Much of damage from Katrina storm was not the storm itself but from the levies giving way. It was human preventable error. Authorities knew in advance that the levies would not hold up to a certain category storm and did nothing to take care of the problem beforehand. Plus the government reacted slowly once the levies broke. Stop blaming Katrina.

[@daniel_sc1024]

@@GCMickens You're talking about New Orleans. ywohipp2tripp is talking about the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The devastation there was from the hurricane's storm surge and wind. Katrina's storm surge in Mississippi was the most extensive and highest in recorded U.S. history. I grew up in southern Mississippi and was quite familiar with the Gulf Coast, and still have family down there. When I visited for Christmas after Katrina they took me to the coast (the parts that were accessible) and it was truly heart rending - it was as if a giant arm had swept everything into the ocean.

[@elliephants7047]

My thoughts go out to you -- lived in Ocean Springs and Pascagoula for a while, a few years after Katrina. We were in PCB during, I went out and played in the rain and watched the gigantic waves, it was a blast, but man...seeing the devastation in MS even a couple years later was something else. Nobody really talked about it much, either. I don't think I'll ever forget the marshes, full of dead trees from the storm. Spooky as hell. I hope y'all are doing better these days! Man, I wonder if Bozo's is still around...best burgers I've had in forever. Took me ten years to find another burger as good!

[@zach6360]

"All these natural disasters... It's almost like this whole place is built on thousands of Indian burial grounds...."-Internet Meme

[@Ycekhold]

@Yo Ma *"You **_only_** moved the headstones!"* FTFY.

[@midnightodellewest1999]

I grew up in Illinois and I distinctly remember the eerie combination of the windy air going suddenly and sickeningly still to the point it just 'felt weird'. Then the air turning this creepy yellow. It wasn't just the sky above you that was yellow, like with a sunset, it was the air surrounding you. It felt like you were living in a movie and somebody changed the color filter and also hit the pause button. Then it would smell like rotting apples, that's when you knew it was getting close. We didn't have a basement so we would kneel on the hallway floor where there were no windows. We would have to face the wall then cover ourselves with a thick blanket and curl into a ball with our hands over our head and neck.

[@catcrazy8]

Great discrption!

[@midnightodellewest1999]

@@catcrazy8 Thanks!

[@teaeyedoubleguhur]

My mom noticed how the sky would turn yellow on a spring 50 years ago when South Carolina had a number of tornadoes, We think one touched down close to our house. We had taken shelter in the basement, but dad noticed this one tree that had been twisted off.

[@unuxon884]

He sounds disappointed that the 6.1 quake in Britain didn't kill anyone.

[@billolsen4360]

Britain's always got villains that need gotten rid of, like Richard III or Modred, maybe he's hoping some rather nasty villain gets it.

[@kendavis8046]

I was a youngster of 9 years old in 1969, and my father was in the Air Force, stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi when Hurricane Camille came to visit. It was also a category 5 hurricane, and did a LOT of damage. There was a big death toll that actually came down a bit as recovery efforts and research came into play. It turned out that there were a lot (don't recall at my now advanced age whether it was 10's or more than 100) bodies found that had been washed out of some of the above-ground graves in the area. I do recall seeing a lot of dead cattle, though, as well as more than one freighter washed ashore. We went to the airbase and sheltered in a fortified hangar, and alas, I slept through the entire height of the storm. It was fast moving and completely gone when we went home to (a semi-destroyed) rental property we lived in at the time. Oh, and EDIT - I have seen a couple of tornadoes. I am fascinated by them.

[@K9TheFirst1]

I heard about that storm. My dad was in junior high, and he told me of a story he heard about a party of "storm sitters" that thought it would be a good idea to have a sit-in at someone's house right on the beach. Considering how the house and the people inside it were never seen again, I imagine they came to regret that choice.

[@kendavis8046]

@@K9TheFirst1 It was actually a "Hurricane Party" held at a beach-side motel. After the storm, only the concrete foundation was left, and everyone in that building was killed. I think this is probably what you are referring to. [EDIT] Here's a link, but it is clearly bad OCR. But it is from the NY Times, at that time a reputable purveyor of news: www.nytimes.com/1977/09/18/archives/swept-away-swept-away.html Oh, and accounts vary on whether it was a motel or an apartment, but my memory says motel where a bunch of young folks had decided to have a party.

[@badguy1481]

I drove through Biloxi, in 1970. A LOT of the damage was still visible.

[@ChristChickAutistic]

I was 3 years old then, and remember that the wind was so hard in Jackson that the traffic lights were horizontal. We went down to the coast in 73, and you could still see the devastation in parts of it.

[@sheilafontaine9021]

@@badguy1481 I moved to the Mississippi gulf coast in 1970 from the Texas gulf coast. Spent my life dodging hurricanes along the gulf. Sometimes not so successfully. At least with hurricanes you know they're coming.

[@K9TheFirst1]

While Nashville did get a nasty hit, the real tragedy was in a small city named Cookeville, about 80 miles east, with a death toll of about 18. That is the vast majority of the 25 deaths related to this most recent storm. And yeah, the 1906 quake was rough. However, the vast majority of the destruction and deaths wasn't due to the quake - directly - but from the fire that happened in the aftermath.

[@naseerahvj]

Crazy! I lived in Cookeville in 1995! This is the first I've ever heard reference to it. I hope everyone is ok 💓💓💓

[@kekort2]

@@naseerahvj Me, too. I graduated from Tech that year.

[@tchase4726]

I’ve said similar myself: the US has HUGE weather compared to Europe in general (though it seems that climate change is starting to mess with the weather over there). As a Midwesterner I’m obligated to go out on the porch & stare at the sky whenever there’s a tornado warning, instead of actually seeking shelter, & I’ve seen some massive awesome terrifying clouds. Also your countryman Neil Gaiman said as an Englishman he only *thought* he knew what winter was before he moved to Minnesota 😊.

[@kimworkman2425]

In my family we stand outside and watch.the tornadoes till the house starts spinning

[@bob7975]

@@kimworkman2425 They aren't really dangerous until they get close.

[@oneproudbrowncoat]

On the other hand, we never did have a Great Stink like London did.

[@pickyyeeter]

@@bob7975 Just like bullets

[@InfinitusMortem]

As you should! That's proper tornado procedure for the Midwest.

[@dianaromaine4383]

I grew up on Dallas, TX. I've seen the sky turn green, we did tornado drills in school. I had to move to North Carolina to experence one. When I called the city to complain that I didn't hear sirens before it happened, they told me we don't have tornado siren's because we don't have tornadoes . My neighbors crushed house begged to differ.

[@SweetBearCub]

I too have seen the sky turn green when I lived in Florida. Preparing for various natural disasters is a fact of life here. That's not to say that they're common, but if you're smart, you'll keep a stocked bug out bag in your home and vehicle, and never let your vehicle drop below say, half a tank of fuel, in case of evacuation alerts.

[@AmyAndThePup]

It's true. No sirens down in NC. It was weird moving to Missouri and hearing them on a regular basis (routine testing). But in NC, I think they're only active for a few seconds, maybe a minute, whereas in the Midwest, in parts they can stay grounded (though rare) for up to half an hour. That's far worse, that much more terrifying.

[@kj8840]

What, no love for sinkholes. While they aren't as flashy as earthquakes, there's nothing like the ground silently opening up and swallowing a car dealership with some nice sports cars or a couple lanes of I-4. I guess not deadly enough since I believe 4 people have ever been killed in Florida by sinkhole.

[@JJoy-bk8yr]

He probably left sinkholes out because Britain has them too? I had been expecting avalanches, but they do happen in Scotland. I guess that is why they aren't in the video either.

[@illogicerr3769]

Nope. Florida is going to have to up it's game to make the list. :)

[@SherriLyle80s]

@@illogicerr3769 Hah. True. We have hurricane parties here in FL. They only scare me cat 4+ or when they spawn tornadoes.

[@keithgolden77]

@@SherriLyle80s I so miss hurricane parties! And tornado BBQ

[@GaramondGourmond]

I live in CA and people are always saying "Oh, Gosh. You must be terrified of earthquakes!" and I reply, "No. I'm more terrified of the hundreds of wildfires we have each year and the endless droughts we have." The last three summers have been nothing but ash-fests. Gray skies and ash all over your car when you wake up in the morning. We had one fire in the Santa Cruz mountains last year that was less than 25 miles from us. Scary!

[@deborahdanielson8901]

Here in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, there are too many hills and trees to see tornados coming. Because I’ve also lived in New Orleans, people ask me which I fear more: tornados or hurricanes? Definitely tornado-hardly any warning and nowhere to hide. With hurricanes, you usually get plenty of warning, just very expensive to “evacuate”.

[@AmberWool]

I like only enough time to hide, I mean take shelter.

[@XSemperIdem5]

Meanwhile I'm over here with earthquakes in Southern California. We finally have an app that might give us a few seconds of warning, depending on your distance from the epicenter. 😐

[@dindixie]

#Deborah Danielson, you must have never experienced being in the northeast quadrant eyewall of a big hurricane as it comes ashore. That part of a hurricane is full of tornadoes. (New Orleans doesn't usually get the brunt of the northeast quadrant full force because of geography.) I've been through almost every hurricane to hit coastal Mississippi since we moved here in 1993. Including Katrina. I grew up in southern Michigan, spent time in Kansas during summers, and was stationed in NM, the Philippines, and TX prior to relocating here. I've experienced tornadoes, hurricanes, smaller wildfires, plus earthquakes and typhoons while overseas. (Thankfully, we missed the eruptions of Mt Pinatubo by a year.) I love living here on the coast, but hurricanes are not easier to deal with than tornadoes by a long shot. And you don't always get days and days of time to prepare for a hurricane either. Plus, a tornado is usually (although not always) a relatively quick affair. I can think of several hurricanes that stalled out with the eyewall almost directly overhead. For over 12 hours. This isn't counting the hours of dreadful anticipation as a monster storm closes in on you, nor the time it takes for the beast to finally leave your area completely. And if you have a hooptie old car, try to evacuate, and it breaks down within an hour or two on the side of the road as you're evacuating? The reason people died in New Orleans is because they couldn't evacuate prior to the storm, and then the levees failed. There are public shelters, but they are a last resort thing for us; you have to bring supplies, which I have been told may possibly be confiscated by workers upon entering to share with those who couldn't be bothered to bring their own supplies. We had just finished building our own mostly underground shelter just prior to Katrina, and so did not have to leave. Not everyone has the luxury of evacuating for hurricanes. Some people cannot afford evacuation or don't own a vehicle, some have livestock or many pets which they can't just leave behind, and others have jobs which require them to stay (emergency response personnel, maintenance, infrastructure, hospital/care home staff, process workers, etc...). Then there can be the extended aftermath of a hurricane. The cleanup after Katrina took a year or more in a path over 100 miles wide and deep. Folks over a huge area were without power on average for a month, and some longer than that. Communications (cell and landlines) were down or spotty for weeks. No power for AC in the sweltering heat, with natural shade gone, becuse the trees left standing were all denuded. Plus having to try to sleep in that heat & high humidity, plus the horrible bugs getting in everywhere. In your time in New Orleans, did you ever experience a direct hit by a hurricane, ride it out, and have to endure a protracted aftermath? I'll take the tornado as the lesser weather problem, especially if you live in an area where most homes have basements, plus you can buy a weather alert radio, and most phones will give you alerts with enough lead time to seek shelter. And yes, I have experienced tornado warnings and actual tornadoes - in MI, OH, KS, NM, TX, (two very close calls while tent camping), and some non-hurricane related ones here in MS (one that flipped our chicken coop 70 yards from the house). Hurricanes/typhoons are no picnic, and you can't always leave.

[@bonnecherie]

I remember the one tornado I lived through in Tennessee. It came out of nowhere and just went by us in our car. Thankfully it was an F0 otherwise I'm sure we would have been tossed around 8'D

[@patraic5241]

One note. On the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The earthquake didn't kill that many people. The fires that ripped through the heart of the city After the quake is what was so lethal.

[@cathyaudette1060]

I've lived in Florida on the east coast for 52 years and have been through many hurricanes. And yes they are scary as hell. I have seen one tornado in all those years. It was a waterspout that came ashore while I was stopped at a traffic light. I was mesmerized. The sky was black, but the tornado was as white as snow. I watched until the green light, then I floored it out of there. No one was hurt, but a few oceanfront condos got minor damage.

[@jacquejac1840]

On Florida's west coast I've seen numerous waterspouts practically every storm season. It's rare they make landfall to become true tornadoes, but one or two a year does happen...Last year had one tearing down a busy street, blowing a few transformers, & snapping a railroad crossing bar off. A few blocks went without power for a couple days with some injures, but I didn't hear about any deaths.

[@taralemon32]

You should read up on the tornado that struck Greensburg KS and almost wiped the entire town off the map! It was an EF-5 and a MILE wide! My grandma/ grandpa and uncle all lived there when it happened. It was a VERY scary night until we knew they were all ok. There were not many casualties, but alot of people (my family included) lost everything. It happened on May 4, 2007.

[@carolinefelsted1298]

"Here's a map of all the active volcanoes in Britain" Britain: none

[@snowblind630]

When I was little, I was stuck in a car in a Walmart parking lot watching a tornado touchdown nearby. Luckily my dad got back in time and we left. About 2 or 3 minutes later and that tornado was over that parking lot. Fun times.

[@LJBSullivan]

Don't leave your kids in car alone, they could be hit by a tornado! Or even another car having a car accident!!

[@markbrown2640]

I'm suprised that you didn't mention that your former home, Indiana, is about as prone to large tornados as Kansas is. Re: earthquakes. Some of the strongest earthquakes in history were the New Madrid quakes, which actualy altered the course of the Mississippi River. Some of them exceded eight on the Richter Scale. They occoured in 1811 and 1812. Most of Yellowstone National Park is the caldera of an enormous active volcano.

[@Jaems_Scott]

You aren't kidding --- Stay out of Goshen, Warsaw, Wabash County, North Judson and Fullerton Indiana in the early to mid spring.

[@ingriddubbel8468]

Yes, but Kansas is better known for tornados because of the Wizard of Oz.

[@Jaems_Scott]

@@ingriddubbel8468 = LoL!! No argument there. Dorthy certainly made Twisters pop culture.

[@RobGcraft]

“Tornados don’t happen every day” Oklahoma and the rest of the Tornado Alley: “B R U H”

[@chillinvillain7800]

2:14 ACTUALLY!! One of the HIGHEST ranking earthquakes to be RECORDED happened in Alaska on March 27, 1964 in Prince William Sound at a crazy magnitude of 9.2!!!

[@aliciabuck3822]

And wasn't it followed by a tsunamis along the West Coast and Hawaii? (He didn't talk about tsunamis at all - Great Britain hasn't had one since the 1700's.

[@ToniSolin]

Thank you Skittle Barf! I was living in Alaska during that earthquake! I still do... :)

[@chillinvillain7800]

Toni Solin ofc! I’m kinda a history buff, so that was something I thought deserved credit 👍🏼 Alaska is a part of the US too!!

[@claudiamackenzie8274]

I remember that earthquake. In fact, National Georaphic did an article on it and I kept it in a scrapbook for years. Had a picture of a woman holding onto the edge of a crevasse that opened into the earth.

[@MarceRuz]

Really the biggest earthquake took place in the chilean city of Valdivia in 1960 with a 9,5 scale and a Tsunami. They have to up the scale for that magnitude...

[@magi2]

I am from Tulsa Oklahoma when it comes to Tornados some of us just grab a beer or a soft drink go outside and just watch it pass on by.

[@ffxiprincess411]

I'm in Kansas and we do the same 🤣

[@meacadwell]

I was just going to say that myself. Grew up in Kansas. After the tornado(s) were done my friends and I would drive around and look at the damage.

[@wulffy54914]

Same here in Wisco. Except we grab beers for literally any event.

[@ltcajh]

Anthony Pagano No you don’t. I drove through Moore a day or two after the big one. Now that’s jaw-dropping devastation!

[@magi2]

@@ltcajhNo You Don't. I never said they didn't cause damage reread what I said

[@jessicaely2521]

The closest tornado I've been to was I was staying at my moms friends house in Florida and I went on the back patio with her son to watch the rain rolling in. The friend lived on 20 acres and I saw a thing touchdown on the ground and I look at the son. I only got the words is that.... he yelled RUN!!!! We hid in a tiny 1/2 bath. We had 3 adults, 2 children, a green wing macaw, and 3 flipping large dogs in there. After 45 minutes we came out and the path that it took was down the pasture and into the woods. We were very lucky.

[@amymason6234]

Jessica Ely BTW, a half bath in the US is a toilet and a sink, and is not mch bigger than a closet.

[@amymason6234]

Wow I admire that you all were able to get in that 1/2 bath!

[@jessicaely2521]

@@amymason6234 no shit a half bath is just a sink and toliet. That's why it's called a half bath 🤦‍♀️. Not all half baths are the size of a closet. My friend made her half bath capable to fit an electric wheelchair. Her husband was in an electric wheelchair for the last 6 months of his life. They made sure that when they built their house her husband could get into all bathrooms. My 1/2 bath is also gigantic. My 1/2 bath doorway isn't capable of fitting a full size wheelchair, but you can easily cut the doorway to fit a full size wheelchair if need be. Once this happens you are capable of taking a full size wheelchair into there. My brother is adding a 1/2 bath to his house and it's going to be able to fit an electric wheelchair. You can't make a blanket statement like you did. People design their homes to the way they like it a lot of times.

[@rustyreturns9754]

At first you annoyed me. Now I cannot miss an episode. I am often amazed at the amount of research you do relating to American history. A great deal of information you present is unknown to far too many Americans. Kudos to you, sir.

[@SamGoesLolls]

One of the scariest tornadoes that I remember recently was the Joplin, Mo F5 tornado. Lots of camera footage of it too

[@maidenminnesota1]

Oh, that was absolutely awful! Pretty much wiped the city off the map, and Joplin was no small town. Heartbreaking, that one.

[@BattleshipOrion]

El Reno, Joplin, Moore anymore? Greenville, KS to name an other.

[@lynnchotoocho9713]

Heard about the Butterfly People who showed up that day .

[@billolsen4360]

One of the scariest

[@sofanofafalafel2890]

I think that has been the deadliest tornado in a century I think. The 10 year anniversary was recent and i think that's what they said.

[@sirskulliamiii990]

In 2011 in Joplin missouri, there were multiple tornados that began rotating around one another, which lead to a 1 mile wide tornado forming around them.

[@jtilton5]

I grew up there and went to college at MSSC ( now MSSU) before moving overseas. I was walking out of my job and looked up at the giant TV screen one of the buildings had on its side and saw what looked like I expect a nuclear bomb strike would look like. Then, I saw the crawl at the botom of the screen about the Joplin Tornadow. I spent the next 5 hours calling everybody I could think of to see if they were ok. Luckily my Mom and Sister were safe and so were my friends.

[@sirskulliamiii990]

@@jtilton5 yea, I was 11 at the time and I had family there too, it was the first time I was truly terrified.

[@donna9121]

The Joplin tornado was heart wrenching to see. The devastation was huge. Joplin has two large hospitals. One was demolished. Half the town was razed as if a bomb had landed and taken the houses away. While the houses have been rebuilt, the trees are gone and the charm of the neighborhoods is missing. Fortunately the high school held its graduation elsewhere so the students weren't there when the school was demolished. President Obama visited Joplin after that tornado and it was reported on the major morning news programs. I'm tired of tornadoes. I've lost friends in them and they have come too close as well as come on site (minor and not significant damage). The Joplin tornado has numerous videos on KZbin if you want to see and learn about it. It was one of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history.

[@nepheshaish8160]

I remember that storm. Was in Springfield mo during it. Was awful.

[@BattleshipOrion]

I watched the chase start to end, the storm was not multiple tornados converging, it was it's own type called a multi-vortex that formed before the main event died after the RFD broke it away from the parent updraft, then we have our main infamous storm on cycle number 2.

[@mikrogamis721]

California has 4 seasons: Earthquake, fire, flash flood, mudslide.

[@RKidd-ex3rh]

you forgot the 5th...…..tax season...…….

[@thedeviouspanda]

Any desert state knows those flash floods are no joke! People still get trapped in them though. In Arizona we get fires and flash floods, but just the rare wiggle from your earthquakes.

[@mikrogamis721]

@@thedeviouspanda No, they are not. I have witness those first hand.

[@mikrogamis721]

@@thedeviouspanda We get strangely lonely/(paranoid?) if we don't don't get a medium shaker or two a year.

[@tokiobabe99]

Agreed with that last point. Blizzards here in Alberta equal staying inside, wearing extra sweaters, and complaining about the cold. I can tough that out.

[@calliope720]

I know I'm several months late to this video so I don't know if you'll see this, but my hometown was actually completely destroyed by a wildfire in California in late 2018. The Camp Fire, as it came to be called because of the area where it started and not because anyone was camping, destroyed 95% of all structures and displaced almost 50,00 people from the total area the fire covered. My family's home burned down but thankfully everyone happened to be out of town at the time. Other friends of mine were not so lucky, and had narrow escapes during the gridlocked evacuation. It was a traumatizing event for all and the area still looked like a war zone when I went back many months later. Fires like that are likely to only become more common in California in coming years. It's sad to see so many beloved places I grew up with literally turning to ash before my eyes. In the future, our species is going to have to get better at both controlling climate change and safeguarding against disaster in the construction, planning, and management of inhabited areas. Anyway great video, you're awesome!

[@FryingTiger]

Nothing like the classic thunder-snow! So awesome to see in person.

[@milkshake123abc]

I’ve lived through so many hurricanes I’ve lost count. There have been tornadoes, snowmageddons and an earthquake in 2010, I believe. And that all happened in suburban Philadelphia, Pa. I guess I’m a crazy weather veteran.

[@karij4003]

I’ve been through tornadoes in Missouri and Texas, earthquakes in California and Missouri, and hurricanes in Maryland. You live with it and don’t dwell on it. I just make sure any house we live in has a basement or storm shelter. BTW-love your “Memos”.

[@markrenzella2825]

Let me know where you live now and I will NOT live there, LOL!

[@LincolnRon]

What annoys me is when the emergency sirens are abused. Ours goes off not only for air raid alerts and tornado alerts. But also 7am, 11:00am, 12:00pm & 4pm Monday through Friday. Plus when ever an ambulance or firetruck is needed. (Volunteer Fire Department) The only way I know it's an actual tornado alert is if after several minutes the siren hasn't stopped. (It normally takes a few minutes for the volunteers to get to the fire department.)

[@s.colins2050]

@@LincolnRon Jesus Christ, that's a waste of time. We have a single test every second Wednesday of the month and than it never gets touched unless a tornado hits.

[@rhiahlMT]

I was at a church camp in 1972 when hurricane Agnes came through Maryland. We were stuck there for 4 extra days. The result was a lot of spaghetti eating, plenty of strange games and two pregnant 16 year olds. People will find something to do.

[@rclaughlin]

The basement won't do you much good if your next disaster happens to be a flood.

[@sethmaki1333]

A couple years ago I was driving through southeastern Colorado and an EF4 twister hit nearby. It was maybe a couple miles south of me, but it was so big that it nearly filled the whole horizon. As there was no place to take any shelter, I just kept driving. Definitely an experience I'll never forget.

[@johnthaxton9235]

I've slept through a tornado in Colorado that removed the window from my room. Woke up next morning saying WTF?

[@someretardontheinternet]

Was it on Wednesday?

[@KayteePhilly]

Hahahah!

[@BitsOfThisNThat]

I have been in 2 tornados here in Ohio.. 1. driving home, it engulfed our car. We were in the eye of the thing. 2.At our home. 10-12 (very very very) large trees uprooted. Missing our home and animal's home by just a few inches. One tree landed on our Pet's home (at the very front of it) missing him by a foot.

[@martingarza3383]

Yeah when the clouds nearby turn green watch out.

[@spmarei]

And our blizzards are no jokes either, South Dakota experienced a 2013 thunderstorms/blizzard that killed 100,000 cattle and horses...

[@CrazyMama75]

I've seen plenty dust bunnies in UK, mostly on council estates in London. My old man spent time in America and he often told me how he was a vender at a US version of a carboot sale (using tents instead of cars) in a field somewhere in Texas when a twister hit at one end of the field and did a horseshoe around the field before disappearing. All the venders, my father included, that were in the middle of the field were mostly unharm, just some messed up wares, but the tents around the edge of the tornadoes path were all messed up and alit of injuries. Mercifully no deaths. Dad said he'll never forget it.

[@theryanjester7209]

Well, at least we're not as crazy as Australia's natural environment lol

[@jeffreybaker415]

@@johnperic6860 please add taipans, saltwater crocs, and great whites.

[@shanesmith2853]

@@jeffreybaker415 Don't they also have venomous duck beavers?😆

[@erinp.420]

Yeah Australia sounds insane.

[@nytrodioxide]

Florida is essentially America's Australia so

[@erinp.420]

magic schmagic The place we send all our criminals?? Say what?

[@LanceCorporalHawk30]

I’m currently in Alaska, and I was here for the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 2018. Many places in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough were affected, with parts of the roads crumbling up, and a lot of houses damaged

[@shiaseedsalad2726]

Wow. I hope you weren't too badly affected. I'm glad you made it out. ❤

[@pitademon]

Yep but we didn't lose anyone. Heck after the quake we sent our kids to go play in the hole in Vine Road.

[@mutteringcrone1210]

@@pitademon saw pictures of that

[@mutteringcrone1210]

Did a number on our house in Chugiak.

[@strangerinwhite]

You are in the state with the record of the biggest earthquake at 9.2. , how does that feel knowing that.

[@donnapauley8183]

I just recently found you. I love your humor!!! I am an Air Force kid. We traveled from Homestead, FL, to Tampa and then all the way to Anchorage, AK then to Montgomery, AL. So, our last winter in Alaska, we woke up to 4 feet of snow. Our neighbor had to dig us out. Then, we had our worse earthquake. It was Christmas break and we were all napping. We lived in a mobile home, so I was woken up by the entire trailer rocking back and forth so hard I was thrown to the floor. I could hear my sister screaming and I "ran" to her room, which was hard. It was like walking in a fun house drunk. We moved to Alabama next. Our first spring there, we had a tornado drill during school, during a terrifying storm. While sitting in the school hallway, I heard the tornado go over our school. The earthquake was scarier. Tornadoes you can see coming if you pay attention or during daylight. We live in southern Indiana and have not had a tornado in our town in about 30 years. I am not a big fan of storms at night.

[@breanawilhelm3420]

Fun fact about the land locked state of Colorado: periodically we get what is called hurricane like winds. And they are super annoying.

[@ChannelName66]

Breana Wilhelm Last year my town(in Colorado) randomly for a day had winds between 40 and 60 mph and one of the largest trees in town was torn down.

[@maroonbells3840]

Maybe not annoying, but its a little unnerving when you're on the highway and the semi in front of you is blown off the road and onto it's side

[@lairdcummings9092]

Growing up in Ft. Collins, we'd often get hurricane force linear winds, especially in the spring.

[@lairdcummings9092]

@A.A.Ron Davis imagine dust being driven under every door and window. And not just a little bit; drifts of it. Imagine going out in the yard to remove debris from your property from upwind structures that have been destroyed. Imagine having the doors literally blown out of their frames in the middle of the night. Yeah, the wind in Colorado can be rather more than "annoying."

[@tiffinyharrington9307]

Here in SW Michigan we had “straight line winds” that cut a rather curving path several miles long that took down huge 200 year-old trees and destroyed many buildings about 9 yrs ago. As a child we had tornado drills at school and it was terrifying. But you’re quite right in saying it’s all rather rare - most people will experience none of phenomena on your list. Unless you live in California- and then you can add mudslides to replace tornados.

[@kathryngeeslin9509]

We have straight line winds a lot in Dallas too, especially along I35E and DFW Airport. Sometimes it takes a few days for officials to decide if the wind was straight or funnel.

[@emilysundquist270]

Most people who live in the Midwest (specifically tornado ally) will 100% experience at least 1 tornado if not 2

[@kathryngeeslin9509]

Oddly enough, what part of town you live in can affect the likelihood of tornadoes.

[@calliarcale]

There's a very cool name for the sort of storm most likely to produce massive straight-line winds: a derecho. They're most common in the same places where powerful tornadoes are most common, and can occur *with* tornadoes. We get these in Minnesota too. Back '99 (21 years ago precisely, since it struck July 4), such a storm blew down a large swath of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Peak wind recorded was 91 MPH when the storm rushed through Fargo, ND. The forestry service actually allowed logging in the wilderness area for the first time to try and clean up the debris before wildfire could do the job. They were partially successful; there was considerable wildfire the next season anyway.

[@esco5593]

@@emilysundquist270 Absolutely. I moved near Rapid City from Birmingham, England and we experience at least 1 tornado warning every year. Personally, I've never seen a tornado with my own eyes (I've seen tornado damage in Birmingham, which was more like the aftermath of an average thunderstorm in the US), but some of the other weather phenomena I've experienced in just 3 years is spectacular to say the least.

[@calebklingerman7902]

Hello from East TN, we are too far inland for hurricanes, too hilly for tornadoes (serious ones, anyway), too far south for most blizzards, and we have no volcanoes! We have had wildfires and earthquakes though, there was a pretty bad fire in the Gatlinburg area a couple years ago.

[@KasFromMass]

Heart Attacks shoveling snow is a major killer yearly....every year.

[@harleyretherford6329]

As an Oklahoman, I can say, we have a lot of tornados. There's usually two or three at the least every year up near Oklahoma City. And whilst I live outside of "tornado alley", we've have five or six in the last three years. Unfortunately, I seem to always be asleep when they come, and have only seen the damage after they come. I've been woken up by a freaking cat walking down the hall, but a tornado roaring down the road somehow doesn't wake me.

[@grace7701]

Most people don't realize that Charleston, South Carolina has a major fault line that runs through it, we often get smaller ones that you mostly dont feel but do occasionally in fact one was felt further up the east coast. 1886 there was a 6.9-7.3 magnitude quake causing almost all of the buildings in town to be severely damaged. I have been through many hurricanes up and down the east coast (military), Andrew a Cat 5 in miami, Gloria in RI and a number of them here in SC...at least with those you get plenty of warning unlike tornadoes which we can get here but are usually only E1s and are rare, thankfully.

[@Markle2k]

One of the largest series of earthquakes in US history was on the New Madrid Fault covering Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Illinois area. It re-routed the Mississippi river and caused it to flow backward in 1811-1812 through a series of M7-M8 earthquakes. It doesn't go often, in human terms, but it holds a lot of energy. And when it goes, it goes big. Several times in a row. Another sleeper fault is the Wasatch Fault running north to south through Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo in Utah. It has a recent geological history of some really large earthquakes. And the Mormons moved there and built out of brick. You don't want to be in an unreinforced masonry structure in an earthquake larger than a 5.0 or so. There is evidence of 7.5+ there.

[@agoogleuser4443]

Meg B- Hurricane Andrew was a doozie. Hugo was pretty bad also. My aunt lived in Hanahan near Charleston, and her house was the only one on the block that didn't get major damage to it. We told her she must be living right! It went pretty far inland up into NC, and tons of boats and docks on Lake Norman were destroyed.

[@MrGadfly772]

I May of 1965 we had a series of tornados rip through the suburbs of Minneapolis. I lived in Crystal and still remember seeing two at the same time as they went by Crystal airport. For many years I would occasionally have tornado nightmares.

[@annabollig6704]

I know this is randomly off subject but I can’t help but notice that his microphone matches perfectly with his shirt 👕

[@candycemonroe7345]

Now that I read this... I can't look away.

[@miniondave6314]

I had a great view of a tornado in 2004 as it dropped in a field I was surveying. It chased us across the field for half a mile before roping out. We could have been much further away except that the three other guys I was working with did not grow up in tornado alley like I did and failed to grasp the gravity of the situation as the tornado was forming. Then they said I over reacted for driving like a bat out of hell to get out of the tornado's path.

[@OtherThanIntendedPurpose]

I grew up in Indiana, and personally witnessed many tornados, including one when I was riding my bike, and heard the twister behind me, I rode down into a drainage ditch, and covered my head like we were taught, suddenly it was dead quiet, and I looked up, right into the eye of the tornado. I have also been in several of the worst blizzards in recorded history, including the 1978 blizzard that shut down southern Indiana for 3 weeks. with more than 20 inches of snowfall, and wind driven drifts upwards of 40 feet. I have lived in California for over 20 years now, and have been in numerous earthquakes, including a couple over 7, and been uncomfortably close to the evacuations of several wildfires.

[@Albanwinter]

I'm California born and bred. Sometime in the middle of last year I had Johnny Cash's song "Ring of Fire" stuck in my head for several days. In the midst of this stuck song we had an earthquake. Being overtired as I was and feeling silly, lyrics began to form in my head as the tune stayed there..."We all live in the Pacific ring of fire/Down, down, down came the gleaming spires..." and like phrases. I believe I had a few lines about forest fires in there too.

[@avoria13]

A tornado showed up down the street from my niece’s softball game at about halfway through, and they finished the game. My uncle took pictures and posted it on Facebook🤦🏼‍♀️

[@chrislong3938]

I was at Candlestick Park in '89, now I live in Colorado where I've seen a tornado, and grew up in the Caribbean where I've lived through the fringes of a couple of hurricanes. Those were exciting enough for me! The tornado was cool and exciting as hell as well. Watching Mother Nature go to work on the weather is truly something to witness. Being in the upper deck of Candlestick, we didn't feel it quite as firmly as those on the ground but the structure continued rocking long after the original one had stopped. I'd been through sizeable quakes in CA before but nothing quite like that one! I also drove through a blizzard in Utah coming from CA back to CO and that one killed three people. That old Cherokee sure pulled me through like a champ!

[@jame3shook]

1988, I was living at home and still in HS. A tornado jumped the house in Cheasapeake VA. the news said it was a 50-yr event (2% chance in any year). The line of thunder cells came down from Petersburg VA...

[@captainbejo3513]

3 of 5 of these “events” take place here in CA! Come on out and I’ll give you a tour of the places affected!

[@Loj84]

All over the west coast. Even got hurricane force winds here in Washington back in 2007 (gusts up to almost 150mph), as well as Oregon and BC

[@MandMs05]

@@Loj84 oooh I remember that

[@JakeSnake07]

Earthquakes, Wildfires, Tornadoes, here in Oklahoma. We have volcanic effects underground, but no true volcanoes, and we're landlocked, so only tails of hurricanes here.

[@Loj84]

@@MandMs05 I lived right on the coast at the time. Don't remember it too well because I was pretty young, but I definitely remember losing power for a long time.

[@Markle2k]

California gets a surprising amount of small tornados. Extremely rarely above EF-2, though. Just often enough to uproot trees on the golf course or topple them onto a house.

[@hasufinheltain1390]

I grew up in Central IL. It is so indescribably weird to live in places where nature isn't basically trying to kill you. Like, people just leave things outside. And assume it will be possible to do outdoors things without checking the forecast and having a backup plan in case the forecast is wrong.

[@shanecomeback8296]

Been through a couple of tornadoes. The weather can be crazy here.

[@jmitterii2]

Terrifying. I had to stay in OKC for 6 months. Visited my aunt in Kansas. Her house was destroyed by a tornado, she survived by going into her bath tub with her dogs. Driving through from Denver through Kansas, a series of tornadoes were touching down, at a rest stop, my aunt called me to relay weather info. I took a quick nap in my car, she called back and told me if I leave the rest area now, I would be able to beat the tornado. I could see the storm cells. Terrifying. At one point the interstate changed direction directly toward the storm, I was tuned into the emergency weather frequency updates were constant describing destruction to some town just 20 miles away from the interstate. Fortunately, I outran it. And stayed in a hotel near my aunt for the night before heading to the junction south to OKC. Oh, and the earthquakes in OKC... didn't realize it was a thing. First one happened early morning Saturday, I described to my colleagues that following week. They thought I was on crack. I checked online and sure enough was indeed an earthquake. In fact, thousands of them a year happen. Due to fracking. A few weeks later, couple others happened same time early in the morning I think on Saturdays again. Both were a 3.x. Another colleague hadn't felt any yet. One morning about 7 AM again, I awoke... about minute after staring at the foot of the bed and deciding if I was going to get up, heard the rumbling noise of a train. Another quake. Then it started really shaking, walls seemed to bend inward. I jumped up out of my bed. Wondering what I should do, being on the 3rd floor of the apartment complex. The intense shaking only lasted for about 5 or so seconds then went back to a lower intensity shaking until ending. Was a 5.6. Shortly after the quake, I received a text from my colleague: "I felt that one!"

[@intuitivecat]

I enjoy the fact that you pronounce hurricane the same way that residents of Hurricane UT pronounce their town name.

[@zachmedina506]

In Oklahoma we go outside and watch the tornados while drinking a beer its a hell of a show to watch trash cans take flight

[@johnbrewer1]

Here in Florida we have hurricane party's

[@kristinwright6632]

I live near Mt St Helen. I have seen her belch smoke and I have climbed her and gazed down into the smoking caldera. Stunning.

[@kietsuhime]

I haven't actually encountered one, but I remember tornado drills when I was a kid and living in Illinois. Now I've been living in Sacramento, California, for about 25 years now. There have been earthquakes since I've lived here, but I didn't personally feel them, which is kinda a bummer, though luckily they weren't big earthquakes. There were some in SoCal last year, and people were sleeping outdoors for fear that their houses would collapse on them while they're sleeping. I remember the Camp fire in California in, I think 2018. Even though it didn't make it to Sacramento, it did burn a town called Paradise off the map, which is more than ominous. If a fire did reach Sacramento, I think it would easily burn down since Sacramento is the city of trees. When the Camp fire was burning through California, the smoke and ash made it to Sacramento, and blanketed everything with a layer of ash, and smoke greatly obscured vision. We had to check the air quality everyday, and sometimes it was hazardous for everyone. For several days, the air quality of Sacramento was the worst air in the world, and even worse than India and China in terms of pollution. It was terrifying, and everyone was clamoring for masks to protect them from the smoke. I did wear masks when I was out and about, and I had to have a daily inhaler, which I haven't needed to have one since I was a kid. I also ended up in the emergency room as a result. American weather is no joke, and you know it's bad when the place you live has a fucking fire season. On the other side of the country, there's hurricane season. It's kinda scary that we talk about the seasons in terms of natural disasters. Wtf America?

[@jennysjourney02]

I live about 45 mins west of you off I-80 and grew up in the area. We had earthquake and fire drills all the time at school. I have felt lots of earthquakes and still feel them often. They usually come from above Napa and the Clear Lake area. It's interesting how often they do happen but alot more since the Napa earthquake a couple years ago. That one felt different, lasted longer, and had a humming sound to it. It was the first time that I heard an earthquake.

[@marilyncote-miller8010]

Here in the Buffalo NY area, we are famous for our crazy snowstorms. Christmas 2022 was a blizzard with 75 mph (cat 1 hurricane) winds and 4+ feet of snow.

[@captainriker9088]

7:23 He started talking about tornadoes. I heard the beep, and I immediately got flashbacks to a national weather service alert for tornadoes. Scared the shit out of me.

[@hannahberg9114]

1989 Loma Prieta... but I still don't want to endure a mid-west winter.

[@Culdcepter]

Right there with you, lived up in Santa Rosa when that one hit.

[@howlinmad03]

I grew up in Mississippi and there were numerous tornadoes there. I've never seen one with my eyes, since they are hard to see from the ground due to the trees/terrain/buildings. And I've never been directly in one. But I know people that have. I've had family members that were in a house that was flattened in a tornado and they were lucky to escape without much harm.

[@pleappleappleap]

I live in the Hudson Valley in New York. We commonly get a weather phenomenon which is rather uncommon elsewhere: thundersnow. It's exactly what it sounds like, and is scarier in person than it sounds like.

[@hgrace0]

I live in Chicago and I have experienced the most mild earthquake imaginable. (This was in 2010) It jostled me awake early one morning. It was so minor that even though it caused me to wake, my two roommates and classmates never woke up. I didn’t know it was an earthquake until hours later. I felt the big shake and it jostled me awake for a moment and then it stopped and I promptly fell back asleep.

[@ironwarmonger]

When I was a small child, in Lake County Indiana, there was a storm, and there was this noise that sounded like a near by train. My father, who was actually from Kansas, quickly got all of us into the basement. Apparently a Tornado, no idea what class, pass just behind our house (which at the time was just woods). So I figured i been in one Tornado, so it is very unlikely I will be in another.

[@hearmeout9138]

Don't assume that. I had an EF-4 that had already killed 64 people rope out about 4 miles before reaching my house, then it either recycled or the same supercell dropped another EF-4 less than 2 miles past my house and 22 more died from it. Someone theorized that changes in elevation may have weakened it near my house and I foolishly repeated that to some other people and then 9 months later, an EF-3 touched down basically where the other tornado had roped out, killed a teenage girl, decimated most of my neighborhood and then subsided at almost the same place that the other storm had produced the second EF-4 tornado. Knock on wood right now. ;-)

[@AnasatisTiMiniatis]

Should I tell them about cyclic tornadoes?

[@hearmeout9138]

reverse thrust I don’t think that is an absolute statement. I know NWS meteorologists and we have discussed this subject. Powerful tornadoes probably aren’t affected as much by terrain but meteorologists do believe that terrain affects both tornadogenesis and the sustenance of inflow into a tornado. These websites expose information based on decreasing the risk of liability rather than hard facts because they assume that the average viewer will perform the minimum amount of research so they present simplifications of information. For instance, they say never shelter in an underpass, but I’m an engineer with a solid understanding of aerodynamics and the Venturi Effect and there are underpasses that are effective as shelters from tornadoes. I know the characteristics that make one type of overpass safe and another unsafe, so if I came upon an overpass that I deemed a safe shelter, I would absolutely take cover therein. I wouldn’t advise anyone that doesn’t know how to judge between safe and unsafe overpasses to seek shelter there, however. I’d just make a blanket statement to avoid overpasses so I would not have their death on my conscience.

[@teriannebeauchamp254]

I live in the Greater Seattle area, several years ago the store where I worked got a new employee. He had just gotten out of the Navy after being stationed here for about a year. He and his wife liked the area and chose to stay here instead of returning back East where they were from. He was up on a stepstool putting some product on the top shelf when we got a 2 or 3 point earthquake. No damage nothing to be excited about. Quite normal. He freaked! I assured him that it wasn't anything to be worried about. He got home and is wife was hysterical. They were gone with a month.

[@-Miasimon]

"You won't see any of this, unless you live in California" Me: *nervous laughter* We uh... we got a hurricane season, down here in the South East. We got hurricane seasons on the South East coast, tornado alley in the middle and earthquakes/wildfires on the West coast. Finally, on the North East coast, you're dangerously close to New Jersey and that's basically an inhospitable wasteland... just look at Jersey Shore.

[@y_am_i_here4663]

i've been reminding everyone about our South east coast from NC but they don't seem to care

[@susieqmartin2746]

Yes experienced tornadoes in Indiana in 1964 Nappanee IN and then agin in 1965!!! Where we lost 41 people in our community from the Palm Sunday tornadoes. It is something as a child you never ever forget!!!!

[@lindsayobrien8110]

My husband (Brit expat) and I live in the Rogers Park in Chicago where the tornado went through August 2020 derecho. I was on my way home and he was at home when the tornado tore down the street, and he witnessed the whole thing. I grew up in Nebraska, and although I’ve been *near* tornados I’ve never actually been in a building hit by one.

[@maga6252]

Have there any type of 'pestilences' that have occurred in the United Kingdom where swarms of locusts that devoured farmers crops before? Just a thought.

[@just_kos99]

Closest I've ever got to two of these events is I heard Mt St Helens' lateral blast on May 18, 1980 and I heard a funnel cloud (didn't see it) when I lived in southern Mississippi. Managed to go hurricane-free the 4.5 years I lived there.

[@susanspringfield448]

I’m a native Texan. I’ve seen five tornadoes in my lifetime including one that twirled right by my apartment window. That’s five too many. I’ve also been through 2-3 hurricanes when I lived on the coast of Texas. I do have a connection to the Galveston hurricane of 1900. Lost some members of my grandfather’s family, who were swept away in the storm surge. So the family decided to move farther north to get away from hurricanes. They went to northeast Texas - aka Tornado Alley. 🙄

[@cuppcak47rtc6]

I laughed and told my sister “Mother Nature doesn’t have it in for us. Everyone has it in for us. Even our own government!”

[@cak4539]

Long time Floridian here. In 2004 we were hit with 3 hurricanes in 6 weeks including the deadly Hurricane Charley. The day after Charley hit it looked like a nuclear bomb hit. We're tough down here and are used to them.

[@annecosgrove2133]

My son lives in the Netherlands (The Hague). Every once in a while they have these huge storms come in from the North Sea - 100 mile an hour winds, you know.... He sent us a compilation video of roofs being blown off buildings - he said three of the videos were from ON HIS STREET!!!!! Good times.

[@jbrock917]

I live in Kansas, so I have seen so many tornadoes that they seem like normal events. We still see 1 or 2 a year. When the tornado sirens go off, people bring their lawn chairs out to watch them.