I was in a tornado earlier this year...I'm lucky to be alive.
A few of us were heading back from a weekend lake trip. Four of us in three cars. I was driving my friends large SUV.
We're about 1 1/2 hours into a 2 1/2 hour trip and we can see that we are driving in the direction of hell descending upon the earth. About 2 miles from a hwy interchange the lead driver checks radar on his phone. He detours the group into a truck stop parking lot to give us the news. Come to find we are in a Severe t-storm warning, tornado watch, tornado warning, and a flash flood warning. Being that all of us know these highways very well, and we are at this point very close to home, we decide to head out and challenge nature.
In hindsight this may have been a poor decision.
We get back on the highway and just as i get up to speed, about 65 mph, it all starts. Sheets and sheets and sheets of rain began falling immediately, I couldn't see 6 inches outside the windshield. I couldn't see the light that my headlights were projecting. So i let off the gas, knowing not to touch the brakes. Soon as i lift my foot the Truck is hit by a wall of wind. I literally mean a WALL of WIND. So i find myself on a highway, traveling about 60 mph, in a 5000 pound truck that doesn't belong to me, being pushed across a highway, pulled back, pushed across again, with no way of slowing down, with traffic in front of and behind me.
Fortunately the hand of God released the Truck from its grasp (read: the tornado moved past where i was and didn't throw me off the highway into a ditch). I was able to very lightly start applying the brakes and bring the Truck back to a crawl, hazards on and all. I pulled over to the shoulder as soon as i caught up to the second car in the group (i was bringing up the rear). We sat on the shoulder for 5-10 minutes, and the wind was ROCKING! I've been around a lot of sever storms growing up, but i hadn't felt winds like this ever that i could remember. I thought the top was going to get ripped of the convertible in front of me, and as much as the Truck was rocking i thought i might get pushed back into what traffic hadn't pulled over.
Storm let up a little, and we drove off.
We were lucky, there were a lot of cars in the median and ditches that weren't so fortunate.
an i ran inside to see the funnel go right out front of my apt that was wicked i was in the middle of a tornado
