@venussuz I ended up marking down Thunderstorms as the most common extreme weather for Michigan. But really its a sort of grab bag between most of the options.
@JonT If you can't decide, I let the death rate factor it, for Illinois I went with Tornados, but I think more people die from snow (but we don't get many blizzards just snowfall)
@ilusha Ahh yes, signing up for severe weather texts from the local news station a few years ago. Promptly unsubscribing after several texts at 3am informing me of a severe fog warning. Ummm thanks... Not!
@AnnaB Just do what the people do where I work... turn the thermostat down to around 60º and wear a coat so everyone else is freezing, then every hour or so, whip off the coat and fan yourself for a few minutes.
@AnnaB hey, I completely understand the hot-flashes and compensate accordingly. The tantrums, paranoia, manic mood swings, overall psychosis and complete denial of all the aforementoned- not so much.
I'm in West Virginia so we have a little bit of everything. Nothing happens often enough for there to be suitable infrastructure to deal with anything when it happens, though.
@SSteve I lived in San Jose during that time. While nothing truly horrible happened to me personally, I remember coverage of the devastation in Oakland, the Marina district of SF, and the Santa Cruz area.
@KDemo Yep. My wife's parents lived in Los Gatos. Their house was still standing but you could see sky through a crack in the top. It got red-tagged and had to be demolished.
@sjk3 My wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) lived in Cow Hollow, the neighborhood next to The Marina. As she was driving home from work after the earthquake she realized she was driving closer and closer to the huge plumes of smoke and thought her whole neighborhood was on fire. This was while she was hearing on the radio that the Bay Bridge had collapsed and the epicenter was really close to her parents' house.
@KDemo I texted her and asked if she remembered Stash Box. She replied "Absolutely!" She just said that if she remembers correctly, it moved at one time and that she and her friends used to ride their horses to the original location.
@SSteve and I lived in Boulder Creek at that time, still do. We lost 30% of the homes on our hillside neighborhood. California mountain living is exciting! Just last weekend we got 6" of rain.
@SSteve - She's right, I did move once from a little place on the edge of town to right in the middle of town on Santa Cruz Ave. Don't remember the horses, but as they say, If I remembered everything I wasn't really there, right?
@SSteve Interesting that the after-effects of the earthquake caused the beginning of the end for the store. There was so much damage in town, people stopped coming.
@meow57 I haven't been to Boulder Creek in 30 years or so. I worked for a freight forwarder and we had a client in Boulder Creek who bought all the used Levi's he could find and shipped them overseas to sell. I drove down to pick up a shipment a couple times and really liked it there.
The question was "most common". I live in Kansas, the state synonymous with a movie featuring a house getting blown away by a tornado. Trust me, severe thunderstorms are a lot more common.
I'm calling BS on anybody that selected tornadoes.
@smyle We had 3 years of February tornadoes around here. Thankfully none this year. We get our share of thunderstorms, but they aren't particularly scary. "It's them big fingers of God what are coming to get ye! If ye go underground, ye're jest gettin closer to the Devil Himself. Ye been warned."
Western Washington. There is flooding/landslides in some places, but not really in my neck of the woods. I DO dread the day we finally get our next apocalyptic earthquake.
@hallmike For some odd reason my brain combined a few in the middle and I read it as "Barenaked Ladies" and was totally nonplussed at the thought of it's mention in this list.
Probably the most annoying weather thing is the few days a year where we get Inversions. We share that trait with much of the Salt Lake area. Inversions basically lock us in a bubble of cold air and keep that air from circulating out, which gives us terrible smog problems. That's really the worst the area has to offer.
I wouldn't say it's the greatest weather ever, the temperatures swing pretty wildly because it's continental, but it's a desert valley with rivers through it here, the summers usually top out at around 105 degrees (very dry) and that usually doesn't last for long. The winters are rarely below zero. The snow is relatively mild. No tornadoes, at worst we get some dirt devils. Too far from the coast for hurricanes. We get forest fires, but we're a bit away from the forests, so the worst we get is a bit of smoke. Hail is pretty mild here too.
Of course, spring and fall tend to be fairly short. We did have a really mild summer and have had a really mild winter so far in the last year.
As far as any other natural disaster potentials go, the worst one is probably the super volcano at yellowstone. If that ever goes we're in trouble. We really don't have much in the way of earthquake potential here.
I live in Northern California. For much of the year, we don't really have weather. We have climate. 70-78 degrees and sunny, not a single cloud, day after day after day. Extreme weather? Even when it rains here, it's mostly drizzle. No lightning, no thunder. It gets a little windy sometimes... but nope, not really extreme weather. That's why I live here.
SMOG!! Valleys of it.. All types of smog, unbreathable haze from factories, from vehicles, from wood burning fire places (chimneys full of it) hell, even the good humor man creates it, if it was any thicker (at times) it would be solid!! THAT'S what we got around here. Then suddenly: Ahh, much better...
While tonadoes followed closely by flooding would be the most common severe weather, they are not all that common here. Aside from a week or two of 100 deg weather and a week or two of 30 deg, this is actually a pretty neat place to live. With a little driving I can snow ski and water ski within the same day.
In South Florida, we worry about hurricanes. But for the last 7-8 years its only been worrying about them. We have been lucky (knock on wood) that we've been missed by a big one. But the local TV has to drum up warnings every summer, lest we forget about them.
@Mediocrebot has deadly heat but not deadly cold. Last winter Chicago had temperatures of -25F and wind chills reaching down into the -50Fs. @Mediocrebot must be a Texan too.
I voted deadly heat for NJ. It's the only one on the list that we get every year, though we get all of them to some extent (not sure about significant landslides, but there are enough mountains to presume that we do)
Laredo Tx here... we have deadly heat here most of the time... the rest of the time we have crazy weather: for instance, yesterday was a beautiful day! today is cloudy... so kinda crazy weather we have here.
Minnesota has it all! Why, just yesterday it was thundering, it rained, it hailed, it snowed. In the same morning! And now it's 3 degrees! This goddamn state should be a prison colony.
I weathered several hurricanes in central Florida, but they weren't so bad. The only thing I found unbearable were all those newsmen in the Northeast saying "Hunker down!" Yeah, well snowpocalypsgasmageddon has arrived, assholes. Hunker down!
Back when a tornado warning, for instance, meant an actual tornado and not "doppler radar detects a hook", this thing would be useful. If I had went for cover for every warning though it would only make for good exercise.
Thunder Clapper Gully Washers blowing through the Dallas area, especially in the Spring. Essentially a bunch of sideways-blowing rain for about 20 minutes, often accompanied by the requisite tornado alarms, but it usually just passes on through without too much damage. Unless your house is aluminum and has wheels, that is.
Well here in Boston it has been snowing longer then anyone can remember. Many have lost their lives in the tempest, the T service has been delayed or closed intermittently!! And to think spring break is only 2 weeks away...
Cold. Michigan is really fucking cold.
@venussuz I ended up marking down Thunderstorms as the most common extreme weather for Michigan. But really its a sort of grab bag between most of the options.
@gnol There is a reason I didn't go back to Michigan when I got out of the Navy despite those occasional hurricanes we have here in Florida.
I went from fires and earthquakes to tornados and smaller earthquakes.
I don't know which is worse.
@JonT I've lived both in earthquake-prone and in hurricane-zone areas...and I'm more scared of hurricanes. Weird, huh?
@JonT If you can't decide, I let the death rate factor it, for Illinois I went with Tornados, but I think more people die from snow (but we don't get many blizzards just snowfall)
Earthquakes are not weather events.
@irishbyblood - You've never heard of earthquake weather?
Fog?
@ilusha Ahh yes, signing up for severe weather texts from the local news station a few years ago. Promptly unsubscribing after several texts at 3am informing me of a severe fog warning. Ummm thanks... Not!
@ciabelle seems like i got some for a frost warning. Oh no, frost! I guess i was supposed to bring my plants in or something...
Hans solo season?
the blistering cold shoulder and hot flashes of a Peri-menopausal wife. I qualify for a medical marijuana card due to the stress.
@alacrity I feel you, brother.
@alacrity try being the one experiencing the hot flashes. Talk about deserving a medical marijuana card
@alacrity PERIPOCALYPSE FTW. Living the dream. side eye
@AnnaB Just do what the people do where I work... turn the thermostat down to around 60º and wear a coat so everyone else is freezing, then every hour or so, whip off the coat and fan yourself for a few minutes.
@AnnaB hey, I completely understand the hot-flashes and compensate accordingly. The tantrums, paranoia, manic mood swings, overall psychosis and complete denial of all the aforementoned- not so much.
Since when are landslides, wildfires and floods weather? They are generally a result of the weather. Earthquakes aren't weather, either.
And why isn't this multiple choice. I would select, tornadoes, thunderstorms and blizzards.
@TheCO2 +1 for multiple choice
I'm in West Virginia so we have a little bit of everything. Nothing happens often enough for there to be suitable infrastructure to deal with anything when it happens, though.
There was a massive fire in these parts in 1988 (well before I lived here). It burned down almost 150 homes. People are still terrified of a repeat.
I was living in San Francisco at the time. That's where I was for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I was pretty sure I was going to die.
@SSteve I lived less than 5 miles from the epicenter in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Life changing.
@SSteve I lived in San Jose during that time. While nothing truly horrible happened to me personally, I remember coverage of the devastation in Oakland, the Marina district of SF, and the Santa Cruz area.
@KDemo Yep. My wife's parents lived in Los Gatos. Their house was still standing but you could see sky through a crack in the top. It got red-tagged and had to be demolished.
@sjk3 My wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) lived in Cow Hollow, the neighborhood next to The Marina. As she was driving home from work after the earthquake she realized she was driving closer and closer to the huge plumes of smoke and thought her whole neighborhood was on fire. This was while she was hearing on the radio that the Bay Bridge had collapsed and the epicenter was really close to her parents' house.
@SSteve !!! We're you around LG in the 80s and 90s? I had a store in town.
@KDemo My wife grew up there. He mom loved to shop. Which store?
@SSteve - Stash Box.. Her mom probably didn't shop there ;-)
@KDemo Hah! Probably not. But my wife and her brother most likely did. I'll check.
@KDemo I texted her and asked if she remembered Stash Box. She replied "Absolutely!" She just said that if she remembers correctly, it moved at one time and that she and her friends used to ride their horses to the original location.
@SSteve and I lived in Boulder Creek at that time, still do. We lost 30% of the homes on our hillside neighborhood. California mountain living is exciting! Just last weekend we got 6" of rain.
@SSteve - She's right, I did move once from a little place on the edge of town to right in the middle of town on Santa Cruz Ave. Don't remember the horses, but as they say, If I remembered everything I wasn't really there, right?
@SSteve Interesting that the after-effects of the earthquake caused the beginning of the end for the store. There was so much damage in town, people stopped coming.
@meow57 I haven't been to Boulder Creek in 30 years or so. I worked for a freight forwarder and we had a client in Boulder Creek who bought all the used Levi's he could find and shipped them overseas to sell. I drove down to pick up a shipment a couple times and really liked it there.
Way out west, they got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire’s joe and
They call the wind...
Holy shit, it's windy again today!
@2many2no Way out west, they got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is wet, the fires hot
They call the wind....the wind.
@2many2no Oh god how I HATE the wind. Lived in New Mexico for 2 years and the wind never stopped blowing.
The question was "most common". I live in Kansas, the state synonymous with a movie featuring a house getting blown away by a tornado. Trust me, severe thunderstorms are a lot more common.
I'm calling BS on anybody that selected tornadoes.
@smyle That depends on how extreme "extreme" is.
@smyle My thoughts exactly. Every tornado comes from a thunderstorm! High five to a fellow Kansan!
@smyle We had 3 years of February tornadoes around here. Thankfully none this year. We get our share of thunderstorms, but they aren't particularly scary.
"It's them big fingers of God what are coming to get ye!
If ye go underground, ye're jest gettin closer to the Devil Himself.
Ye been warned."
Western Washington. There is flooding/landslides in some places, but not really in my neck of the woods. I DO dread the day we finally get our next apocalyptic earthquake.
@brumagem and volcanoes! But volcanoes aren't weather, unless raining ash and fiery death counts.
@brumagem - I'm with you. Not to keep you up nights or anything, but http://nwnewsnetwork.org/post/study-offshore-fault-where-big-one-originates-eerily-quiet
What's the most common extreme weather where you live?
@hallmike For some odd reason my brain combined a few in the middle and I read it as "Barenaked Ladies" and was totally nonplussed at the thought of it's mention in this list.
Urine.
Probably the most annoying weather thing is the few days a year where we get Inversions. We share that trait with much of the Salt Lake area. Inversions basically lock us in a bubble of cold air and keep that air from circulating out, which gives us terrible smog problems. That's really the worst the area has to offer.
I wouldn't say it's the greatest weather ever, the temperatures swing pretty wildly because it's continental, but it's a desert valley with rivers through it here, the summers usually top out at around 105 degrees (very dry) and that usually doesn't last for long. The winters are rarely below zero. The snow is relatively mild. No tornadoes, at worst we get some dirt devils. Too far from the coast for hurricanes. We get forest fires, but we're a bit away from the forests, so the worst we get is a bit of smoke. Hail is pretty mild here too.
Of course, spring and fall tend to be fairly short. We did have a really mild summer and have had a really mild winter so far in the last year.
As far as any other natural disaster potentials go, the worst one is probably the super volcano at yellowstone. If that ever goes we're in trouble. We really don't have much in the way of earthquake potential here.
I live in Northern California. For much of the year, we don't really have weather. We have climate. 70-78 degrees and sunny, not a single cloud, day after day after day. Extreme weather? Even when it rains here, it's mostly drizzle. No lightning, no thunder. It gets a little windy sometimes... but nope, not really extreme weather. That's why I live here.
SMOG!! Valleys of it.. All types of smog, unbreathable haze from factories, from vehicles, from wood burning fire places (chimneys full of it) hell, even the good humor man creates it, if it was any thicker (at times) it would be solid!! THAT'S what we got around here.
Then suddenly:
Ahh, much better...
here in NJ we get about everything
no Tornado tho.
While tonadoes followed closely by flooding would be the most common severe weather, they are not all that common here. Aside from a week or two of 100 deg weather and a week or two of 30 deg, this is actually a pretty neat place to live. With a little driving I can snow ski and water ski within the same day.
Dogs and cats......living together
@somf69 call someone. . .
@jrwofuga Who ya gonna call?
In South Florida, we worry about hurricanes. But for the last 7-8 years its only been worrying about them. We have been lucky (knock on wood) that we've been missed by a big one. But the local TV has to drum up warnings every summer, lest we forget about them.
Haboobs!
@Mediocrebot has deadly heat but not deadly cold. Last winter Chicago had temperatures of -25F and wind chills reaching down into the -50Fs. @Mediocrebot must be a Texan too.
I voted deadly heat for NJ. It's the only one on the list that we get every year, though we get all of them to some extent (not sure about significant landslides, but there are enough mountains to presume that we do)
@JerseyFrank http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/infocirc/landslides.pdf Yes, we do get them. 19 deaths ever, so maybe not so bad.
Wildfires. These were taken during the Cedar fire back in 2003. These fires scare the hell out of me.
October 25:
Hawk in a eucalyptus tree in a neighbor's yard
Taken by my backyard webcam on Sunday (the middle of the afternoon):
A week later:
Laredo Tx here... we have deadly heat here most of the time... the rest of the time we have crazy weather: for instance, yesterday was a beautiful day! today is cloudy... so kinda crazy weather we have here.
Minnesota has it all! Why, just yesterday it was thundering, it rained, it hailed, it snowed. In the same morning! And now it's 3 degrees! This goddamn state should be a prison colony.
@poppaearl I'm glad I broke out 10 years ago. I do NOT miss those winters.
I weathered several hurricanes in central Florida, but they weren't so bad. The only thing I found unbearable were all those newsmen in the Northeast saying "Hunker down!" Yeah, well snowpocalypsgasmageddon has arrived, assholes. Hunker down!
Mt. Rainier exploding.
Back when a tornado warning, for instance, meant an actual tornado and not "doppler radar detects a hook", this thing would be useful. If I had went for cover for every warning though it would only make for good exercise.
Thunder Clapper Gully Washers blowing through the Dallas area, especially in the Spring. Essentially a bunch of sideways-blowing rain for about 20 minutes, often accompanied by the requisite tornado alarms, but it usually just passes on through without too much damage. Unless your house is aluminum and has wheels, that is.
@Jdub
Well here in Boston it has been snowing longer then anyone can remember. Many have lost their lives in the tempest, the T service has been delayed or closed intermittently!! And to think spring break is only 2 weeks away...