[Gaoth Laidir]

If you're talking about impacts on my life then the storm of July 25th/26th 1985 is right up there as I was only 10 and had seen nothing like it before. Other homegrown honourable mentions are "The Big Snow" of January 1982 and ex-Charley of August 1986, and more recently the snows of 2010 and 2018.

Abroad, the thunderstorms in Houston in August, 1992. I hadn't witnessed this type of tropical activity before. I distinctly remember one Saturday evening being driven out to a rodeo in some small isolated Texas village, mouth open watching the anvil-crawler lightning out ahead, each flash lasting for what seemed like seconds. Other storms when I was there had torrential downpours that generated flashfloods in minutes, which would then dry up equally fast as if nothing happened. One such storm apparently dropped a tornado about a mile away, though I didn't get to witness it.

Another was flying from Rome to Bangkok, June 2002. Thunderstorm over northern India, and me like an idiot head stuck to the window watching the strobe light show for around 30 minutes non-stop as we flew around it to its south.

[Tazio]

Turbulence a few years back landing into Salina KS.

We were on a regional service and the airplane could only be described as a crop duster. (one row of seats on one side and two on the other)

Coffee and tears everywhere; That night on the plane was a religions experience for many -

3 attempts to land and quite frankly I didn't realise aircraft are built so strong. We all felt non typical forces on our seatbelts. There was only a material curtain separating us from the pilots - you could see their biceps flexing holding the controls no joke, The curtain would swing to one side when the wings pointed downwards so you could see them 'flying' and hear the wonderful sounds from the cockpit. The lightning flashes and the thunder bangs were simultaneous - ie just outside.

A lady 2 rows in front of me dropped cash in the middle of this and released her seat-belt to pick up her money - she kinda bounced up in the air and came back down hard on her seat armrest - it was sore to watch. Other passengers just pushed her to the floor with their feet. She eventually got back secure in her seat.

That week in Salina I heard the tornado alarms a few times in my hotel but never saw one I saw cars on the interstate badly damaged from hailstones on the day after the sirens.

But yea; turbulence on a small airplane landing in tornado season has got to be up there. Never again.

[LoonyLovegood]

The big rain in 2008. On a bus with old middle doors that didn't seal properly, going down the Cabra road and every few moments water would lap into the bus.

The next day we decided to go to the cinema when that flooded, and had to leave. Walking past Coolmine School and having to carry my little brother because he kept getting soaked head to toe by cars going past us. Absolute madness thinking back!

[nacho libre]

The first major storm I experienced in 1989(?). The storm was most unusual in its duration. It was my first time seeing trees get knocked down. A calf died too during the peak of the storm.

Easterlies in the 80s, we got sod all snow out of them, but it was my first experience of cold weather on a biting wind.

A snowstorm in Canada during the late nineties. The first and actually only time I've experienced one. It was great.

A thunderstorm in May 2001. It was a classic thunderstorm all the way from the Bay of Biscay - an all too rare occurrence here, sadly.



The snow of December 2010. I remember M.T. Cranium's forecast saying you will be surprised how quick the transition from rain to snow will occur on the evening of the 16th. Also he mentioned that even though the ground was very wet the snow will begin to accumulate rapidly - it did! I had never seen anything like it before. It put the argument to bed that snow can't stick on wet ground.



The beast of the east. I was not here for Storm Emma, but just seeing pictures of people snowed in, that you'd normally associate with the far north, was incredible.

A couple of weeks later being laughed at for telling people, who were enjoying the very mild weather on March 16th, that it would be snowing in London on St Patricks day. Then seeing the heavy snowfall the next morning . It was surreal because it's rare enough to get snow in London even during the depths of winter!

[Hooter23]

The 300 days of the year its rains...every single year

[novarock]

I was in Washington DC during the July 2012 Derecho - I had never heard of the phenomena before that. Very humid and sticky evening in the 30's, and then it came out of nowhere - We made it back to the hotel before it really kicked off. It was incredible to watch, and it was even easy to get photos of lightning there was so much. The damage the next day was bananas - quite a few deaths from the midwest to washington, and so many trees were down in the famous parks.

Domestically, probably the floods in 2011 in the dublin. I was living in Harolds Cross at the time. A lot of us were helping cars get through the metre deep flood at the bottom of harolds cross road. Great community spirit until we heard about the nurse dying in the basement flat only 100 metres away. Tragic.

In the snow of 2010 I was working in a pharmaceutical factory on shift. Plenty of sketchy journeys home, and a couple of nights sleeping on meeting room floors.

[hayoc]

Originally Posted by novarock

Domestically, probably the floods in 2011 in the dublin.

Thats the one that Dundrum Shopping Centres car park got flooded in - some crazy footage on youtube.

[looksee]

I've been in a few extreme weather events but nothing that really frightened me. One event that does stay with me though would have been around 1966 when I was out with a few friends. We were in someone's car as fog started to roll in - this was in the English midlands - and it quickly became very thick. Actual fog, not the 'heavy mist' stuff.

We were in a familiar area but we were completely blind. In the end all but the driver got out of the car and we walked along finding the edge of the footpath with our feet and keeping a hand on the car, giving directions to keep the driver in a more or less straight line in contact with the edge of the road. We could not split up to go to our various homes as it would have been completely impossible to know where we were, but we were able to negotiate to one person's house by following the pavement and simply remembering the route. We could just barely see each other, but not the ground or the car, and the fog was choking.

It just occurred to me to google for the area and date, and found this article https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/n...ia-bad-1031452

[Dempo1]

The last snow storm 2 years, ago it must be now) was horrific, based in the slieve bloom mountains, I was literally snowed in for 5 full days, drifts of up to 8ft on all sides of the house. It was at least 3 weeks before roads fully cleared. I also foolishly thought it wise to do a quick shop on the afternoon of its arrival, got about 2 miles and had to stop, abandon car and thankfully 2 guys in a 4x4 gave me a lift home. On retrieving my car a week later, some F€@KER had robbed my battery, never found out who, but just goes to show, there's alway one s€&t living near you,even on the side of a mountain.

[Artane2002]

I haven't really been impacted by weather too much, the only obvious example was when I was going on holidays to London but our flight was delayed by 6 hours due to heavy snow there (March 2013)

[Thelonious Monk]

Having missed the last bus from downtown with my gf in Calgary nearly 20 years ago, we had to walk home in the middle of the night as we had no money for a taxi. About 90 min walk, but it was -35c and snow everywhere! By the time we got home we both looked sunburnt af and she was crying and I think we thought we might have hypothermia but we were ok in the end. As terrible as our climate is here at least we don't have to deal with those temperatures.

[pauldry]

1. Winter 2010. Crashed car on icy road in -17c temperatures. Was dragged out of ditch but somehow drove home in shock. Had to get car replaced but luckily unhurt

2. 1997 Stephen's Day storm. Fence blew down just missing me. Rescued our dog from outside as wind as blowing him off the ground

3. Storm Elanor. Knocked 2 trees down on top of our garden. Both only damaged shed and wall but took a bit of cleaning up.

Apart from that lightning n thunder give me severe headaches so June 26th this year is the most recent weather event that has affected my life.

[Kaybaykwah]

Originally Posted by Thelonious Monk

Having missed the last bus from downtown with my gf in Calgary nearly 20 years ago, we had to walk home in the middle of the night as we had no money for a taxi. About 90 min walk, but it was -35c and snow everywhere! By the time we got home we both looked sunburnt af and she was crying and I think we thought we might have hypothermia but we were ok in the end. As terrible as our climate is here at least we don't have to deal with those temperatures.

Lol. Yes, I can identify with that. Things like outdoor plumbing are impossible here, they would just break to bits. Likewise, when you build a fence or dig for posts for decking, you need to go 5and a half to 6 feet so they won't heave from the frost. It seems like a good part of what we do even with very nice summers is to prepare for the onslaught of winter. The other thing is, you want to get the best jackets, gloves and footwear if you want to be out any length of time. Big mittens are better than the best insulated gloves for long exposures, because even the most expensive gloves are ****e in minus 20 and lower. Good boots are not just warm, they also need traction if you walk on icy sidewalks. I've had a lot of bad falls in the past and as I age, I want to eliminate that risk as much as possible...

[Thelonious Monk]

Originally Posted by Kaybaykwah

Lol. Yes, I can identify with that. Things like outdoor plumbing are impossible here, they would just break to bits. Likewise, when you build a fence or dig for posts for decking, you need to go 5and a half to 6 feet so they won't heave from the frost. It seems like a good part of what we do even with very nice summers is to prepare for the onslaught of winter. The other thing is, you want to get the best jackets, gloves and footwear if you want to be out any length of time. Big mittens are better than the best insulated gloves for long exposures, because even the most expensive gloves are ****e in minus 20 and lower. Good boots are not just warm, they also need traction if you walk on icy sidewalks. I've had a lot of bad falls in the past and as I age, I want to eliminate that risk as much as possible...

Are you in Alberta? I was walking along the river in Calgary during winter once and I had to go up a hill trail to get off it. I just kept sliding back down as my shoes had no grip. Over and over. I eventually had to climb through the bushes and trees as I could hold on to their branches to drag me up.
We would have 10 ft icicles hanging from our gutters. And the snow is so fine there that you can see every snowflake's design when they land on you.
What I did find great is that no matter how cold it was, somehow our tiny apartment was always warm enough to walk around half naked. I never even knew how the heating worked but for a really old wooden house, it was perfectly warm even at -35c outside.
If you are young and you get a chance to experience one of these winters it's worth it, I never want to experience it again though!

[Little snowy old me]

The big storm of Feb 1988. Mother was out getting turf and got blown against the wall very hard and suffered concussion. Had to get her to the hospital in Letterkenny and on the way, a tree blew down blocking the road, so we abandoned the car and walked the last mile. The wind was wild. I had to hold onto her and she was all confused and bleeding from the the earlier fall. Dramatic day, but all ok in the end.