Survived a severe thunderstorm

We went through a horrendous storm in Missouri about 20 years ago. It was night and I had a hard time deciding whether to leave or not. One could easily drive straight into a tornado driving in the dark.
Rain was coming down horizontally with such force that it was driving around the seals in the trailers window and coming through. We braced ourselves and put stuff on the wall to cushion us if the trailer flipped.
We stayed in our little 22' swaying TT and watched the large group of tent campers across from us flee in their vehicles in the dark - leaving everything behind. I watched their loaded coolers tumble away and their staked tents tear loose and go aloft. They had totes of food and other things that just disappeared into the night.
In the morning there was almost nothing left of their camp.
It was truly terrifying.

"Has anyone else experienced a severe storm while camping?"

Many, many times! Never terrified though... always fascinated at it! That's why we keep insurance on the trailer. Actually, thunderstorms, even violent ones, are a part of nature. I think it's equally important to experience the rain as much as the sunshine!

We've been camping on at least 3 different occasions when tornados were in the immediate area. The first, we were in our pop-up. Like you, we were under a heavy wooded area, and the trees broke all the high wind. The pop-up sides shook a little, but no so violent anything even came close to breaking. I thought the experience was exhilarating!

Another time, in our DutchmenSport TT, a tornado came thorugh and the winds were incredible. We were caught outside and the dust and fine particle of dirt, leaves, small twigs picked up in the wind were hitting us like a zillion ice picks stabbing us all at the same time. It hurt and stung. We ended up in a concrete shower house with a bunch of other people and everyone's pets (including our dog). Everyone was freeking out! My wife and I had a blast! We laughed, joked, looked out the door, and our antics actually helped put everyone else at ease. We kept reminding everyone that our camper was insured, as I was sure there's was too, we were safe, and if their campers blew away, it was a great opportunity to purchase a brand new camper! Somehow, I think, before we left that shower house, everyone actually WANTED their campers to get blown away!

Another time we at Port St. Joe State Park in Florida. A water spout was just off the peninsula heading for the town of St Joe. But we were behind the sand dunes and the brunt of the wind blew over the top of us. Next morning, the place looked like this. We made the best of it, and just enjoyed what Mother Nature threw at us.








We sleep in our camper almost every night at home (driveway camp). We stay in the camper during some of the most horrific thunderstorms. Our trailer is parked facing West to East. We get 35-55 mph winds where we live (on a sunny day), so the winds hit the front of the camper, just like when traveling down the road. We've never felt uncomfortable or uneasy. Thunderstorms are simply awesome when your right there in them.

This past weekend we went through a severe storm. Power lines were torn down due to wind and debris. Campground really didn't have a place to shelter. We were parked in the only area with no trees. During the height of the storm 3 young people from Germany came running by and asked what to do. My wife told them to shelter in the shower.

Year before last we were camped at the Coast in November,Rained all four days, last night the wind picked up to 35-40 mph sustained winds, gust to 60 mph. Well, it had the trailer rocking! At around 3 in the morning it was so loud with the rain pounding on the trailer!
Wind really picked up, it was hitting the west side of the trailer so hard it was blowing water thru the weep holes in the windows, Got up to check things out and when I stepped out of bed my socks got wet!
We decided to leave at first light! at 6 A.M. a park Ranger drove by and told us to seek higher ground as the high tide was expected to flood lower camp sites! We broke camp and were leaving as the surf was washing through the camp..
Wow,, that was a close one!

Went through a bad thunderstorm with big hail at Half Moon campground north of Big Timber WY, in the Gallatin National Forest. The lightning was amazing and the thunder was deafening as it echoed in the canyon. We kept hearing a big roaring sound beforehand and finally figured out it was the waterfall 1/2 mile upstream, as the storm moved through it. That water quickly appeared in the campground, and I was glad to be in a higher-level site.

Not so much wind but torrential rain and hail.

We were in a Cabela's Alaskan Guide tent and it did not leak a drop.

Yes, in a state park tent camping in the piney woods part of east Texas about 25 years ago. A small tornado came through the park, downed trees, downed power lines, we could not even leave afterward due to trees down on the entrance road, so we stayed and had an ok rest of the weekend, just had a lot of chainsaw noises.

As I recall the storm came through on a Saturday early afternoon, and they did not have the road clear until about 8 pm Saturday night, and power to the camping area was still out when we left on Sunday.

Back in June of 2012 we were camping in Delaware, right on the water with no protection.. We saw a line of thunderstorms on the radar all the way back in IL and figured they would NEVER make to us..

We were awoken around 1:00AM to what we thought was a freight train slamming the side of our camper... it was a Derecho

by the time it was over, the destruction was huge... campers missing awnings, windows blows OUT of trailers, tents blown away.. it was a mess.

BUT, not one injury in that particular campground, I believe it was because there were no trees to be blown over...

Now a few years back, a tornado touched down inside Cherry Stone campground in MD.. They were not so lucky, I believe a family lost their lives that night...

Another link - Derecho

Tornado approx 5 miles from fort sam Houston in Feb. Cell phone alarm screaming. Had no idea where to shelter in place as had arrived after office had closed. We survived. Oh also note that was the 3rd close call with tornadoes on our trip. I'll take hurricanes any day. They give you days of prior notice to get away

Yep, right here in Calif at Shaver Lake, Camp Edison(seems appropriate for a thunder storm) about 10 year's ago. The dogs were mostly scared to death, the wife nervous and me, well, I was also intrigued by it. I will admit, I did venture out to unplug from shore power even though I had a Surge protector knowing full well that with lighting striking all around us, NO surge protector was up to the task!

been through several severe thunder storms (in tents and then popups and now my tt) worst one was at silver lake in eastern Ontario. With my family (2 popups on adjacent sites, 1 popup suffered canvas damage, some camping gear ended up in the lake and a large tree, roughly 3 feet in dia fell between the 2 popups. Glad to know your ok.

on a side note is boondocking at a campground not kind of an oxymoron?