Todays forecast does not bode well for a large portion of middle America. A large vertical swath of severe weather to include the very real possibility of tornados is moving from west to east over the next three days. This has my undivided attention as we are planning on leaving on Thursday from Tucson (in our 24' Class C), with our first destination being Asheville North Carolina which takes us right through the danger zone. Hopefully the storms will have passed but we will be watching the extended and local forecasts closely. Our Rand McNally 7720 has the capability to display real time weather charts/radar overlaid upon the map screen. This merely requires an internet connection and the wifi hotspot of our i phones easily provides the connection. I'm sure we will be using this feature extensively throughout our trip. If we need to drive several hundred extra miles to avoid a coming front I will do so without hesitation.However, the very real possibility exists that we could be caught in some severe weather at some point so I would like input from you folks that have dealt with this sort of thing. I know the thunderstorms can produce some hellacious hail so what is the best way to deal with it? Short term I'm guessing hiding under a bridge might work, perhaps a large do it yourself car wash, tall drive up's with overhead protection etc., might also provide some protection. High winds don't concern me as anything under 35 is manageable and anything over will find me hunkered down someplace.I know that ultimately the best advice came from Mr Myagi to Danielsan (in the Karate Kid II),"Best way, no be dere," but alas that may not always be an option. :E

Live interactive RADAR and video from storm chasers.

If you have a weather radio, keep it on. Keep your atlas handy and know what county you are in at all times. Tornadoes usually move from the southwest toward the northeast. In our travels we avoided a tornado by knowing this info and calculating where we would be at the time the tornado crossed the hwy. We stopped for lunch! If you hear a tornado warning it helps to know where you are in relation to where the tornado is located. I would not pull under a bridge in the case of high winds. I would find an RV park and hunker down and use their buildings for shelter if needed. You could also stop at a truck stop and go inside if it gets really bad. We're at a park right in the path so I'm also watching the weather. Be safe out there.

A car wash would offer no protection whatsoever from a Tornado. It has also been shown that an underpass actually increases the chances you will be injured. The underpass actually funnels debris into space underneath it. Your best move in the unlikely event a tornado is actually in your area is to move to a secure structure. A motorhome or other vehicle is the absolute worst place to be. If no structure is available, you should attempt to drive at a right angle to a tornado's path which is generally southwest to northeast. If contact with a tornado is unavoidable, abandon your vehicle and lie flat in a ditch or depression. All that being said, the odds of being actually in a tornado as very, very slight.

Appreciate the tips but I was talking about bridges and car washes to avoid hail, not a tornado. If there is a tornado in the area the only thing I want between me and the twister are miles.:C

Bad weather is one reason why I don't like to travel through the mid-west and south during the spring months, although I made an exception this year (currently in Hickory, NC). A few years ago I was in Demopolis, AL at a beautiful COE park when nasty weather threatened. I drove to town and hunkered down in the check-in area of the motel along with several others. The TV was on and tuned to the local news and sure enough there were tornado warnings. When the storm passed I returned to the COE park and found evidence of damage, such as trees down. However I don't recall any RV's were damaged. That's the nature of these storms; their paths are relatively narrow. While you're traveling across country keep abreast of the weather reports in the locales where you expect to be later in the day. You might find it advantageous to hunker down at an RV park enroute to allow the weather to proceed further east, before you arrive there.

Scary weather across the midwest | Good Sam Community

17 Replies

quoyfab
Explorer
Apr 28, 2014
Photos from the news article show a few travel trailers tipped over. Were these in CG's or on a dealer's lot? The photos show that slides were open.. Hoping/praying they were not occupied.
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Apr 27, 2014
Here's a nice interactive National Weather Alert website:

National Alerts

Right now it's showing a lot of high wind advisories - we RVers need to heed those, too!
SRT
Explorer
Apr 27, 2014
Yup, we;re on the far northern part of this weather. All we'll see is rain/snow and stronger winds. If we get more snow we'll probably break the all-time record of 135.2" of snow for the season. At least we don't worry too much about tornado's.
D___M
Explorer
Apr 27, 2014
Buckle up. It's a bad forecast again today (4/27).
Cat_Lady
Explorer
Apr 27, 2014
There's a free app called Tornado by American Red Cross that you might want to check out.
You can have multiple locations. I put in my location plus the town location for our daughter in TN. If it goes off for TN, I'll call her right quick to take cover.

Cat Lady
TomHaycraft
Explorer
Apr 27, 2014
My go-to app whether (no pun intended) at home or on the road is from The Weather Channel. With GPS locator on, it will find local conditions and radar. Downside, as with all internet based communications, is 3G or 4G signals are the limiting factor. Fall-back is the NWS Weather Radio (and knowledge of the county!).

Benefit of the app over the TWC website, the radar on the app will show colored diamonds to indicate cells with strong thunderstorm, high wind, hail ... and a forth category which I can't remember now! The colored diamonds will show direction of travel and cone of certainty. A great feature but absent from their website radar image. As mentioned, use it at home whenever weather looks threatening.
Desert_Captain
Explorer III
Apr 27, 2014
Deb and Ed, thanks for what sounds like pretty good advice. Our C has a 55 gallon fuel tank and I plan to fill it every afternoon before we stop for the night so should the need arise we can beat a hasty retreat. Anytime we are in the "Zone" I will keep it no lower than half a tank.

Since these fronts take a few days to form and move through I think we will be fine even if it means driving a few hundred extra miles to stay out of the cross hairs. You gotta love the internet and the dramatically improved weather forecasting but after spending 35+years on the water I am a firm believer in that old adage... "The only weather you can control is the weather you choose to leave in."

:C
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Apr 27, 2014
My favorite website is Intellicast's interactive radar site: once you are looking at radar in the pan-and-zoom mode, in the upper right corner of the radar image there is an icon that looks like a badminton shuttlecock. If you click on that, it will give you "Storm Tracks" - it will show where any given storm cell is probably headed, and how fast. It also will tell what the cell is doing - don't freak if it's rotating - most severe storm cells do. But it will tell if it's likely to throw hail, and how big the hail could potentially be. It could give you almost an hour to dodge a storm.

Intellicast
(this is probably set for Michigan - you'll have to enter your location)

You should be following the storms - do NOT get ahead of them. Experienced storm chasers are warning the ingredients for this weather are rather scary. And if it were me, I'd be keeping my fuel tank at half-or-above: you very likely could go through areas with no power = no fuel in many cases.
bigwheelsturnin
Explorer
Apr 27, 2014
we're in NC...right now...if you make it thru...you'll luv this mild weather..caution to the wind...be safe..
doxiemom11
Explorer II
Apr 27, 2014
We were going to leave the MS gulf coast tomorrow and head north, but instead will be sitting here until Wednesday to let the storm go by. We don't want to drive into the tornado prone areas , so will hunker down here in the rain.

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Scary weather across the midwest

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