Tornado risk goes beyond the 'Alley'

[laundry_queen]

29. I remember Pine Lake too

I wasn't living in Alberta at the time, but I followed it closely. I know that green sky you speak of - the night before the '87 tornado we had 2 huge storms pass through - they snuck up on you fast, and looked like giant tsunamis - black with a white crest breaking and swirling...freaky as hell. My mom ushered us into the basement with both storms. The second one, my friends were hanging out in the park across the street as the storm approached and under the white swirling clouds was that sickening green. I've seen it a few times. Oh, wait...I'll show you 2 pictures of a tornado warned storm I took a few years back - I tried to capture the green but it didn't 100% work out:

[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]



I've seen a lot of funnel clouds, but 3 tornadoes for sure. The one in '87, the one up north I didn't know was a tornado at first. I saw a large funnel hanging down, but couldn't see the bottom as it was obscured by trees. I had a friend who went to work in forestry and I was babysitting her daughter. When she dropped off her daughter I told her about the funnel I had seen that morning. She laughed at me and told me I was paranoid - that there were no tornadoes that far north (she had grown up there, she should know, she said). 20 min after she left she gave me a call - apparently there was significant tree damage in a few areas that were reported by some of the workers out in the field - in the exact trajectory I had seen the funnel go.

Another one I saw was travelling to Winnipeg a few years back. We were on the Trans Canada just around Regina (can't remember if it was just before or after), planning to stop at a campground for the night with our 5th wheel. My now-ex was driving and I took a glance in the review mirror and saw a tornado behind us - going in our general direction. OMG I freaked out. My ex made fun of me and told me to stop being paranoid (notice a pattern here? lol) and I told him to look in the review mirror. Suddenly I wasn't so paranoid, haha. He sped up and we left the tornado behind. I wanted to go to a restaurant first - you know a solid building or something buy my ex insisted on going to the campground, where we sat while the storm passed over us (while he made fun of my paranoia, hence why he's now my ex). I was especially worried because my brother was driving behind us, far enough we couldn't see him, so I didn't know where he was. About 30 seconds after the hail started to pelt our 5th wheel, my brother burst in with, "OMG, did you SEE the tornado? It was RIGHT in front of us! I didn't know what the heck to do!"

I've also been in places where tornadoes passed me by by about a few miles here or there and I didn't see them (too much rain, or I was sleeping). I am telling you, they stalk me. I don't think I could live in the coast, though - I would miss my storms.