Tornado

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kEUXr6FMtWk

Hurricane
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hHKOT4K7hO4

Awesome Snopes pictures of extreme weather
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/storm.asp

Riding the Tsunami Wave

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AlPqL7IUT6M


Pompeii

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3V_tDy4dMD8

California Earthquake Damage Footage
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0lAXStQCjr8


Forest Fire Awesome Photo

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/deerfire.asp

Avalanche Footage

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3HxxzfUfFGk

As for me, well I didn't quite "survive" a Tornado if sleeping through it counts (although I did wake up in a panic which happened to another hearing impaired person I know, apparently the air changes when one is nearby) but I did have one touch down right outside my house here in Brooklyn which is the first documented record of a tornado hitting Brooklyn.

There are pictures here if you wanna see the damage.

http://www.iamsson.com/forums/index.php?topic=141.0

Ohh! WALLS OF WATER! Such tidal waves would never happen, but it'd be pretty cool to watch from a very very very high sky-scraper.

When I was a kid (14-16) I was a bit of a pyromaniac. My school had a very large creek (thick bushland with a creek flowing through it, no animals because of all the dumping going on) which I set fire to every chance I got. The local fire-fighters knew me but couldn't prove anything. Anyways, there I am in the middle of a wide area packed with knee-high dried grass in 40 degree © weather. I light a match and it drops right between my legs. Within seconds the fire was everywhere. Running through that grass was very, very hard too...barely made it out (had melted shoes and charred pants). After that, no more fires for me. Well, there were a couple more, but after that nothing.

I've been through a couple of earthquakes, and they're also incredibly loud. Like a freight train. Not to mention there are different kinds too. I've been through "roller" earthquakes where you feel like you're on a ship. And "scissor" earthquakes where the ground violently jolts back and forth. (those are scary). The weirdest thing about an earthquake is when you're in a concrete structure building and you can actuall SMELL the concrete grinding and turning to powder.

We've had a few "hurricane force" wind storms with 100+ mph winds (one was in December of 2006, 6 houses in my immediate neighborhood are still under re-construction from that one). Our wind storms here are so violent at times that our bridges keep falling down and sinking. The day President Clinton was sworn into office, a wind storm sank our major bridge that connects Seattle to Redmond (it's a floating bridge ) and then there's the famous "galloping Gurdie" in Tacoma where a windstorm created a harmonic and the bridge bucked and rolled then collapsed. It's super famous vintage film footage.

A raging forest fire was one that really scared me and was probably the most fascinating in reality. I have friends that live on a lake in rural WA that's very suseptible to fire. The opposite shore from my friends house burst into a 600 acre wild fire that burned everything in its path. My friend who I was visiting works for the Sheriff's Dept and we went out in a water patrol boat plucking homeowners and vacationers off the shore.

During a super hot wild fire like that, trees actually explode when they're burning, metal roofs on houses "sing" in a high pitched whining sound as they burn (they errily "float" above the structure too). After we evacuated everyone, we floated about 50ft off shore and watched house after house and tree after tree burst into flames. Some of the houses were built into the cliffsides and their wooden staircases/porches (sometimes up to 50ft long) would act like a wick, catching fire, and the fire would race up the staircase and ignite the house. Truly quite an experience. By 4am, the fire was burning so hot it was creating a convergence zone over the lake which caused about 30mph winds and by the time we got back to our house, the police department had actually issued a small craft warning on the lake, the white caps were getting to be about 4' high just from the fire winds and heat. I did get to learn to operate a portable underwater fire pump though. For all the good it did.... none. Luckily no people were hurt. I'd say that a forest fire is the most destructive, violent and unpredictable natural disaster I've personally ever seen. It was interesting to watch it from a safe but up close and personal vantage point. I found a picture of that fire and attached it below.



Volcano... been through one of those too. Good Old St. Helen flipped her lid when I was 13. I heard it, I saw it, but since I live north west (about 250 miles) my area was unaffected by the ash fall... but my aunt and uncle lived in a central Wa. town, we went over there while ash was still falling to bring them back to our place until the fall stopped. Their car actually got so gummed up they couldn't drive it. It was daylight when we went there, but the ash literally blocked out the sun. Pretty creepy, I still remember it very clearly. Man, that was 27 years ago now. I also never felt so "dirty" in all my life, that grit was everywhere.

I voted for Tsunami though... the idea of safely riding a big wave just sounds fun.

Be careful what you wish for.

Global warming is here.

I agree that the wall of water would be an awesome sight. I would want to see one though that was caused by a asteroid hitting the ocean though, instead of from an earthquake or a storm.

I think just about all of them would be quite awsome to see! But when i think of the death, suffering , loss and destruction i would rather not see them at all! But if you knew no one would get hurt and nothing would be destroyed i think a tsunami or tornado would be the ones i,d choose!

Living in the UK our climate is pretty, well pathetic really. We don't get any of the above (actually there was a small tornado once). Reading MissWells post where she's done different kinds of earth quake - that's scary.

The most dramatic weather I ever experienced was when we took our kids to Florida, I've never seen lightening like it in my life.

If you could wish for one where no one got hurt and nothing was damaged.... I'd like to see a tornado but I actually voted for volcano.

bumping this one! I can't believe such few answers



Good ones though.

The plague.

I'm fascinated with tornados, though I don't think I'd want to 'ride' one. Any of these would be simply mind-blowing to see (safely) up close.

I have a thing for tornado's too. Being the mountainous area that I live in, a tornado is rare. The very first one I ever saw was when I was around 13 (when I lived in Chicago I also lived through a tornado, but I was too young to remember lol) I believe. It was just a tiny F-1, but it was powerful enough to nearly rip the door off its hinges.

From Sweet Pea...

That being said:




I've experience 2 major hurricanes (cats.3 & 4) and have seen an F3 tornado. I'm a weather junkie...so I am in awe of the power of mother nature. Seeing a wall of water coming ashore; however, would have to be the ultimate thrill for me.

I would love to see how the sea pulls back right before a tsunami and then the awesome wall of water. I actually did see something like a wall of water once. I attended a summer camp in the Appalachian mountains when I was younger. There is some pretty good white water there. We were on the New River near Pearisburg. It had been raining profusely for the past week. As we were driving to the put in, we could hear flood warning on the radio, but the canoeing trip wasn't called off. When we got on the river (which maxed out at 15 feet above flood level that day; 19 feet in the Gorge) the water was moving so rapidly, it was like taking a class II in a canoe. On that run at normal level, there are a few class II's and one class III, but all the rapids were washed out that day because of the rain. Except one. The class III had changed completely. It was now a wave train with waves at least 10 feet high. Had me and my canoeing buddy seen it earlier we could have managed to go around it, but we hit it striaght on. It was quite literally looking into a wall of water. The canoe went completely vertical and flipped back on us. We weren't the only ones with trouble that day. All in all, 21 of 30 canoes were lost that day; 18 of which we managed to recover later. I purposely put myself in that situation so it wasn't as much "surviving" a natural disaster as it was surviving a life-threatening, thrill-seeking expedition.

But I have rode out at least three hurricanes at the beach and two a hundred or so miles inland. For at least 10 or 12 years, my family has taken trips to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But we are idiots and always plan our trips right in the hight of hurricane season (late July, August). Well, more than once we have gotten stuck with a hurricane right off the coast. But my family paid for that beach vacation, and dammit, they will have their vacation, hurricane or not. I also rode out a few inland when I was younger and lived in the piedmont area of Virginia. It can get pretty scary when you can't go to sleep for the howling of the wind in the trees right outside your window. And one of the coolest things is getting out of school for a hurricane, especially when you live a hundred or so miles inland.

But the one natural disaster I am terrified of is tornadoes. When I hear that there is a tornado watch/warning I get close to having a panic attack. I don't know why for I have never been in a tornado. They just scare the living bejebus out of me.

Very well said Truth.Revealed.. Tsunamies will continue coming.. land dry outs throughout the world.. stronger hurricanes.. it won't be long until everyone at least hears from a friend what they had to do to survive...

as for me, I've only survived massive earthquakes.

I'm replying to my own post because this just came on the news: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007440398,00.html

Tornados tear up Britain!!

Should have kept my mouth shut.

The only one I've been through are the hurricanes...When I was a kid we had a summer home in the mountains and would get hurricanes in August...Trees were uprooted, falling on houses, winds were over 100 mph...Being a young kid, the next day was exciting, walking and seeing the damage...Fortunately noone was every hurt...Now I live at the Jersey shore, and when we get hit, we get the eye of the storm...We're only 5 minutes from the ocean, so when we get a hurricane warning, we usually go over to see the water...The waves are tremendous, pitch black, and every so often we spot surfers out there...We know it's time to leave, when the waves come over the boardwalk, but it's an incredible sight...

My "other" was a asteroid from space.