User blog comment:AkioTheTwo/Tornado Expieriences/@comment-27452101-20170102170401

I'm not a very notable editor, but I've had probably only about one or possibly two experiences with tornadoes in my life. Tornadoes in my area in New York are extremely rare and usually don't make it past EF0 or EF1 ratings.

The first one was sometime in 2008 or 2009 I believe; I was watching The Weather Channel that day because I was going to camp; I vividly remember they had a 'tornado meter' and the risk for that was pretty high that day; so I told my parents and despite that, they sent me off. So the day was decent until about 10 minutes after lunchtime; when these dark black clouds began rolling in. Naturally, they had all the kids stay in the pavilion, and I remember one of my friends shouting out ratings of a tornado (EF0, EF1, EF2, etc etc. We all had to go into the tiny kitchen as the tornado sirens began to sound (yes, we had tornado sirens). The camp director came up to me and said 'Your parents are on the way' right during the storm. From what my mom told me, they were driving and right when they came up to this farm area the tornado caused them to drift off the road; they weren't hurt but they couldn't see up ahead. I remember we were all hiding; after that the tornado dissipated, as we looked at the damage; there was a table in the pool area from the pavilion, tables scattered around, lego pieces all over the floor, the flagpole snapped in half. I would probably rate that a mid end EF1 at least, but whatever the official ratings say. So my mom and dad came and helped the rest of the kids clean up the damage, and apologized for not believing me. Yay. Surprisingly our area had power.

The second experience was in 2012 during a very bad storm; I remember that year was the year of constant rain, no matter what. I remember we had some kind of derecho/tornado hybrid because I remember things were getting scattered around, our TV signal was getting messed up and everything, the TV displaying a rainbow spongebob. (lol), and my dad had to go out there so he was walking so slow because of how intense that storm was. Maximum of 70 to 80 mile per hour winds at least. When I checked, there was a tree that had been 'decapitated' and all that remained was roots and a little bit of a stump in the water, which I now call an octopus tree. Still don't know if it was a tornado or a derecho; but I would've rated that a high end EF0.

So yeah, there's my experiences.