Afternoon severe weather was predicted in the DC area since early this morning. At 2:30, I switched my streaming audio at work to WTOP Newsradio. Almost immediately there was a tornado warning for Culpepper County. A light rain had started falling by the time I left work at 4:35. Being from rural Illinois, I tend to watch the skies whenever we get severe weather. During my 10-minute walk to Pentagon City Metro, which is serving as a temporary commuter bus terminal, a tornado warning was issued for Fairfax County, Arlington County, and DC. IIRC, the last time we had a warning was 5 years ago and nothing happened. I wasn’t concerned until 5:00, when I spotted rotation on the far side of Pentagon City Mall. I didn’t know which way it was going so I stayed put to observe. When I started seeing debris and green sky, I figured it was time to move! I shouted a warning over approaching sirens and ducked into Pentagon Center Mall, once inside I warned people in the restaurants there. There was no noise except for passing emergency vehicles, then a loud BOOM which sent people scurrying away from the glass entry. Then power went out for a couple of minutes. The tornado was on its way to the Pentagon and is possibly the same one that hit the University of Maryland campus at College Park. If the bus terminal at the Pentagon had not been closed, there probably would have been serious injuries with all the commuters trying to go down the escalators at the same time.
Now we have another line of severe storms approaching the area. There is still a tornado watch until 8:00.
You know, normally my circuitious commute from GMU to home would have put me right there at the Pentagon [before they moved the buses, Re: Pentagon attack] around the time the tornado hit. Today, I took the more direct route home, so I could get a haircut, and was home at about 4:30, just as the storm was starting.
Glad you guys didn’t get caught in it! My sister called me this afternoon to tell me to go into the basement if I heard a freight train. Now I’m just waiting for the power to go out; it usually does here in Reston.
Mother nature disproved that last year by sending a tornado through downtown Ft. Worth. It completely destroyed two buildings, and took out nearly every piece of glass in a third one. In fact most of the high-rises lost some glass (ok, it’s a small downtown). We were incredibly fortunate though - it hit just after quitting time, so most people had left for the day. IIRC, only four people died.
Actually, there was a tornado in Nashville not too long ago (lo and behold, I was there at tht time). Still seeing a funnel cloud in a skyline of a major city is still a surreal sight to behold.
Today’s twister hit smack in the middle of UMD College Park. Anyway, we don’t tend to get too many tornados here on the east coast like you do out in the plains. But this is the time of the year where we get the few tornadoes we do. (March-May, Sept-Oct) We get our stronger storms in the transistional seasons. It’ll be frigid cold in no time.
Just received an email from my sister (who is out there on some business, having landed at Dulles and gotten lost in downtown DC on her way to Lithicum Heights, MD. No, I don’t know how she did it, either ). Anyhow, for S&Gs she drove through the College Park campus (since she was lost already) and missed getting hit by about 20 minutes, she says.
whew
And here we were worried about her flight crashing…
Zyada beat me to it, but I was in my office on the 32nd floor when the tornado ripped through downtown Fort Worth last year. Fortunately, the tornado passed about 4 blocks south of us so we had only minor damage.
A couple of tips…
Don’t run to a window to see what is happening.
If you do run to look out the window, keep in mind that seeing report binders and the like flying around 32 floors high is probably a bad sign.
Not much damage to report from this Arlington neighborhood. Other than the usual leaves and twigs, I saw an ornamental tree that had been sheared in half and a rain-soaked piece of fiberglass insulation. We probably were hit by an F0 or F1. The one that hit College Park has been reported to be an F3; I wouldn’t be surprised if the one in Culpeper County was also an F3.
And for all my 11 years in Illinois, I never saw a tornado! One funnel cloud, but never a tornado. I had to move here for that!
Apparently the tornado was visible from my office window, but I was on the other side of the building. My neighbors were in their car and had their passenger side window blown out and the windshield cracked by the tornado.
The woman sitting in the passenger seat of the car also works at the White House so she is now a complete basket case between having a window shatter on her and feeling like a terrorist target.
If you’re talking about the one in April, 1998, I was there for that one too. Actually, I worked on Charlotte Pike, I was in the office, and it was directly in the path of the tornado. Kind of a freaky, scary experience.
It’s really easy to figure out why tornadoes hit rural areas more often than urban areas: There is more rural land than there is urban land. Small targets aren’t going to be hit as often as large ones.
When I was last in Fort Worth, last December, Bank One was still open; I ate breakfast in the lobby cafeteria.
). Anyhow, for S&Gs she drove through the College Park campus (since she was lost already) and missed getting hit by about 20 minutes, she says.