Check weather before you go, or get caught in a tornado...

emoboy44 · Post by **emoboy44** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:56 pm

OK, So I saw the weather report yesterday. Guy said there was a 30% chance of scattered thunderstorms. I, being a betting man, heard that as a 70% chance of it being fine.

I rode to work and everything was gravy. Beautifal ride. Work was work, and I love my job so taht was fine too. About 3:15 i see that it's raining, so I check the weather web site and see the entirety of the beer, brat, and cheese kingdom (Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and Green Bay respectiveley) in a big yellow storm box. I tell my boss I'm going to get home early and beat the impending doom.

I hit the road, ready for my 5.5 mile city commute (I ride a 50cc). I haven't gotten my helment yet (please NO lecturing) and the first mile is ok, the rain had let up.

Miles 2 and 3 - Raining. I'm getting wet.
Mile 4 - POURING. I am completely soaked. My shoes are totally soaked. My laptob bag is totally soaked (luckily everythingis ok)
Mile 5 - I got hit with a gust of 40mph wind (verified) and then a nice little bit of small hail stones. Then more rain. Then 70mph gusts (also verified). I turned off onto a small side street with my feet out as wide as I could to avoid falling over and crawled home at 15mph with 40mpg sustained headwinds. As I am riding I hear this really high pitched sound. I'm thinking that my engine is going to blow up....until I drive underneath the source.....the tornado siren. I immedeatly open the trrottle in the face of the blinding rain, wind and hail, and lay on the horn as I run through 2 stop signs and 1 red light.

What a day. I to work, I went home, I got wet, caught in a tornado, but other than that, nothing happened.

See below for some pics. All courtesy of sheboygan-press.com

7eregrine · Post by **7eregrine** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:31 pm

You are OFFICIALLY hardcore, Emo.

bunny · Post by **bunny** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:46 pm

7eregrine wrote:You are OFFICIALLY hardcore, Emo.

+1 billion

runtotorun121 · Post by **runtotorun121** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:53 pm

Glad you got home safely.

I have driven my car under and beside tornadoes (not by choice!), and I can't even imagine being on the scooter. By the time you were honking and gunning it I was anxiously reading to make sure you arrived in one piece. So glad it was all okay.

emoboy44 · Post by **emoboy44** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:53 pm

Everybody at work think's I'm stupid. I'm inclined to agree with them, although I think I like hardcore better.

But the windows in my house were all open and my animals were scared, so I needed to get home.

bdarling · Post by **bdarling** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:55 pm

emoboy44 wrote: 40mpg sustained headwinds.

Awesome story! Good thing your scoot gets better mileage than those pesky headwinds!

emoboy44 · Post by **emoboy44** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:57 pm

bdarling wrote:
emoboy44 wrote: 40mpg sustained headwinds.
Awesome story! Good thing your scoot gets better mileage than those pesky headwinds!

wastefull headwinds....

charltons · Post by **charltons** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:58 pm

I guess lecturing you about helmets is useless when you ride in tornadoes.

hcstrider · Post by **hcstrider** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:24 pm

I am glad that you made it home safely. I have played the 30% chance of bad weather versus 70% chance of good weather game. Most of the time you win and sometimes you lose.

Thanks for the great pictures. The tornado in Sheboygan Falls made the National Storm Reports ( http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/080716_rpts.html ), it is the red dot surrounded by all of the blue wind reports and the green hail reports.

emoboy44 · Post by **emoboy44** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:42 pm

Thanks for the link. Just to give everyone an idea of how close that red dot is to my house, there is a bike trail (also scooter, rinning, biking, etc) that we took our dog on after the storm. We walked to Sheboygan Falls.

DeniseV · Post by **DeniseV** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:12 pm

You definetly get hardcore points for riding yesterday in that storm. If it was the same one that breezed through the Green Bay area..you are brave. I opted to forego the scooter to work yesterday and took my cage. That storm was hitting right around my arrival time, I had harley riders asking to use my car to get home. Way to go Emoboy! Glad you make it home safe.

MikieTaps · Post by **MikieTaps** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:34 pm

Jake · Post by **Jake** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:00 pm

Yeah dude, that storm was insane. I work at the bike shop in Sheboygan Falls, and we just stood outside watching it roll across the sky. Glad you made it home alright.
Luckily, I got a ride home for my bike and myself.

Oh yeah, out my my house (near the airport), we had one tree uprooted, one snapped in half in the middle, and one big section of a tree snapped off. It was probably a couple feet thick where it broke.

emoboy44 · Post by **emoboy44** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:03 pm

yea, really not a lot of fun, until I got home safe.

Cheshire · Post by **Cheshire** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:39 am

Halfway through the weather description I was groaning and thinking "he didn't...surely...yup. Wow." Glad to read that was just the siren you were under. Thought that sentence was going to end "and I looked up and saw the funnel above me!" *eek!*

...but ya know, a helmet would've helped with those hailstones. *ducks*

Big shiny button WANNA PUSH!

brandon75173 · Post by **brandon75173** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:07 am

7eregrine wrote:You are OFFICIALLY hardcore, Emo.

Is it an oxymoron to call anyone with the name emo hardcore? I vote more for lucky.

Post by **jmazza** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:16 am

brandon75173 wrote:
7eregrine wrote:You are OFFICIALLY hardcore, Emo.
Is it an oxymoron to call anyone with the name emo hardcore? I vote more for lucky.

That and as soon as you're labeled OFFICIAL you are absolutely NOT hardcore.

emoboy44 that story is NUTS. Glad you made it back alright... visions of a scooter flying around like in Wizard of Oz would not be cool at all.

newslinky · Post by **newslinky** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:50 am

emoboy44 wrote:Everybody at work think's I'm stupid. I'm inclined to agree with them, although I think I like hardcore better.

But the windows in my house were all open and my animals were scared, so I needed to get home.

Its either call you hardcore or loony

Dedicated animal owner also comes to mind (or crazy animal lover)

4 cats 1 scruffy dog and 1 rat in my house btw. Glad you made it safe I would been scared outta my britches

Corsair · Post by **Corsair** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:52 am

definitely

glad you're alright. that had to be some nervous business

NathanielSalzman · Post by **NathanielSalzman** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:47 pm

I must admit, I <3 my iPhone because I can always get weather from a couple good sources before I hop on my bike. In Minnesota anyway, I'm starting to lean toward the 70% chance of no rain philosophy.

emoboy44 · Post by **emoboy44** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:59 pm

All it does here of late is rain. I think I live in Seattle

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Check weather before you go, or get caught in a tornado...

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