What's the worst weather you camped in?

[Nopeeking]

Years ago my wife and I with our three young children camped at St. Andrews State Park, Florida in a hard-top tent trailer. Beautiful site only 50ft from the Gulf of Mexico, until a storm rolled-in and brought the Gulf within an inch of the bottom of the trailer door. The sound of rain and wind made it impossible to hear each other in the camper. Lightning struck a tree a few feet from the campsite and brought down a large branch on the bunk end where my son and I were huddled... the 1" tubular canvass support saved us from any injury. The canvass bunk was torn end to end, the roof took a beating from the hail and the (closed) awning was pulled off completely. Neighbours experienced similar damage, but no injuries. Now a little older, wiser and camping in a mobile hotel room we feel much safer... or do we?

[Boomer58]

When our daughter was around 6 or 7 we did a cross country trip in a reg cab 3/4 ton GMC with a cap on the back. We slept in the back in campgrounds at night. The one night we spent in the Badlands a wind storm whipped up and I thought the truck was going to flip over. The tent next to us was destroyed and the couple were in their car. It was probably 35 years ago but we bring it up from time to time.

[livinthelife]

What's the worst weather you camped in?

Well, the worst I can think of, we didn't have an RV at the time. It was during our tent camping days.

In Yellowstone (July 4th) and it hailed on us. The kids were little, like 2, 7 & 8, we zipped two sleeping bags together for the two oldest and put an opened sleeping bag on top. Then we zipped the other two sleeping bags together, piled it up with jackets and sweaters, for my husband & I, and brought the youngest in with us.

The worst we've had since having the RV was this past Memorial Day weekend. Up in the eastern Rockies in California. It snowed. Practically every day for 2 weeks. Only had one nice sunny day. But, at least we were indoors with nice warm theater seats and a fireplace.

[orbiker]

The family was camping just over the creek from Wall Drug city center in a little campground in the early '90's. We walked into town and did the tourist thing and went back to camp. A big thunder storm came in pretty fast. The boy was staying it the truck in the back in the camp shell, the daughter was in her dome tent (staked down about 30 ft from us) and my wife and I were in a small 2 person Mt tent (staked down).
It got dark at 7:30PM and started doing the thunder and lightning thing. Then it started blowing real good while pouring cats and dogs. Then ---- we hear this faint cry for help. I look out the flap of the tent (immediately getting soaked) and a flash of lightning shows the dome 60 ft or more away ---- upside-down.
I run out in the pouring rain and rescue the daughter from the tent and send her to the truck with her brother who is safe and dry in the camper shell. I undo the tent poles and stuff the tent under the picnic table to keep the wet blob from blowing away. All this in my underwear, so I would not have soaking wet clothes. I dried off with a towel after getting back in the mt tent which we had held down by laying close to the lower edges as the wind had whipped threw the area.
I think of this event every time I camp in the wind.

Ice storm, snow storms and rain storms are all no big deal. Wind sucks. KEN

[chemist308]

I've been parked in Colorado Springs for the last few months. I've seen temperatures down to 4 degrees. We had a couple so called blizzards--one they called a "bomb cyclone" whatever that means. My employer closed during both. Personally, I think these folks are just being sissies about windy snowstorms, because to me it just meant that I had to spend a little extra time brushing the truck off to go get beer

On a more serious note, I was extremely impressed with how the Reflection held up in all this.

[boyscout]

I feel like an amateur posting about a heavy rainstorm, but one in Mississippi in March of 2018 was so heavy that rain was coming off the back of the roof of our trailer in solid sheets of water, for minutes. There was a desk at the back with a window and I watched an almost-unbroken wall of water come down off the roof for 2-3 minutes. Never seen rain like that before.

However the real reason I wanted to post was to relate an experience in the same Mississippi campground in March of this year. It was a sunny quiet afternoon and we were in the trailer having a snack when the trailer was briefly buffeted by really strong winds. Gave us a pretty good shaking, but it was over in about a minute and we carried on with our day.

Hours later I flipped open a weather app and learned that we had been under a tornado watch that was just about to expire at 6:00pm. Soon after I looked at a news app and learned that a series of tornadoes had passed only about 200 miles north of us, one of which turned into a major EF4 twister that killed 23 people less than 300 miles northeast of us in Beauregard, Alabama.

A trailer with aluminum walls is one of the last places I'd want to be in a serious storm. Checking weather apps is no longer just a casual-interest thing when we're living in the trailer; I do it deliberately 2-3 times per day if I can.

[grandsl]

Hail in the mountains and driving through a tornado forming in north Texas!

[Jerryr]

EVACUATE, EVACUATE, EVACUATE. That’s my rule after experiencing several Hurricanes.

On March 20th, 2018 5:58 pm, we were camping on our vacant lot just north of Lake Okeechobee Florida when our cell phones started blaring WEATHER WARNINGS. We evacuated to a nearby friend’s home and watched as hail and thunder rocked the house. We were glad we were not in the trailer.

About 30 miles to the east where the storm had just passed another friend’s brand new 3 week old Ford F-350 was parked under a tree to protect it from the hail and the tree was struck by lightening. The truck lit up and burned to the ground.

I really respect Mother Nature.


This picture time stamp is 6:17 pm



This picture time stamp is same day at 6:29 pm.


This picture time stamp is 6:41 pm

[Capt Jim]

Lubbock, TX, spring of this year. We slept little with lightning on the ground all around and tornado sirens blaring. Wind, rain, hail added to the music of the night. Stay or run was the topic; sitting tight seemed safest. The day dawned grey and low. We hooked and rolled before coffee. ("My favorite view of Texas is Lubbock in my rearview mirror)

Safe Travels.

Jim

[Pap and Mimi]

2017 spring break in LBL (KY lake/Lake Barkley) was eventful. Wednesday night we had tornado warnings with lots of wind and rain, then Saturday we woke up to 2 inches of snow. Had to get up on the ladder to sweep the snow off the slide cause that was "go home" day.