PG Co, Md tornado warning

Prince Goerges Co., Md is under a tornado warning right now. SFA is in PG Co. I have heard stories about tornadoes and can olny hope that SFA is spared.

The tornado outbreak is also in effect for Charles, Frederick, Washington, co. in md, and in VA, Culpeper, fairfax and many others. DC is in the path also, so we gotta batton down the hatches.

The entire area is under a tornado watch until 12 am EST.& already there have been some close calls.

Around 5:30/6 pm there was a tornado sighted not far from my nieghborhood in Manassas VA.,which proceeded up route 234,across I-66 & into fairfax approaching dulles airport,now for me that was the most frightening 15 to 30 minutes of my entire life so far.

Someone actually had shot some video footage of the tornado as it moved through centreville just before it reached dulles,it was on the local news this evening,now as for SFA we can only hope that there's no damage caused by the storm however lives are much more important than the park is at this point in time.

Let's just hope that nobody was injured this afternoon/evening by the line of storms as they moved through our area....if SFA sustains any damage then at least it'll give SFI a reason to invest in the park for the 05 season.

Once again, I wouldn't worry about a corporate park. They can't take care of their own should something happen (it's called insurance). Besides, do you think a tornado is going to take out a multi-ton roller coaster? I don't think so.

While that may hold true for category 1 and two storms, NOTHING is going survive a direct hit from a category 5. It doesn't matter how heavy the ride may be, as 250+ mph winds are more likely to blow the rides to smithereens than pick them up like Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz.

You're starting a post about a tornado watch? You're kidding? We get those weekly in the Cleveland area in the spring. They're dangerous, but the odds of it hitting any particular structure are tiny.

There is no "outbreak." A watch just means that conditions are right for a tornado to develop. A tornado warning means that one has developed, according to radar anyway, but even then it doesn't mean that it touched down.

No wonder the town shuts down when you get a little snow. ;)

Yeah, you wimps. :)

I take it that these tornado warnings are the result of Ivan's remaining wrath.

Next up, Hurricane Jeanne.

Jeanne is dead...or basically dead

There were indeed several tornados all over the area. There was one in particular that ripped through a few single family homes in the small town of Remington, VA, but as far as I could tell, damage seemed fairly minimal elsewhere.

The last thing on my mind as I was watching the news coverage was whether or not Six Flags would 'be spared.' Holy melodrama, Batman.

Intamin Fan, obviously you have never seen the wrath of a tornado first hand. There are plenty of ways that a tornado could take out a coaster. It's not so much the wind taking down the coaster but what it picks up and blows into it.

Seriously, a strong tornado could take out a coaster without a second thought....the LIKELIHOOD of a direct hit from a tornado is *exceptionally* slim...not that it hasn't happened before...

But really, Vater is *spot on*....people are dying from these storms, parks are not a priority.

Dude, I live near Xenia. You I've seen what an F5 can do, it could crush a coaster like tinker toys. Here in Ohio we could fill this message board with tornado warnings. Hell 3 months ago we went a week with a warning or watch in effect nearly the entire time. Like Vator and gator said, worry about the people, insurance will rebuild the rides.

IM me sometime about what a tornado can do. You don't know what they can or can't do until you've lived through it.

Jess, still rebuilding almost 2 years later.

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Jess said:
You don't know what they can or can't do until you've lived through it.

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Exactly!

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Jess, still rebuilding almost 2 years later.

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Sorry to hear that. My parents endured the April, 1974 Tornado in Xenia, lost it all, luckily excaped with their lives. And I lost it all Sept. 2000 nearly the exact same thing in Xenia. People underestimate the power of a tornado. I had a pic taken in my front yard of a record that had gone through a tree and was sticking out the other side as a result of the storm in 2000. It's difficult to fatham the devistation. Unfortunately there is nothing that we can do so far. Just don't take mother nature for granted. *** Edited 9/18/2004 6:06:40 AM UTC by ldiesman***

While some of you might get "Tornado" Warnings on a regualr basis, the Washington D.C./Maryland/Virginia area doesn't. A possibility exists that more 36 Tornados may have hit the NC/MD/VA area yesterday. It's amazing about 2 minutes worth of sun can electrify the atmoshphere enough to cause all kinds of severe weather.

Besides, if you lived in the Washington Area, you would know we are bunch of weather whimps anyway.

The weather channel said there were around 70 reported tornadoes in the mid-atlantic yesterday.

I was watching the local channels more than TWC all afternoon & yes there was a warning issued last night for the Largo area.

PG county was among the last area's in the DC metro region to get hit with the severe weather....Winchester & Warrenton VA. kept getting hit repeatedly & no sooner had one tornado moved through that area then another one was spotted.

Coasterguts:did you see the video footage of the tornado crossing into Centreville on the news? that's the same storm that was in my nieghborhood just a few minutes earlier.

Oh boy, coasterbuzz has turned into weatherbuzz! Only kidding! I watched as well from the comfort of my own home (in Iowa), the radar screens of those devasting tornadoes out in your area. I use Stormlab from www.internwarn.com (free trial if you want to try a demo), and followed the storms progress as it continued to push east in a very slow pace. Exciting stuff for weather fans ,but scary for people involved in it! There was rotation seen everywhere on velocity scans of the radar, the weather service had a busy day, that is for sure!

Most of the tornado producing storm cells were actually moving from due north as Ivan's remnants spun through the mid-atlantic region.

I watched enough of Storm Stories and have seen pictures of tornado damage on the news and in the paper. Yes, I know they can be very destructive, but I still think a modern roller coaster could still be standing with limited damage. Let's take S:ROS at SFA for example (which everyone was probably worried about). You have a coaster that a) is not a walled structure b) is bolted together c) is attached to a multitude of concrete footers and d) has multiple cross-ties for strength in its higher sections

This contrasts sharply with the design of an average house or business. Now a woodie I would have a lot less faith in, but these are also built to be very strong.

So watching Storm Stories makes you an expert on what a tornado can do to a roller coaster? Man I need to start watching those on the Weather Channel if it makes you an expert on Tornados.

Not to really doudt you but I was wondering what if an F4 or a F5 tornado was to form on the outskirts of SFA and heads towards Superman. Do you think S:ROS would still be there after it passes? I was just wondering since you are an expert from watching Storm Stories.

*** Edited 9/20/2004 12:05:32 AM UTC by Coasterdave***