I Dream of Tornadoes

I had another dream last night about tornadoes. As a weather enthusiast and amateur storm chaser, I dream fairly frequently about severe weather phenomena, specifically about capturing them on film or video. Sometimes I remember the dreams vividly with great detail, sometimes only pieces.

I also dream frequently of floods, and less frequently of high waves. Ironically when I don't dream about weather, I dream about travelling to exotic places or taking long trips by car, boat or plane, usually with extended family members. I say "ironically" because I am not a big fan of travelling; I have never been west of Oklahoma City and have spent precious little time on planes or boats. I only like to go on vacation when My Beach [JessePedia] is at the other end. I also frequently dream about the classic "I forgot about this class all year and now it's the end of the semester" (a most unlikely college scenario).

What do you dream about? Take the poll! (also shown at left for AccuWeather.com users).

Last night's dream was fairly typical -- a rope tornado was spotted over land at the beach and I snapped pictures as it moved out over the ocean, becoming a waterspout. I got a little sand (from the high wind) in my camera, but I figured it was worth it.

The dream last night gives me a chance to blog about some previous storm-related dreams (yes, I keep track) that differed from the my usual theme of simply videotaping or photographing a tornado.

This tornado was no dream -- it was captured in Winnipeg, Manitoba on August 20th, 2006 by Photo Gallery user umbenson and uploaded to the gallery last week.

Once, I remember that I was examining storm damage from a tornado in a bright green rainforest/jungle where the means of transportation involved crawling through triangular mesh tubes, supported above the forest like an aerial road system. That one takes the cake as one of the weirder weather-related dreams I have had.

Recently, I dreamed that I was watching the news and large tornadoes had been reported here in State College, Pennsylvania. Looking out the front door of my house, the sky was black and three large "mothership clouds" dropped down several miles away.

Then there was the dream in which my family and I were at a beach house on stilts. It got stormy and I spied a tornado snaking up the beach on a hill. I got my video camera and filmed it, zooming in. The twister turned towards the house and I told my wife and step-daughter to go to the basement in a hurry (unfortunately there were only stairs under the house). The tornado approached quickly and they were only on their way down the stairs when it hit. They shielded themselves against the wind as the tornado whipped over the house. It was all quite realistic. They were OK, but my wife was mad that I didn't get them to safety quick enough.

A MOTHERSHIP CLOUD, NOT
UNLIKE THE ONES IN MY DREAM

But the most vivid dream recollection I have is one that happened about 18 months ago. It was about a huge supercell thunderstorm that overtook a Wal-Mart while I was inside shopping.

My dreams are usually very detailed and in fact in this one I can remember shopping for each individual item, what the prices were... I was buying mostly small stuff that was on sale. I went to the checkout at the Service Desk (which is a little odd but sometimes they let you do that if the other registers are crowded). It was around 4:15 in the afternoon on a summer day. A stiff breeze was blowing in through the quadruple entrance/exit doors that were in front of the Service Desk (it was the last register on the end of the store).

During the checkout, I started to hear thunder, kind of scary thunder not unlike some of the scary sounds in War of the Worlds '05. A few people in line behind me commented on the thunder. I could tell a big storm was brewing and it seemed like it was taking the checkout-lady forever to finish (a checkout lady, oddly enough, who is an actual checkout lady at our local Wal-Mart -- sometimes my dreams are totally coherent). She told me the total ($58.15). Finally as I handed her my credit card and she scanned it in the register, there was a loud crack of thunder and the power went out. The register display went blank, the lights went out, and the store became very quiet, save the echoing thunder, increasing wind outside and the classic worried chatter of bystanders in that sort of a situation.

Rain had started leaking from the ceiling and I inquired to the cashier whether I could stow my laptop under their desk to avoid rain damage and she agreed (why I had a laptop with me... not sure). I then decided to walk outside, as it was obvious that things were moving slow inside. I walked out the doors and saw a huge thunderstorm, dark clouds covering the whole sky, with wavy shelf clouds and lightning striking in the distance (it wasn't raining at that time).

I went back inside to protect my place in line, though I would have rather been outside, or at least next to the door, watching the storm. Loud cracks of thunder continued and at times some of the other shoppers, still standing in line, seemed quite concerned. Meanwhile I made small talk with the cashier and the people in line immediately behind me. Rain continued to leak in through the ceiling and some wind blew in through the doors, blowing papers around.

Finally I decided I was going to go outside and try to take some pictures, but alas the storm was ending. The sky was still dark but the clouds were ragged now and the sun shone through in an ever-opening gap. I snapped a few shots but my camera was slow and the storm was unimpressive. The sun shone through the gap in the clouds and I went back inside, where the power was coming back on gradually and people were beginning to return to their places in line. I completed my transaction, grabbed my laptop, and left the store.

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