Kiting In Tornados?

[ricki]

Heard a rumor about some guys that got jumped by a tornado funnel cloud out of the blue today. One guy was on the beach, got freaked out with very strong crazy winds and popped his QR. His kite reportedly went straight up, way up and fell almost straight down.

Another guy was on the water, he was progressively teabagged about 20 ft. off the water bouncing south when he suddenly was whipped around and teabagged back north. At some point he too hit his QR and Emergency Depowered his kite.

As the weather was coming from inland, it may well have been a funnel cloud or minor tornado. Waterspouts can be quite silent and can sneak up on you from the water fairly easily at times. No one remembers threatening conditions being visible prior to the funnel cloud, mass of blowing sand and winds approaching 50 mph developing.

Hint: There was a MAJOR severe weather warning out with a strong TORNADO WARNING on for the area. If you looked at the color radar you would see a real nasty red gash moving right towards your area. The radar was oozing high hazard, don't throw your kites up. As a rule tornados aren't much of a hazard to kiters, the common strong squalls that very often go with are a major hazard.

If you pretend this stuff doesn't exist, like in the stone age, so be it. Just don't be too pissed off if you get nailed by a totally predictable severe weather event or torqued off Pterodactyl for that matter. Weather planning and monitoring, so easy even a caveman could do it.