What's the Worst Weather You've had to Deal With?

Trekker

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I just looked out my window, saw the sun shining, and in the time it took to walk out of my aparment building, it was raining. Went back inside for my jacket, only to find that when I got outside again, the rain had stopped! Man have I gotta get more prepared for my camping trip this weekend!

What's the worst weather you've dealt with while on a camping trip?
 

Georgie

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I went camping one time and for the whole week, it rained. Yep, nothing but rain. It was horrible. We stuck it out but I was at the laundry mat everyday drying my blankets from the dampness.
 

fiddleman

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23
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down south
I camped in a hurricane once. Well, I think it was downgraded to a tropical storm when it hit the area I was in. But it was a wet, windy mess. It took a week for my feet to not feel wet and nasty.
 

HardyC

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Tuper Lake, NY
Where I go camping the weather can sometimes be unpredictable. I've been on camping trips where the weather has been beautiful all week and then I've been on trips where the weather has been wet and cold.
One time I was in my pop-up and during the night out of nowhere there was a massive thunderstorm that brought strong winds and hail. The worst weather I would say is the wet and cold. It's so hard to keep warm when everything around you is soaked.
 

Grandpa

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SE Idaho
Stranded for the night in two feet of snow on a mountain top with a blizzard setting in? Caught in the open above timberline in a hail storm? 48 hours of torrential rain high in the beartooth absorkas? None of my experiences could compare to being caught in a tornado or even a big hurricane making landfall. I'll stick to the mountains and let you folks enjoy the tornados and hurricanes.
 

ppine

Forester
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Minden, NV
The worst have been intense rain and sleet around freezing for multiple days. Winds over 70 mph. Below zero and horizontal snow for a week.
 

ppine

Forester
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Minden, NV
On a canoe trip in Utah and one in Montana, it was over 112 degrees for more than 5 days in a row. The night time lows were over 78 degrees.
 

Pathfinder1

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Liberty, N.Y. Lower Catskill Mountains.
Hi...
In my camp in Cold Country...I've been 'treated' to temps of sixty degrees below zero...!! And sometimes, that was both the high AND low for the day...!! But you learn to live with it. It's a matter of dressing properly, and being able to keep warm.

Another time...on the shores of Lake Illiamna, we put up a temporary plywood shelter, but the roof surface was not yet waterproof...!! Well, naturally, it rained that night. Those of us who were sleeping under the roof leaks were sorry critters...'cause as you know...few things are worse than a wet sleeping bag...!!

I had one of those old tear-drop shaped travel trailers from the 50s...'insulated' with one inch of fiberglass...!! I was bush-flighted in to it one coldish day, and I hadn't readied it for cold weather yet, but I had to spend the night there. The pilot and I utilized every type of heat I had available...candles...cans of Sterno...and two Coleman lanterns. We eventually got the trailer heat up to eight degrees below zero...!! It was the first (and last) time I had ever seen tequila frozen in a grey lump in the bottle...!! I was dressed warmly in my snowmobile suit, and had a few blankets on the bunk...but that STILL was one of the coldest nights that I almost slept in...!! Believe me, I NEVER let that happen again...!!
 

MacGyver

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At Green Ridge State Forest in western Maryland, the rule used to be that you could set up at any site, then go register the following morning if it was after hours. So we planned on doing just that. It was Winter, with about two plus feet of snow on the ground. After shoveling our way in we weren't about to go drive to the ranger's station so we settled in for the evening.

The following morning, we noticed the temperature was rising and a very light rain had begun to fall. Then we saw the snow start to turn gray. Time to get out! NOW!

We quickly grabbed everything out of the campers that we could, threw it all up a bit of a hill, jumped in the trucks and rolled out - just as the snow melted into a river that wiped out the entire valley we'd been in. As it turns out, it wiped out more than just a bunch of the forest - several towns were under several feet of water.

As it turns out, the park had been closed because they were expecting trouble. The rule used to be that you could set up at a site if you got there after the ranger's station was closed and go register in the morning. Maybe because of us, that rule was changed. There are signs all over the place that say pre-registering is mandatory, even if after hours. They now have a self-registration system in place for that.

Image03 sm.png
Still young and stupid, even in the middle of the panic, we stopped to snap a picture as the water was still rising.
 

briansnat

Platnium Member
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Morris County, NJ
It wasn't so much the weather, but the accidental lack of preparation. I was doing a solo backpacking trip in the Catskills in Feb. Overnight temps were expected to be below zero (F). I got a late start and only made it in about 2 miles before darkness fell and I had to make camp.

Pitched the tent, ate a quick dinner and settled in for a toasty night in my winter sleeping bag. Well imagine my surprise when I pulled out the sleeping bag only to find it was my 10 year old step-daughter's 3 season bag (and those 3 seasons don't include winter). It happened to be the same color as my bag so I apparently confused the two when packing. Not only was it not warm enough, I couldn't fit inside.

I ruled out breaking camp and making a dangerous night trek back to the car, so I put on every bit of clothing I had brought along, figuring that would at least keep me alive. Then I settled down to sleep and pulled the unzipped sleeping bag over me. It was the longest and coldest night of my life. I woke up almost every hour right on the hour, each time hoping it was morning. When morning finally did come (it was minus 7 degrees according to the thermometer on my pack), I didn't even bother with breakfast. I just packed up and headed back to the car.
 

Roybrew

Well-Known Member
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1,263
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Location
East Tn
Slept or should I say survived in a tent during a tornado that was a little way up the lake. It wouldn't have been to big a deal except we were in the woods and the only out was a mile up the lake by boat toward the tornado. I thought for sure that the waves were going to push the bass boat up on the bank. Other than that time most others were the typical cold wet and leaking tent things. I hope I never have worse to tell.
 

ppine

Forester
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3,931
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Location
Minden, NV
One elk hunting trip in Colorado was at 10,900 feet. It was below zero at night for ten days with snow about half the time. We were okay in wall tents, but the horses and mules had a miserable time. They had to paw through the snow looking for something to eat. We brought grain but ran out around day 7. Packing out, the horses stumbled a lot and had lost a lot of weight. The mules fared better because most of them weren't ridden much during the hunt. We came out in a blizzard and got to the trailhead at 0100 after multiple wrecks. I would do it again.
 
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