Yesterday evening I encountered something that is called an wet downburst (_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downburst) while driving on the freeway late at night. The whole incindent didn't last long, but it was very intense and frankly at one moment I was sure that I was going to die. I'm still a bit shaken over what happened.
I was driving home from my mothers summer place, ca 300km from our home. My son was in the back seat in his car seat and sleeping, since it was quite late in the evening. I called my wife back home who told me that she had just experienced a 'thunderstorm from hell' a moment ago, but she was okay since she was staying inside the whole time. She told me to drive carefully and wished us a safe trip. Some minutes later I noticed some drops of rain on the windshield and some lightning in the distance. Didn't think much about that, since I've experienced many thunderstorms and I've never been afraid of things like that. I also know that a car is one of the safest places to be in case of a lightning striking down (I could be wrong).
So anyway, I was driving along and got this a little uneasy feeling. I felt a strong need to get out of the freeway, just in case the weather would become nasty. So I started driving a little bit faster in order to be nearer the next big town, just in case. Just some moments after this I noticed small bits of paper and leaves flying horizontally straight at my windshield. This looked a bit odd to me. In a split second all hell was loose. I had time to see the tree tops on the side of the road bend in the storm, like 90 degrees. Then this incredibly intense rain started pouring down, or more like smashing against the car. Couldn't see a thing. And the storm (downburst) was shaking the car. I naturally slowed down the car, almost to a halt and started steering it to the side of the road. Some cars, obviously not yet grasping what was happening, roared past on the right side, just inches away.
There were tree branches and all kinds of stuff smashing into the windshield, and there was constant lightning in the sky. This wet downburst just kept picking up intensity and at this point I was sure we were going to die. Our car would be lifted up in the air and be thrown somewhere, or some trees (Finnish road sides are packed with trees) or electric posts would fall onto our car. But it was the strangest thing, I didn't feel scared at all! But I did feel as if I was out of my body, looking at the incident from 'outside'. At the same time I was super determined to get us into safety, clenching at the steering wheel, 'limping' the car slowly onwards. It all felt so unreal but at the same time I was more focused than ever in my life. I don't know how smart my reasoning was, but I wanted to get us away from the trees, the electric posts, and the freeway.
Some seconds later I managed to find an intersection which lead away from the freeway. I took my chance and steered the car in that direction, still not seeing sh*t! The wind calmed down just a tiny bit and I stopped the car to look how my son was doing. To my amazement he was still asleep! Since I was still quite shooken up, and the storm was still raging I decided to drive into the nearest town and once there, I parked the car between two big concrete buildings, just to calm down a bit. There were fallen down trees on the road and water was flooding everywhere. After a moment, and calling my wife, I continued our journey back home. During the rest of the trip there was a lot of rain and lightning but no downbursts, phew! Life seemed very valuable once we stepped through the door and hugged my wife! :)
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These downbursts and incredibly intense thunderstorms are a new phenomenon in Finland, I believe. There are at the moment over 20 thousand households without electricity because of the bad weather, and there has been some incidents were people have been injured. The past month it has also been very hot (considering Finland) and many temperature records have been broken. So it seems that the weather anomalies are getting more intense by the moment, and I have a bad feeling that my little episode yesterday was just a prelude!
I was driving home from my mothers summer place, ca 300km from our home. My son was in the back seat in his car seat and sleeping, since it was quite late in the evening. I called my wife back home who told me that she had just experienced a 'thunderstorm from hell' a moment ago, but she was okay since she was staying inside the whole time. She told me to drive carefully and wished us a safe trip. Some minutes later I noticed some drops of rain on the windshield and some lightning in the distance. Didn't think much about that, since I've experienced many thunderstorms and I've never been afraid of things like that. I also know that a car is one of the safest places to be in case of a lightning striking down (I could be wrong).
So anyway, I was driving along and got this a little uneasy feeling. I felt a strong need to get out of the freeway, just in case the weather would become nasty. So I started driving a little bit faster in order to be nearer the next big town, just in case. Just some moments after this I noticed small bits of paper and leaves flying horizontally straight at my windshield. This looked a bit odd to me. In a split second all hell was loose. I had time to see the tree tops on the side of the road bend in the storm, like 90 degrees. Then this incredibly intense rain started pouring down, or more like smashing against the car. Couldn't see a thing. And the storm (downburst) was shaking the car. I naturally slowed down the car, almost to a halt and started steering it to the side of the road. Some cars, obviously not yet grasping what was happening, roared past on the right side, just inches away.
There were tree branches and all kinds of stuff smashing into the windshield, and there was constant lightning in the sky. This wet downburst just kept picking up intensity and at this point I was sure we were going to die. Our car would be lifted up in the air and be thrown somewhere, or some trees (Finnish road sides are packed with trees) or electric posts would fall onto our car. But it was the strangest thing, I didn't feel scared at all! But I did feel as if I was out of my body, looking at the incident from 'outside'. At the same time I was super determined to get us into safety, clenching at the steering wheel, 'limping' the car slowly onwards. It all felt so unreal but at the same time I was more focused than ever in my life. I don't know how smart my reasoning was, but I wanted to get us away from the trees, the electric posts, and the freeway.
Some seconds later I managed to find an intersection which lead away from the freeway. I took my chance and steered the car in that direction, still not seeing sh*t! The wind calmed down just a tiny bit and I stopped the car to look how my son was doing. To my amazement he was still asleep! Since I was still quite shooken up, and the storm was still raging I decided to drive into the nearest town and once there, I parked the car between two big concrete buildings, just to calm down a bit. There were fallen down trees on the road and water was flooding everywhere. After a moment, and calling my wife, I continued our journey back home. During the rest of the trip there was a lot of rain and lightning but no downbursts, phew! Life seemed very valuable once we stepped through the door and hugged my wife! :)
---
These downbursts and incredibly intense thunderstorms are a new phenomenon in Finland, I believe. There are at the moment over 20 thousand households without electricity because of the bad weather, and there has been some incidents were people have been injured. The past month it has also been very hot (considering Finland) and many temperature records have been broken. So it seems that the weather anomalies are getting more intense by the moment, and I have a bad feeling that my little episode yesterday was just a prelude!
