OK. This almost never happens in New Hampshire; we’re under a tornado watch. What do I do with my horses? Leave them in or out?
Thanks for any advice.
Scot
Im for bringing them in… too much debris can be flying around to injure them even if you dont have a direct hit. If its a direct hit - wont matter ( not that ‘that’ makes you feel any better) I HATE tornadoes…
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From what I have read, no good answer.
I think horses go into cinder block barns in Florida during hurricane season.
You probably have a wooden barn. Get on the phone to horse people in tornado alley.
Good luck!!!
We spend, literally, most of our spring/summer/early fall under a tornado watch here. A watch means conditions are right for the possible formation of a tornado, but that there is no actual tornado at this time. A warning means that there has been an actual tornado spotted somewhere, which is an entirely different case. I don’t do much different during a watch; the weather can be sunny and fine during a watch. However, if there are severe t-storms approaching, then I bring as many horses inside as I can, mostly b/c of lightning.
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Ditto what Hillside said. We are under watches at least 3 times a week this time of year, 99.9% of the time nothing happens except maybe a severe t-storm. We watch the radar though so we know when something nasty is bearing down on us.
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We have watches a lot here in WI, I don’t bring horses in until severe weather approaches. I prefer them in due the possible lightening and flying debris.
We watched a tornado come within 2 miles of us a few years ago. Scary stuff. As Hilary/wehrlegirl said, if you get a direct hit, unless it’s a tornado that’s low on the EF scale, it probably won’t matter much, nothing would be left. There have been barns that were hit or sideswiped that did ok, the roof’s torn off but the structure in tact, probably due to the fact that the stalls reinforce the structure.
[QUOTE=HFSH;5640273]
We have watches a lot here in WI, I don’t bring horses in until severe weather approaches. I prefer them in due the possible lightening and flying debris.
We watched a tornado come within 2 miles of us a few years ago. Scary stuff. As Hilary/wehrlegirl said, if you get a direct hit, unless it’s a tornado that’s low on the EF scale, it probably won’t matter much, nothing would be left. There have been barns that were hit or sideswiped that did ok, the roof’s torn off but the structure in tact, probably due to the fact that the stalls reinforce the structure.[/QUOTE]
Duh, I didnt even pick up that she said ‘watch’… see how Im still rattled? After watching three rotations above our farm and having a touch down a mile away, I called it quits to the MW ( though looks like Im calling it quits to the NW weather too- *sigh)
I have always heard for livestock - hurricanes out, tornadoes in. The problem with tornadoes is the flying debris. Not that hurricanes don’t have flying debris too, but with tornadoes it is worse. Hopefully it misses you. I’ve been watching this breaking weather news on TV.
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There was just a tornado warning in Sacramento, Northern CA as well… Craziness!! Good luck everyone!
[QUOTE=JazCreekInc.;5640484]
There was just a tornado warning in Sacramento, Northern CA as well… Craziness!! Good luck everyone![/QUOTE]
See there is just something wrong with this world if even California has bad weather :lol:
We just heard there was a brief touchdown near us… in Western Washington! I mean I bloody moved out here to get away from all that!:winkgrin:
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[QUOTE=Shooting Star Farm;5639811]
OK. This almost never happens in New Hampshire; we’re under a tornado watch. What do I do with my horses? Leave them in or out?
Thanks for any advice.
Scot[/QUOTE]
I bring them in. Even if there is no tornado, chances are you’re going to get lightening if the conditions are good for a tornado. Lightening scares me more than tornados only because there’s a greater chance of it strikign a horse. I’ve known of several horses to be struck around here. And like someone else said, debris can be deadly if you don’t have a direct hit. A direct hit won’t matter if they’re in or out, IMO.
Speaking as someone who lives in a tornado prone area (North Texas), bring your ponies in. Tornados are always part of a thunderstorn front, and lightening is likely. Also, flying debris (even from a good windstorm) could injure a horse if left outdoors.
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Indoors as everyone said. We get lots of watches and warnings too.
It’s not only the lightning and flying debris, but the significant hail that comes with it too. Golf ball sized hail can do significant neurological trauma. And hail isn’t always smooth - most often it is jagged and even small sized hail can cause lacerations. I work in healthcare, so I know plenty o’ plenty about this.
Remember also - debris is a generalized term that means anything the wind can pick up - and that goes for cars, wood, trees, bits of metal and whatever farm implements your neighbor down yonder has sitting outside! Getting hit by flying debris is the #1 killer in a tornado.
A direct hit, there will nothing you can do, but should one sideswipe you, it’s the flying debris that takes the toll.
And for yourself, if you have a funnel cloud nearby GET UNDERGROUND immediately. In your basement, close off inside an inner room closet, pillows over your head. If you don’t have a basement, get into the most central bathroom of your house and lay flat into the bathtub with pillows over your head. Funnel clouds are unpredictable and can zip down to the ground in seconds leaving you little time to get to safety. When I see a funnel cloud, I don’t stick around watching it to see what it does, I grab the cats and dog and take off downstairs.
Jingles your way. It’s been a really bad stormy year, one for the record books for sure.
…whatever farm implements your neighbor down yonder has sitting outside
Hey, I don’t have farm implements! :lol:
Seriously though - MA was hit by several tornados, with 4 dead. Don’t know if the storms got up into NH.
Scot - are you okay?
Thanks for all of the responses. We’re OK. An hour south of us there were deaths and lots of destruction. We had hail, lightening, and heavy T storms, but no funnel clouds. Don’t know how those of you who face this all the time deal with it. I’ll take a blizzard, ice storm, and three feet of snow over this any time. Again, thanks for the responses.
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Glad all’s ok, Shooting Star!
I’m with you! I signed on for snow, not THIS stuff!!
On a related note, for those of you who deal with this regularly, what’s the better option… closing all the barn doors or leaving the breezeway open? My instinct is to close to protect from debris, but is there a benefit to letting wind pass through? Curious, as we just had several small tornadoes touch down in our area yesterday.
AFAIK, the idea that you should leave windows/doors open during a tornado is just a myth and has been debunked, so I think the same would hold true for a barn.
FWIW - although lightning is an issue with severe thunderstorms (and I lost a horse to a lightning strike a long time ago), the other major threat is hail. Depending on the severity of the storm, you might get anywhere from quarter-sized up to softball-sized hailstones, which could last a minute or two, or several minutes. For me, that’s the real reason to think about bringing in horses.
We had a freak severe storm blaze up out of nowhere back in 1996 - the entire county took a hit, and there were several tornados spawned from it, including one long-lived one that hit a few miles north of me. But what we got was baseball-sized hail. Took out every car we owned (except my 1966 Mustang, which survived with exactly 3 dents), and the horses had major contusions from being hit by them. There wasn’t even time to bring them in before it hit. They had a run-in shed, but the sound of hail on a tin roof must have been worse than being out in the actual hail.
Here is a short video that I saw on the Weather Channel once. I think the same would go for barn doors/aisle way doors, as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCjxNJQmWnM&lc=z13yejboukbbfnk5i04ch1ughreed5jznas.1456353430215149
