Storm stories of the Friday Question kind

While skies ominously darken, ROUTE 1 readers respond by answering the following FRIDAY QUESTION:
"What is your most vivid storm memory?"
MIKE D. -- Watching the baseball-sized hailstones crash down from a black sky during the August 1994 storm in Dubuque. Nearly everyone's home and/or vehicle suffered damage.
An honorable mention was watching a thunderhead develop for over an hour as my wife and I drove through central Wisconsin (pictured). Our paths finally collided as we hit the Madison Beltline. The rain came down so hard it was very difficult to see the road, even with the wipers on full blast. A scary drive!
BEKAH P. -- A tornado hit down about a quarter mile from my childhood home. We could see the twister taking out the electrical lines for a mile or so, as each downed power line shot up huge sparks. It was the only time I ever saw a tornado, and I really hope it was my last.
ROSANNE H. -- I remember driving up to a mountain north of Helena, Mont., and having lightning strike right next to the car as we were about to get out. I will never forget how blue it was and how loud it was. I tried to act cool so the four little kids in the car wouldn't be too scared.
MARY N.P. -- Most beautiful anyway -- at night sitting on the front porch of a mountain cabin in Colorado and watching a storm with spectacular lightening many years ago...
RICK T. -- One time when I was around 13 years old, I went to California on a Greyhound Bus. We were around Grand Island, Neb., during a rain storm, and way off in the distance I saw a tornado. It never hit us but there it was way off in the distance. That was the only tornado I ever saw.
JOHN S. -- Heidi and I were at the Cedar Falls Drive-in watching "Twister" when a huge thunderstorm rolled in. It was pretty awesome. Very much 3-D. KERI M. -- Blizzard 2007. (See a video update here, photos about it here.)
JIM S. -- When I was the sports editor for the Fulton (Mo.) Daily Gazette in the early 1980s, the town experienced a small flood and a big tornado - both within a span of three months. I saw the aftermath of both, the worst being the tornado, which downed more than a dozen huge oak trees on the Westminster College campus.
ERIK H. -- It was about 11 a.m., on Monday, Aug. 24, 1998 and we were living in Cascade, Iowa. Jill was at work and I was off with 3-year-old Kerstin at home. Skies became so dark, we had to switch on the living room lights to see. After a period of rain, I glanced out the kitchen window. The wind was blowing the rain horizontally past the window. As I herded Kerstin toward the basement steps, the front window exploded into a shower of glass that carpeted the living-room floor. Finally down in the basement, Kerstin and I didn't get to hear the tree blown down in our front yard.
Straight-line winds of 75 mph was the verdict by the meteorologists. "Bad storm" was Kerstin's verdict.