Yesterday was a typical summer Sunday afternoon, until it wasn’t. And, when I say wasn’t, I mean things got weird.
About noon, a friend and his son came over to swim. It was sunny, about 90 degrees, and there was a breeze that came and went.
Around 3:30 pm, they left and we went inside. Around 5:00 pm, we heard a huge noise outside. I was in the basement and could not figure out what would’ve been so loud, so I went to look.
In my backyard towards the pool, I saw a chair cushion floating. Hmm, that seemed strange. Then, it started registering that something had happened.
I screamed for my husband, and when he got outside, we were in absolute shock! The pool shed was leveled. All of our patio furniture was IN the pool. The glass top tables had shattered and the glass was inside the pool and all over the sidewalk.
ON a sunny day. A sunny day, in JULY…
We haven’t had rain for over a month. There wasn’t any chance of rain yesterday. There was some clouds, but it wasn’t cloudy.
Apparently, there was some kind of wind storm that kicked up in our back yard. Not rain. Not hail. No clouds. No lightning. Nothing that indicated a storm. It was sunny and hot.
Two separate neighbors came to check on us. They’d heard loud winds, looked our way, and saw our pool shed break into pieces and was swirling in the air, up as high as our house roof!
One said something similar about the pool floats, that they were way up in the air! One landed on our roof and the others landed across the road.
Our swing and hammock were thrown into the northwest corner of the yard, near the pool shed.
Our solar pool cover that had been sitting next to the pool shed, was east of the yard, past the fence.
Weird, right?
Even weirder? It was only in our yard and only back by the pool. Side yard is fine. Front yard is fine. No neighbors have damage.
Except for our back yard area, it didn’t look like anything happened.
We spent a couple hours cleaning up. My husband got the furniture out of the pool and swept up glass that was in the pool. I swept up glass on the sidewalk, picked up toys and pieces of the pool shed.
We’ve never heard of anything like this. I’ve tried researching it and can’t find any information about anything like it. I looked on the National Weather Service for our area’s Facebook page and there were no weather disturbances yesterday…
There is something called dust devils, which form from the ground and can be destructive like tornadoes, but the neighbors said they heard the wind in the trees and there isn’t really any dirt fields around here.
There’s also something called water spouts that can form over water. I researched to see if they can form over swimming pools. I saw one instance of it happening over a pool in the southeast US.
Neither of those makes much sense here. Unless there’s something of a combo pack of some sort, ha ha.
The take away- sometimes things happen that we may just not understand. I have a very math/logic mind, so seeing our yard upside down, puzzles me and makes me want to know why.
However, there’s lots of good news:
- we weren’t in the pool when it happened
- the pool isn’t damaged where the furniture and glass was
- the pool pump is still working
- all the electrical components of the pool still work
- our trucks that were close to the pool shed aren’t damaged
- my neighbors saw it, came to see if we were ok, and told us what they saw- if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have known what in the world happened
- our pets are fine, the house is fine
- we are counting blessings
I’ll keep searching to see if I can figure out what that was. Maybe it’s just some weather phenomenon that hasn’t been described yet.
I don’t know what it was, but I can tell you this, I grew up where there were a lot of tornado warnings. My dad was a tornado spotter. I spent many days in Iowa at my grandparent’s farm when we would have to sit in the cellar, waiting out tornadoes.
But, I never thought there’d be some tornado-thingy in my back yard, 10 hours south of there, in the summer, on a clear day, on a Sunday afternoon.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate that.
Jessica
Unmeasured Journeys 
That is unbelievable! It looks like the damage after a terrible storm, not on a sunny day. I’m just grateful no one was hurt!
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Unbelievable is a great word. We still can’t believe it. Today I picked up all the pieces to the pool shed and piled them up. Looks so weird with it gone! Thank you- I’m so happy we were inside…
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WOW!!!! I’m so glad no one was hurt, so crazy!!! 🤗
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Hi. Isn’t this just so weird?? I keep saying weird, but that word keeps coming to mind…
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Oh my gosh, that is so weird! I’m glad no one was hurt. It sure did a lot of damage though.
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Hi. Can you believe this?? My two neighbors were so glad someone else saw it, because they couldn’t believe it. They live in different houses. And, our houses are between 3-5 acres apart. I guess they heard the wind. So, it must have been loud, to be noticeable. They were in shock. We were in shock. Such a strange experience!
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How awful!! I’ve never heard of such a thing! I would have freaked! Glad you’re okay, but wow, so much damage, I am so sorry!
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Hi. I freaked- started crying. A very unreal scene that day. It looks pretty good now. I still need to hose off all of the furniture cushions and vacuum the pool a few times. Luckily, there wasn’t any structural damage to the house or anything. The house is right by the pool, so dang, that’s lucky! The pool is fine, thank goodness!!! It’s relatively new- November 2020. When we ordered it, we had them put an extra gel coat on the fiberglass insert. I guess those coats saved the pool from scratches and furniture damage… We will need to replace the pool shed. We originally put it up to keep lightning away from the pump.
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Oh my goodness!
Firstly thank the lord no one was hurt, including animals!
Secondly I have experienced similar in the UK of all places, not near water and not known for these weird occurrences
I was probably about 10 years old and same, hot summer day, no wind though. Then out of nowhere, (we have a horse paddock next to us), all these bales of straw come swirling and hurtling into our garden, up and up throwing straw everywhere, freakishly frightening but mesmerising to see.
No one was hurt, Horses spooked but ok but it looked like snow fall of straw everywhere. I took a photo, I must find it, old cameras back then!!
Just put it down to a mini whirlwind, but sounds similar as no one else in village got it!
Glad you are all ok xxx
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Hello, sweetheart. Boy, I love seeing your name here. How weird that we had similar things, even if years apart. It’s strange how no one else had anything even moved, at all. I can just imagine straw flying everywhere. How odd, though that there was no wind. I don’t get it, haha. Thank you, I am thankful we were inside. Grateful that my kiddo was inside, too. When my first neighbor came, I just started crying. The shock was something else. I mean, we had just been out there. Hard to explain, but because you saw something similar, you may understand. It feels awkard saying outloud that we had a tornado-thingy, when no one did!!! Definitely different.
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Hubby said it sounded like a microburst. I know there have been a few several years ago here in Missouri
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Oh really? Ok, I will look that up. I haven’t heard of that before. Thank you. I thought maybe if I wrote about it, someone might know what it was or maybe know someone who does. Tell him thanks, please.
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Will do
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Oh my goodness that is strange. Glad yall were ok
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Heyyy, girl. Long time, no see. Love seeing your name here. Isn’t that the weirdest thing? I have never heard of such a thing. I went out there this morning kind of hoping things were just normal, haha. Nope. Ha ha, Building was still down. Hope you are doing well.
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Oh my gosh! That is the weirdest thing! Thankfully, no one was hurt.
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Hi. I still can’t believe it! Very odd!
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When we were cleaning up yesterday, it was so hot. Like, super hot. I had to go in and cool off to be able to keep working. It looks a lot better today, but the building is still down. You should’ve seen all the glass. My husband said it was safety glass because it was in those outdoor tables. None of it was splintered, but it broke in chunks, like tiny squares. Reminded me of rhinestones. I went out there this morning, sort of hoping it had been a dream…
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Can you save any of that broken glass to use in your jewelry art? :) I am glad you went in to cool off. This heat can make a person sick. Stay cool!
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Hi. That’s a good idea- I’ll look at it. Thank you.
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You really are lucky that you weren’t out there, but what a shame to have this happen!! It really is a puzzle, isn’t it? It almost had to be a fluke since it only hit your back yard. Hopefully you’ve recovered everything and you can continue to enjoy that beautiful pool. 😎
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Hi. I’m so happy it happened after we went in!! I think if we’d been sitting on the furniture, we’d have gone in the pool with it! Most everything is picked up. So thankful no one was spinning up in it!!
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