What is the oddest weather event you have personal experience of?

I don’t know about odd but Hurricane Sandy was pretty traumatic to go through, particularly the aftermath of 12 days without power.

Thundersnow!

Thundersnow is so cool!!

Hm. I live in a state known for it’s crazy weather. The first thing that come to mind is once, about 8 years ago my husband was out of town, about 90 miles away. Weather was acting up, kicking up, but I didn’t think much of it. It felt tornadoey but that’s nothing new. I was just a little more aware of the outside because of it.
I went on the deck to smoke, looked to the west, and about jumped out of my skin. There was this giant, black, terrifying cloud heading straight for me. As far as I could tell, it came all the way to the ground and it was massive. If it was a tornado it didn’t look like one, maybe because it was so close. And it was headed right for me. I jumped for our cellar, which is no small thing because it’s haunted down there. Like, monsters and stuff are down there. Ask the kids.
However, I didn’t make it all the way down. I just sat on the top of the steps, ready to jump, with my cigarettes and beer at my side, and waited.
The cellar door is in the center of a short, narrow hallway in the middle of the house, so that hallway, by itself, afforded quite a bit of protection
I called Rick. I said, “I think we’re about to get hit by a tornado!”
He got really condescending and said, “No, there’s nothing happening there. I’m looking at the weather channel and it’s all clear.”
I kept insisting that it was NOT clear. “I’m telling you, I’m about to be hit!”
Well, he kept on in that tone, laughing reassuringly, you know, patting me on the head, like I was some stupid child. It pissed me off so BAD. He HAD to have heard the terror in my voice, the shaking. He knows I’m not some silly fu fu girl who gets all frantic over silly things. I’ve never been so angry with him in my life. I hung up on him.
Then it hit. Jesus. I really thought the house was going to come down. I was scared, but felt fairly protected where I was. I knew my body would just jump when it was time.
It was bad. Very bad. Then the lights went out. I still didn’t jump, just waited. The wind was beating like a giant’s fist on the house, shaking the whole house. But I didn’t jump because monsters.
It passed after about 2 minutes. Longest 2 minutes of my life.
I got up, went in the living room, shaking.
The lights came back on.
The phone rang. It was Rick. He said, “Jesus Val! The weather channel is saying multiple touchdowns in town!”
I screamed “NO FUCKING SHIT!!” And hung up on him.
And then the sirens went off.
And that, boys and girls, is why I do not bother with the Weather channel. They never warn us until the danger has passed.

My family had a lakeside picnic once at our summer cottage in Massachusetts… in January one day in the early 1970s.

The weather had been warm for a couple of days earlier in the week to melt all of the snow and dry the ground (abnormally warm January thaw – even though the “January thaw” is a regular phenomenon in New England), but on the Saturday of that week the temperatures were in the mid-70s, it was sunny all day, and we said, “Why not?” and did.

It was delightful, and more so for its unexpectedness.

Been through hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes and wild thunderstorms. I think one of the strangest I ever saw was a storm that I could see the approach. I heard a noise like a train and looked off and could see the trees nearer to me were stock still and the ones farther on were waving like crazy. As I watched, I could see it heading towards me. When it finally got there it was high winds and lots of lightning and thunder and rain. Pretty freaky.

The strangest weather related thing for me was almost getting hit by lightening while I was standing in my living room. My ex and I both felt the current running thorough us, causing the hair on the back of our necks to stand up. It was the strangest feeling ever. We just stared at each other going, “Did you feel that???”
Then the lightening hit really close to the house. Shook the windows and walls.

That calm before the storm really is freaky @seawulf575. It’s like the earth is holding it’s breath, waiting for the blow.

It might not be strange to others, but where I live, it doesn’t snow, but about 3 times in my life, it hailed really hard here, including once in the summertime, so it was odd and unexpected.

I’ve also seen a couple of dust devils.

We used to play in dust devils.

When we first moved to Kansas, from Florida, I was kind of freaked out when it hailed in the middle of hot hot summer. But now I know that’s a sign of some really BAD weather approaching. Like, tornado bad.

Not at all an extreme event, but still an odd one – I was around 10 years old and staying at my cousin’s house out in the country. I was outside and it was raining on one side of the road, but no on mine. Literally like the rain cloud ended right at the pavement. The rain itself wasn’t more than a soft spring shower.

Ball lightning. Or it must have been ball lightning. In the midst of a violent thunder storm, a greenish ball of light appeared and sank slowly towards the ground, then vanished. I was about ½ mile away with a perfect view of it.

Lemon sized hail pretty well destroyed my house about 8 years ago. Before it happened my wife looked out the window and asked “why are the clouds green?”
If you see green clouds, run for cover.

Where I live, it runs like @seawulf575 and Darth are talking about all the time. I think it’s a coastal thing. It’s common to be able to see it raining in patches. It can make for interesting canoe fishing. The rain seems to follow me sometimes.

Hurricanes are the most extreme things that I have been through. But I’ve been through so many, I may not be able to consider it extreme or anomalous…

I’ve seen a few water spouts, when fishing on Lake Okeechobee, I’m Florida. Really cool looking.

^^ Oh yes. I’ve heard weather reports when in Florida which will say, “It will rain between Curlew Road and Tampa Road at 2:15” and that’s what it does. When you pass Tampa Road, it is dry!

I’ve also seen water spouts in the Gulf..

Edit. It was supposed to say lake Okeechobee, in Florida.