Dangerous Weather while Camping: Staying safe in storms

It's time to talk about dangerous weather while camping. You are going to be threatened by it. Because besides sunny weather and blue skies, unfortunately, storms, heavy winds, tornadoes, hurricanes, and hail are also a part of camping life.

So when bad weather hits, what should RVers do?

That's what we discuss in detail in Episode 404 of the RV Podcast, sharing our suggestions and those from the RV community at large.

Besides the recent RV news, tips, and questions and answers, we dig into the topic of bad weather and RVers.

You can watch the video of the podcast from our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel below.

If you prefer the audio-only version of the podcast, you can listen on your favorite podcast app or click the player below to hear it on the device you are now reading this.

Tips for handling dangerous weather while camping

Dangerous weather while camping can develop fast

It seems like every week, we're reporting bad news stories about RVers and campers caught by bad weather.

So are others of you in our RV Lifestyle community.

So this week we want to talk about storms and camping, specifically, where do you go when you’re in your RV and heavy weather is on the way?

A new member of our RV Lifestyle Facebook Group named Lynda recently posted this question for the group:

“STORMS… brand new here. Currently riding out our first storm. Kids slept through it, but I’m wide awake terrified we are going to blow away or tip over! Anything I should be doing? Or just wait it out? So far I don’t like this camping business the wind is wild and I feel like I’m on a cruise ship in rough waters.”

Bonus: See 10 Tips for Driving an RV in Heavy Winds

Lynda’s question brought a huge response, over 100 comments in the first few hours. We want to share them but before we do, we also want to stress a couple of things things

* Bad storms and the wind they bring are particularly dangerous to RVers. Bad weather warnings are to be taken very seriously.* And that means you need to be very weather aware. There are lots of weather apps (we’ll link to them on the RV Lifestyle blog) and when camping, you need to check the forecast for your area a couple of times a day.

There is a particularly good travel weather app we use that we really want to recommend. It’s called Drive Weather. It allows the comparison of different routes, creating stops, interactively changing departure time, and other features that help RVers plan trips around the weather.

Drive Weather is all about decision-making in regards to the weather. Like a pilot before taking off in an airplane and checking the expected weather en route, the app takes just a few seconds to get “briefed” on the safest route and safest time to leave. Again, we’ll put a link on RVLifestyle.com

There’s one more thing we urge about dangerous weather while camping: An emergency weather radio. There are lots available. Some are solar powered, some have a hand crank to charge the batteries. They are relatively inexpensive. The main function of an emergency radio is to stay informed. You want to be sure that yours comes with the abil...