Freak weather at Alton

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
Joel

[quote=""Big Dave""]I was driving through Cannock towards Stafford and I can say I have never in my life seen a storm as violent as the one on Monday afternoon.[/quote]

I don't think anything beats the TTF trip to Germany yet. I was genuinely terrified that night, how lightening never struck anything directly around us I don't know, and the rain was bouncing off everything flooding everywhere :(
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pfleety
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anone get pics ?

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Moley

[quote=""Big Dave""]I was driving through Cannock[/quote]
...and lived to tell the tale? Part of a very exclusive club now. :clap: :P

But yeah, that storm was a bit of a big one wasn't it? Apparently a guy just up the road was struck by lightening. :shock:
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xEmmax
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Good to have an explanation why Duel Hex and Flume were closed on Tuesday!

The Flume did re-open but not till about 3pm on Tuesday, but The Flume and Duel were both open on Wednesday, don't know about Hex.

All around Oblivions hole the pavement had pratically been ripped up and was roped off with a sign saying it was due to weather. We did think it must have been some pretty freakish weather to do that!
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Alex Tyler
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Hex has reopened.

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---- Post Info Added ----

Hex has reopened.
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chr1s
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[quote=""alex tyler""]Hex has reopened.

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But the lightling has caused all the props inside to come alive! :twisted: :twisted:
Pepsi is better than Coke!!
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Pennywise
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[quote=""xEmmax""]Good to have an explanation why Duel Hex and Flume were closed on Tuesday!

The Flume did re-open but not till about 3pm on Tuesday, but The Flume and Duel were both open on Wednesday, don't know about Hex.
[/quote]

Are you sure it was Duel that re-opened, not Hex? As I have been informed (wrongly or rightly) that Duel is still closed. :)
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JohnoUK
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OK, so i'm back in Medway, here is the lowdown (and a couple of pics! :D )

Monday was a very humid and hot day, but just after the park closed, a massive storm formed overhead and dropped a load of rain in a few minutes. I for one, was camping in nearby Marchington and I have never seen rain/hail/thunder like it! We abandoned the tent for fear of getting washed away or struck by lightning.

We headed off during the storm to Uttoxeter Tesco where the carpark was underwater:

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The store itself was fine, but the carpark dips in the middle. The car in the background had its wheels covered completely shortly after this was taken. The mini roundabout to the side of the store was under about 2 foot of water.

Anyway, we arrived the next day to see the drains were covered in debris from the storms and found out that The Flume, Hex & Duel were shut and the pathways near oblivion were cordened off. I spoke to the memeber of staff outside Duel and he said that several rides were either struck by lightning or suffered a power surge blowing the electrics.

Here is some pictures of X-Sector, sorry for the quality, they were taking when it was tipping it down again in there!

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The rain was coming down the pathways from the towers, round the back of KFC and flooding down the pathways in front of the arcades. You can see the blocks piled up after being retrieved from the bottom, next to the fance line for the 'Oblivion Hole'. The weight of these blocks had 'sunk' the path way too! The area down in the ground next to Oblivions hole was also shut off and it was covered in a thick layer of mud dragged down by the torrents of water.

So yeah, an eventful few days, only spots of 'normal rain' after Monday!

All the rides however where back up and running by 3 on Wednesday.
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James
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[quote=""chr1s""][quote=""alex tyler""]Hex has reopened.

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But the lightling has caused all the props inside to come alive! :twisted: :twisted:[/quote]
A dream come true for me :P .

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I love that sign.

Anyone have any idea how how long it would take for Alton to repair the damage?

:)
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Uh heck :shock: ! That is what I would call a "proper epic path fail"!
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Chris W
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Its shouldn't take too long before everything's back to normal. From the photo you can see that they have already started working on it. Can't see it taking more than a week or two.

Crazy weather, it would have been kinda cool to spend the night on the resort with all that going on outside.
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JohnoUK
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[quote=""Jlton""]
Anyone have any idea how how long it would take for Alton to repair the damage?

:)[/quote]

Shouldn't take too long. When I got on park on Tuesday, there were about 8 people lugging the bricks to the top and digging away, really wish I took a photo of the sunken path, it had to be seen to be believed!

On a seperate note, the car park at Tesco's was bubbling away. With all the added pressure of the water on top, the ground was actually sinking, pushing pockets of air back to the top. I've never seen so many members of staff and customers run out of the store to cars! Mega funny!

On another seperate note. Just after we arrived at Tesco's, some Chavvie retards in a Ford KA thought it would be really cool to drive through the really big, DEEP, puddle that had formed. As he reved the engine and dropped the clutch, it shot into this 'puddle', the front of the car dipped, water flooded over the top of the car, through the open windows and flooded out the engine. Steam and smoke was then noticable coming from the engine bay. In other words, he fecked the engine well and truely! NICE! :clap:
Last edited by JohnoUK on Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Alex Tyler
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[quote=""Air Dan""][quote=""xEmmax""]Good to have an explanation why Duel Hex and Flume were closed on Tuesday!

The Flume did re-open but not till about 3pm on Tuesday, but The Flume and Duel were both open on Wednesday, don't know about Hex.
[/quote]

Are you sure it was Duel that re-opened, not Hex? As I have been informed (wrongly or rightly) that Duel is still closed. :)[/quote]

ALL 3 rides were open today
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JohnoUK
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All three rides were open by 3 yesterday (Wednesday), Alton are very good at getting problems like this fixed!

AGAIN, also, the Trommels Tunnel in Duel had been fixed during their downtime! :D
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shawnoc
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It looks to me that there has been a small land slip under the path way. It looks as though the bed the path was on was unstable, maybe the hot weather has dried the land under the top layer, then the weight of the rain pulled the unstable soil down the hill.

I can imagine there was quite a torrent of water running down the hill from the towers. I bet KFC got a bit wet inside aswell.
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xEmmax
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[quote=""Air Dan""][quote=""xEmmax""]Good to have an explanation why Duel Hex and Flume were closed on Tuesday!

The Flume did re-open but not till about 3pm on Tuesday, but The Flume and Duel were both open on Wednesday, don't know about Hex.
[/quote]

Are you sure it was Duel that re-opened, not Hex? As I have been informed (wrongly or rightly) that Duel is still closed. :)[/quote]

Yes as I rode it for the first time ever so you've been wrongly informed :)
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Sam
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I don't know what it was like in Staffordshire today, but here in Nottingham it was absolutely insane earlier today. The worst weather so far. TORRENTS of water running down the streets, bouncing off cars with thuds.

Anyone know if it stretched to Alton?
Luke

Wow that would've been absolutely brilliant to have spent the night there. I would love to see Nemesis and Oblivion when the lightning strikes... they would look even more menacing!

Glad to hear that the 3 rides mostly affected are back up and running. I'm going next Monday and Duel is an absolute must for me and my friend. We had planned to go on Tuesday but cancelled it on the Monday afternoon, and I sent him a text saying it was closed for the whole day, and that it was 'fate' that we had decided not to go!

And why do we never get storms like that here in crappy Nantwich? I love thunderstorms, and we only seem to get about 1 a year! It's probably waiting until I'm at Alton on Monday...
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Jelka
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We had a huge thunderstorm that lasted about 3 hours, alot of places around were flooded too. It is amazing to think that the pathway in X-Sector needs to be repaired beacuse of the storm. Glad all the rides are open at the moment that were down due to the storm. :D
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stigzy
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[quote=""STC""]I don't know what it was like in Staffordshire today, but here in Nottingham it was absolutely insane earlier today. The worst weather so far. TORRENTS of water running down the streets, bouncing off cars with thuds.

Anyone know if it stretched to Alton?[/quote]

About 9-10 am-ish this morning?! I got caught up in it on the M1/M69, lots of cars where pulling over onto the hard shoulder to stop - it was very hard to see anything, even with fog lamps on! Except me however, as per the norm I diced with death and plodded along, and lived to the tell the tale as it goes... But yes I did hear (according to the radio) Towers got another good dose of the wet weather too! Down south however, were I've spent my day, it's been a whole different world - really sunny and hot!
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