As I sit here typing this I’m riding out another storm in our 5th wheel. This one not as severe as Easter Sunday’s storm but today’s does include some wind gusts up to 25 mph.

What is only 20 mph wind gusts feel like 40 mph in this RV. This RV starts to shake and rock like we are in some sort of earthquake. My table vase rattles, my drink starts to pulsate like in Jurassic Park, the dog looks up at me with concern, and we just ride it out staring at each other. If this RV is a rockin’ don’t come a knockin’ cause I’ll probably soil myself if someone knocked on the door right now. Ha ha ha! But seriously the dog doesn’t really look up in concern as he is passed out in the recliner with the seat heat on, but we definitely feel this thing shake, rattle, and roll during bad weather.

The point of this article is to help educate those that are interested in what life is like living in an RV full time. Weather is definitely always a concern and you must remain vigilant. Being aware of incoming weather could mean the difference of a good trip or bad trip. Or in this case, a bad tip.

Today is not too bad; wind gusts up to 25 mph. Currently we are situated at the end of a beautiful valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The way our RV is situated we are square to the valley so we are broad-side to the wind. In this situation we always keep an eye on wind gusts as we’d hate for our rig to tip over. That can happen and that would suck.

Weather rolling in during the day helps lessen the scariness. You never want to go to sleep in an RV knowing you have severe weather bearing down with heavy wind and the possibility of tornadoes. We found ourselves in that exact scenario on Easter Sunday. Here is what we did to our RV to prepare for severe weather which would ensure the safety of us and our rig.

1. We moved our RV to face a different direction. We contacted the campground office to ensure this was ok and then parked with the head of the rig facing into the wind. Fortunately the campground was not too crowded and in this case changing spots was a cinch. We are often not so lucky to have this one as an option.
2. We closed in all our slides. This will help stabilize the rig under heavy winds. In our rig, this limits access to our living room and kitchen area but we can still access the bathroom and sleep in our bed. Totally doable for a night storm.
3. We evacuated. In this particular scenario with the possibility of tornadoes and to play it safe, we parked and left. We took all necessities and went to stay with a friend. We happened to be camping in an area where friends and family lived so we were able to take advantage of their sticks and bricks home. We did ensure we were level, all jacks were down, and tires were chucked. If you cannot leave seek out safe shelters in your area or at your campground in case you need to get to them.

This type of lifestyle definitely has its adventures and today’s weather adventure has me thinking about Winnie the Pooh’s Blustery Day and has me singing, Riders on the Storm by The Doors.

FTW: Because keeping up with the weather is a MUST for full time RV’ers, we recommend checking out the WeatherSTEM dashboard. It’s easy to use and extremely accurate weather for East Coasters. Check it out here. We’ve also discovered this cool website that will tell you the wind forecast. Check it out here.