Tornado, Wind Sheer or Micro Draft?

Don't know what it was, but several days ago we were hiking throughout the day and began to hear the thunder rumbling. As the afternoon wore on, it became clear that we were going to get some weather. I was lagging behind so figured I was probably going to get a soaking. I did make it to the shelter as it turns out, got my sleeping bag set up and began the process of fixing a beautiful meal of stovetop stuffing and tuna fish. Just as I almost got the water boiling, the storm broke. I had to leave my "kitchen" where it was as I scrambled to protect my sleeping bag sitting in the shelter because the wind was blowing directly into the shelter (they are three sided). There were five of us in the shelter. I took my tyvac (sp) and wrapped it around my pad and gear and we all sat with our backs to the back of the shelter and the storm came riping through in three huge waves. The wind was hurricane force directly at us and completely soaked the inside of the shelter. One of the hikers was convinced we were in the middle of a tornado and huddled into a fetal position and was in a pure panic. Being close to tornados I knew that was unlikely but we all kept our fingers crossed that none of the trees around the shelter would come down on us.

It was a horrific experience with the wind, rain, thunder and lightening but after about an hour it began to die down and we were able to try to reclaim our things. My stove and all my gear was scattered to the winds but I found most everything I needed (though nothing worked until the next day).

Late into the evening as we were getting settled, Sailor comes strolling in completely soaked to the bone. He had gotten got right in the middle of the storm and had nowhere to go but forward.

Was it a tornado? No way, but the guy thought so. I think it was a major storm with some wind sheer thrown in for good measure. Was it exciting? You bet! Do I want a repeat? Hell NO!