Tuesday Evening: Tornadoes Hit Close to Home

It was a rough morning to say the least. These storms wound up staying together and remained organized much better than previously anticipated. While strong winds were expected regardless, the severity was pretty impressive...especially for the time of day and time of year they hit. When looking back over the last two days, I am amazed at this Severe Weather Outbreak. Over 50 tornadoes have been reported. The worst so far probably occured in Jackson, TN at Union College. Thankfully no one was killed...but damage is downright amazing.

Unfortunately, there were many deaths as well. Tennessee alone is nearing 30 deaths, and many more injuries. The most local death occured in Jackson County, AL in Rosalie near Sand Mountain. 15 other people were injured as well. According to officials, a Tornado struck around 7:25 EST, 6:25 CST. Preliminary reports suggest that this was an F3 Tornado, with winds over 130 MPH.

Chattanooga (Hamilton County) was even under a Tornado Warning around 7 this morning, but thankfully there was no Tornado touchdown. However, the winds were still strong, and the rain was downright torrential. My estimation based on rainfall totals over such a short time suggest than rain fell at nearly 3" for per for awhile. Flash flooding was definately a problem for some people.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the Tornadoes. Having been through a very strong Tornado, I know how terrifying it is. I don't, however, know what it's like to lose a loved one.

We can now say goodbye to severe weather across the South for awhile now, and we need it too. We are off to a early start to severe weather, and I am very concerned that the outbreak was this severe in early February. Makes me wonder what March and April will bring. And it's always a concern when Torandoes hit so close to home. Anywhere in Chattanooga could have easily seen a Tornado given how turbulent the atmosphere was.

So why was the weather so bad so early in the morning? If you read my earlier post, I mentioned that two factors were critical as to what we would see today. One was how warm it would get yesterday (and we hit 74 for the record), and second, the amount of sunlight that we would see. The warmer it is and the more sun you see, the better chances of seeing severe storms are. Even though these storms still struck so early in the morning, the fact is, the atmosphere was still very unstable because of the amount of warmth and the sunlight that occured yesterday. Had we remained cloudy all day, chances are the storms would have been your typical thundershowers, but with a little more gusty winds.

This is a good lesson in severe weather. Instability is critical for the enhancement of severe storms. These storms WERE able to stay together as they reached our area this morning.

We are heading into a little cooler, but still mild pattern, and a little drier weather as well in the next few days. Next chance of rain occurs next week. Will cover that later.

Hope everyone is ok after the bad weather this morning!

~Jordan