STORM2K

Weird weird weather in Atlanta (for February). It feels like April...but I'd have to consult a calendar to find out it's only February (judging by our weather).

Right now we're under "Severe Thunderstorm Warning", the Tornado sirens are sounding....and there's a "possible tornado" in a cell heading our way.

Have a look at the latest!

Made it to 76 here 80 miles SW of Atlanta. Dry all day though(Had .63" of rain between 9pm last night and early this morning).

I was surprised we didn't get any activity... we had to turn the air on and the ceiling fan is on as I type. Haven't had to do that in a long time.

My mother in law in Bartow Co. (just south of Cartersville) measured about 3 inches or so of hail on her deck. Here in Marietta we only had hail a little larger than peas. Blackest clouds I've ever seen.

One of the worst tornado outbreaks in the SE US occurred in February 1884.

Steve

I heard the tornado sirens too Jeny, but no mention of any rotation being seen. Its hard to see rotation in these rain wrapped tstorms. Still a little unsettling.

ga_ben wrote:My mother in law in Bartow Co. (just south of Cartersville) measured about 3 inches or so of hail on her deck. Here in Marietta we only had hail a little larger than peas. Blackest clouds I've ever seen.

I was in the Galleria area at lunch...stuck in traffic...during that horrific downpour. The "pea sized" hail was coming down pretty darned thick. I cut my errands short and headed back to my office.

The thunder keeps rumbling and we've got a bit of lightning now. So far, the rain has kept clear of our neighborhood. We'll see if it holds.

Jeny

ga_ben wrote:I heard the tornado sirens too Jeny, but no mention of any rotation being seen. Its hard to see rotation in these rain wrapped tstorms. Still a little unsettling.

There was mention of it in the NWS graphic posted at the top of this thread. It's gone now, but it did say "possible" tornado. This weather IS unsettling....

Jeny

Aslkahuna wrote:One of the worst tornado outbreaks in the SE US occurred in February 1884.

Steve

There was a HUGE Derecho(long-lived bow echo) back on February 16, 2001. Widespread hurricane force wind gusts from Mississippi into Georgia. The line raced eastward at 60 mph during the afternoon hours. It hit me at 4pm. One of the worst storms I ever experienced. Sky turned green, there was nickel sized hail, and wind gusts of at least 65 mph. There were quite a few trees down and the power was out until sometime the next morning early(and we lived in the city).

JenyEliza wrote:

ga_ben wrote:I heard the tornado sirens too Jeny, but no mention of any rotation being seen. Its hard to see rotation in these rain wrapped tstorms. Still a little unsettling.

There was mention of it in the NWS graphic posted at the top of this thread. It's gone now, but it did say "possible" tornado. This weather IS unsettling....

Jeny

It's getting more and more common for Severe Thunderstorm Warnings to say "Possible tornado" or "weak rotation indicated", I've seen several incidents like that in the past year or so.

Heavy rain is here now! Just knocked out our satellite dish as 7th Heaven was beginning!

Hopefully it will be gone soon...at least by 9pm, so that we can change to a MST channel and catch what we missed the first time around.

Jeny

JenyEliza wrote:Heavy rain is here now! Just knocked out our satellite dish as 7th Heaven was beginning!

Hopefully it will be gone soon...at least by 9pm, so that we can change to a MST channel and catch what we missed the first time around.

Jeny

What satellite provider do you have and how do the locals shake out(ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, UPN)?

Brent wrote:

JenyEliza wrote:Heavy rain is here now! Just knocked out our satellite dish as 7th Heaven was beginning!

Hopefully it will be gone soon...at least by 9pm, so that we can change to a MST channel and catch what we missed the first time around.

Jeny

What satellite provider do you have and how do the locals shake out(ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, UPN)?

Dish Network, and WE LOVE IT. We'll never have cable again.

We have all of the local Atlanta channels you mentioned...and we get channels in NYC, New Jersey, Chicago, Denver, and LA. So...when we miss 7th Heaven on our local WB, then we just change to the Denver WB at 9pm (est). Problem solved.

JenyEliza wrote:

Brent wrote:

JenyEliza wrote:Heavy rain is here now! Just knocked out our satellite dish as 7th Heaven was beginning!

Hopefully it will be gone soon...at least by 9pm, so that we can change to a MST channel and catch what we missed the first time around.

Jeny

What satellite provider do you have and how do the locals shake out(ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, UPN)?

Dish Network, and WE LOVE IT. We'll never have cable again.

We have all of the local Atlanta channels you mentioned...and we get channels in NYC, New Jersey, Chicago, Denver, and LA. So...when we miss 7th Heaven on our local WB, then we just change to the Denver WB at 9pm (est). Problem solved.

That's what I thought... if we ever go to satellite, I'm probably going Dish for that reason alone.

We were rather fortunate in north Georgia today....the limiting factor which prevented some of those supercells from spawning tornadoes was lack of low level moisture.....dewpoints just below the 60° threshold across metro Atlanta.

Farther south....middle Georgia into central/ north central Alabama, the low level moisture was better, but there has been a strong cap limiting convection. I haven't seen a drop of rain since early this morning.

It was definitely interesting...many reports of hail 1-2" in diameter; a couple even larger...which doesn't surprise me considering the intensity of those supercells on radar.

Just for the record...February has spawned quite a few killer tornadoes across the southeast U.S. over the years. I well remember devastating tornado outbreaks in central Florida (1998) and SW Georgia (2000); also....12 yrs ago this evening (2/21/93), a significant tornado outbreak struck eastern Tennessee, NE Alabama, and northern Georgia.
Hail as large as baseballs cracked police cruiser windshields in Polk and Paulding county, GA.....2 died in a F3 tornado in Cedartown, GA; several others in a F3 near Lenior City, Tennessee.

Later that Sunday evening, significant damage occurred from tornadoes just west of Marietta, GA and in Walton county (near Athens, GA)...a late night tornado (F2) killed one and injured several in Pike county (SW of Griffin, Georgia). Ironically, this tornado outbreak occurred in a similar wind flow as was the case today....with many supercells moving ESE or SE across Georgia.

This 1993 tornado outbreak was also followed three weeks later by the "Blizzard of 93"...

PW