Just after the Nashville area was struck, the Chattanooga area was also struck.
“I think when folks of tornado alley, they usually think of the Plains states, and for good reason. That’s where we tend to have more tornadoes anywhere else,” said News4 Chief Meteorologist Lisa Spencer.
In Tennessee, we get our fair share of tornadoes.
*****
It seems to come and go in cycles. The first year we were here it seemed like we were getting tornado warnings every damned day, but last year I think we got one.
The year before that, we got hit by a small tornado. The damage here was minimal, but across the road 50 yards away, they got pretty fucked up with 2 trees coming down on the house with the roots tearing out the septic system leach lines, a power pole sheared, part of the roof gone and a blown out window. They had been in the house for a whopping 6 weeks. What was weird was they had a small plastic table under the power pole - sheared the pole 10 feet off the ground but didn't even move the table that weighed maybe 30 pounds.
We lost a tree out by the shed and my burn barrel got tossed about a hundred yards into the pasture. And power, of course - both me and Tim lost power for a couple days.
To the north of us along Underwood Road, there were over 200 huge old trees that came down according to the power company guy I was talking to. I took a drive up that way and that area was all fucked up with downed trees everywhere.
I’ve worked and trained in the Huntsville, AL area (RSA) since 1980. The Tennessee River valley has always had more than it’s fair share of tornadoes. Year round. This isn’t some new phenomenon. I was told the Indians called it the valley of death because of the storms and the pollen in the spring. Seemed reasonable to me. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteWhen settlers were heading west, there was one area that the local Indians said to stay away from, as it was a tornado magnet. So, of course the settlers built a city there.
DeleteThey named it Grand Island, Nebraska.
I have some strange ground formations on the hill and field above the house. It is a bunch of hummocks where there is a foxhole shaped depression on one side of the hummock. No trees on the ground or in the hummocks. I often wondered what they were. The tornados in 2019 (the same ones you mentioned) left the same kind of formations; only now there are fallen trees sticking out of the hammocks at odd angles. They are too old to be damage from the storms that killed some folks a few years before we arrived. There is still a fair amount of tornado damage from those storms just up the street from our house. The church at the head of the road was demolished to the foundation in that storm.
ReplyDeleteKinda makes you wonder how long ago the tornadoes were that caused those formations. I'm guessing it's where the trees were toppled with the roots pulling the ground up around them?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they were from the 2008 tornado that ripped through this area, killing 13. One of the girls that works at the vet's office lives up in your area and she said it barely missed them.
Probably not from 2008; there are no trees on the ground or anywhere around them. It had to be a lot older than that. They look exactly like the damage from 2019, except that there are no trees or even stumps sticking out of them. They perplexed me considerably for the entire time I have lived here.
DeleteThe 2008 storms seem to have done the most damage just a couple of miles from my house. One of the assistants in my dentist's office lived in that area and she told me all kinds of stories. The general consensus with folks I know is that the official death toll was quite a bit less than the actual death toll; but, those statements are based on what may be bad assumptions.
No. Tn is not the next "Tornado Alley". It will continue to get the weather it always gets. Including dry spells, wet spells, tornados, and so on. With sufficient natural variation that short memories and uncritical thinkers will conclude that the climate, she's a-changing!
ReplyDeleteAs you said, "short memories." People say, "It's never been this hot/cold/wet/dry before." Never? That's a long, long time.
DeleteHell viewing is a sport here, grab your folding lawn chair a twelve pack and sit on the driveway with your neighbors.
ReplyDeleteRemember the F5 tornado that hit Ringgold GA in 2011?
ReplyDeleteI remember it every time I drive through there on I-75 and see that strip of land devoid of trees.
Delete