This weekends Southern Storms

[Sassy]

I don't know how many of you were paying any attention to the weather this weekend, but for those of us that live in the South... we had a pretty wild weekend. Everlast and I almost ended up tornado chases Saturday.

Tornados hit downtown Atlanta Friday night, and it looked like a war zone. I couldn't believe the damage. I heard about it Saturday morning on the radio while I was getting dressed. We were going to ATL to visit my family. They live in a town east of ATL, so they didn't get hit by Friday's tornado. I missed the weather report some how, and we packed up the truck to take some things to my mom and left. Early that morning we had pretty bad t-storms, but the raining had let up and it was just extremely dark and cloudy.

We were about 15 mins out of town when my mom calls. She was just being a concerned mom giving us an update on the weather. Apparently tornados warnings were issued in the metro ATL area, so we told her we would be careful. Then she started calling ever 15 to 20 mins with tornado updates. LOL It was about to drive us batty. The exit we were getting off at was about 20 miles from where the tornado(s) was headed, and we were an 1 hour out, so we're thinking this is all going to be over with by time we get there. About the time we reached our exit, the bottom dropped out. We pulled over at the exit and decided to get something to eat. Mom calls us with another update, and told us that they were in their basement they were under another warning. When the rain let up, and we started on our way.

This time we were almost to my parents when they sky started turning black, raining with a little hail. Everlast decided to pull over. He spotted a bank with two teller lanes, and we pulled into one of the lanes. That is when the hail started coming down and getting bigger by the minute. It quickly turned into marble size and at times was the size of hard peppermint candy (red & white stripped kind). My mom called again to tell us of another warning that was issued and that it was headed in their direction. They were back in the basement, and she wanted to know where we were. It turned out that we were right in the middle of it!

It rain so hard we couldn't hardly see across the street. The hail continued to come down covering the ground. I have never seen anything like it. When the rain let up, it left the ground almost white. It was wild. As the hail started melting, the sun came out for a minute and fog covered the ground making it look even wilder.

Thankfully the tornado never touched down; however, two did touch down in areas that weren't near us. Here are pictures of the ground after it stopped hailing and raining.

For those PM members living in ATL, I hope all of you are safe and sound.

 

[inoverdrive]

I was in Birmingham working so i didnt get all the bad stuff. Didnt have to go back home till Sunday but i go right thru ATL. Glad your ok.

 

[Pekkerwood]

Glad you made it safe. I too endured the calls from my mother and sister checking on me. They good worried cause my phone was on vibrate from being at the Movie theater. I had roof/water damage on one of my buildings downtown, and tree through bedroom of a rental house I have for sale, closer to the Georgia Dome. That goodness its vacant. I have someone out visiting properties today to assess any damage not yet reported.

 

[thebrick]

That's some crazy pics Sassy. That hail almost looks like snow on the ground. Glad you are all OK. Atlanta and the southeast sure needs the rain, but not these tornados. I hope you get some good spring rain without the severe stuff to get you guys out of that bad drought. I could not believe the pictures of lake Lanier last summer and how it was almost bone dry. I used to go camping and water skiing on that lake. Beautiful clear water in those days.

 

[mrsoul]

I was in Birmingham working so i didnt get all the bad stuff. Didnt have to go back home till Sunday but i go right thru ATL. Glad your ok.

did you have a good sale? we actually had a decent weekend. the weather was not that bad here in tennessee, but we did have some thunder storms that sounded much worse than they were.

 

[Sassy]

Georgia did need the rain. It still needs more rain. Maybe their will be more rain to come and no more tornados.

Pekkerwood, it's good to hear no one was hurt. I'm sorry to hear about your property. Hopefully the damage won't be too serious.

The Brick, I pretty much grew up on Lake Lanier. My Grandparents had a house boat there, and we spend lots of weekends there. I loved it. Especially sleeping in the boat at night out on the lake. Most of the time the kids ended up in a tent on a island, which was a blast too. This brings back very fond memories of my grandfather.

MrSoul, we also live in TN and we only got t-storms. It wasn't too bad, except it scared the dog. She ran and hid.

 

[oldfella]

Damn Sass, a little too close for comfort there. Glad you two are safe. Tornados are soo unpredictable and so destructive. We used to get them in Michigan all too often, scary as hell.

 

[craig3758]

I live about 6 blocks away from where that all happened in buckhead.I was on the computer on this forum and I thought it was hard rain till I looked outside,but I just went back to my computer.Hell I don't have cable so I didn't even know there were tornadoes coming.LOL!