King Of The Jungle

What was it, last week when I commented on March Weather coming in like a lion. Well, you better believe it buddy! Normally I enjoy being able to sleep in on the weekends, not that I am getting a whole heckuva lot of sleep. ( I am a dedicated night owl. I do good to be in bed by midnight on workdays, and as late as 3am otherwise) So, to my dismay, Mother Nature had other plans for me. Sometime before the sun had risen, I was stirred from my sleep to the booming and crashing sounds of thunder and lightening. Bright flashes of light filled my bedroom, just before the winds began to howl. Next came the momentary burst of a hail storm. Poor Little Pony Car.


After several minutes, all was quiet and I was able to return to my peaceful slumber.



Upon arising later in the morning, I was disenchanted to find that the skies were still a bit gray. I began my ritualistic Saturday with hopes of squeezing in a few more miles before heading out for the week. But the skies never brightened up enough. On the local radio station, the announcer read off a list of county after county under watch and warning for tornadoes. My county was never mentioned, but half of Georgia was under some type of alert. The dark foreboding heavens confirmed this.




After lunch,I managed to head out and complete my mission of necessary errands before the skies opened and poured down yet another deluge. This time, however, the winds picked up and the rain sliced through the atmosphere in horizontals daggers. Seconds later, the hail began to fall.

Marble-size hail

Sunny Rain

Within minutes, it was over. The sky grew bright as the last droplets of rain ended their journey.




But the sirens had just begun. I live in a very close proximity to the interstate, and my little community is quite the active one, so who knows what all might have happened in that mere five minutes of Mother Nature's fury. It seems the sirens lasted at least 30 minutes. First the Fire Trucks ad Police Officers (yummy) and then the ambulances.






By 6pm, it was all over, and I was able to get in another 5 mile run, after clearing the path of numerous branches and debris. At least there were not whole trees toppled over this time, at least not in my little community.







But a minuscule 25 miles away, Atlanta did not fare quite so well. Below are some pictures of the results of the first ever recorded tornado to hit the Downtown Metro Atlanta area.

• • Two people are dead and Atlanta is under a state of emergency as the city picks up from the first downtown tornado in history.
  • Georgia nearly closed in on last year's record number of tornado reports, and 75 hail storms were reported Saturday. The NWS reported 10 tornadoes Saturday......
  • A broad-reaching tornado watch spanning the upper half of the state has been issued until early Sunday morning. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch that stretches from Rome to Columbus. The watch, designating conditions favorable for one or more tornadoes, will last until 1 a.m.
  • State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine says the damage could be as high as $150 million, according to preliminary estimates.
  • Friday's twister touched down near the World Congress center, Philips Arena, the Equitable Building, and then across to Cabbagetown. The twister is the first to hit downtown Atlanta since such weather recording-keeping began in the 1880s, Griesinger said.
  • Friday night's tornado was declared a category EF2, with the strongest winds reaching 135 mph. Tornadoes can reach up to a category EF5 with 300 mph winds. The tornado was 200 yards wide at its widest. It left a path of damage six miles long, said meteorologist Mike Griesinger with the National Weather Service.