TN Twisters

Yesterday we were hit with the worst storm in TN's history as they are calling it at this point.  I think to call it a storm is an understatement - it was a series of tornadoes that came about 3 hours apart from 3pm to around midnight.  There are more than 80,000 people without power in my county alone and fortunately, I am one of the ones that still has power....and a house!  I did a walk around the house this morning and I feel blessed to say I don't think I had any damage.  The latest tolls report that 194 people have been killed in TN and surrounding states.  The pictures and images are enough to give you chills.  At lunch I ran down to Cleveland to go by my old house - that area of Cleveland is where one of the tornadoes touched down late last night.  The school beside my old neighborhood had the roof ripped off and trees are laying around everywhere.  Seeing the damage around those streets was just heartbreaking.  Power lines are everywhere, humongous old trees are laying across roofs, it's truly a mess. 

They sent everybody home about an hour early from work yesterday because they thought the storm was supposed to hit around 6pm so they wanted to make sure we were all home in plenty of time.  Well, I don't know where they were getting their information from, but as soon as I got in the car and turned on the radio, the first storm was already heading towards Chattanooga.  Once I got on the interstate I was going about 90 (along with everyone else) towards Ooltewah to get to the house.  I got to 3 miles from my exit and the Super Cell (as I later learned it was called) passed overhead.  I honestly thought that was it for me.  At the time I didn't know if it was a tornado or what was coming at me.  Everything was solid white, almost like intense fog, hail was coming down, rain was coming sideways, incredibly high winds and traffic was just completely stopped on the interstate.  After a few minutes the hail stopped and traffic was moving some and I made it off the exit and floored it the rest of the way to the house.  The rest of the evening was spent pacing the living room, watching the news, texting and calling with friends in the area and talking with worried people at home.

This is what a supercell looks like... apparently, it's a thunderstorm that is characterized by the presence of a deep, continusouly-rotating updraft.  Of the 4 types of thunderstorms, supercells are the overall least common and have the potential to be the most severe.  They are often isolated from other thunderstorms and can dominate the local climate up to 20 miles away. 

As I drove to work this morning I couldn't help but think that my 2 guardian angels must have been working overtime last night to keep me (and the furbabies) safe.