No matter how hard you look, you won’t find any rain in both the near or distant future. In fact, our next good chance of rain may not come until the middle of next week. It’s not impossible that we may see a stray shower with a cold front Tuesday evening, but it’s very unlikely. That cold front will bring in chillier air for Wednesday and Thursday. All in all, it’s a great week for travel, hunting, shopping, or anything that is better with good weather!
On Saturday we had a very strong cold front move through. This is the front that I had mentioned that could bring severe weather, but we were missing good levels of instability. To our west, instability increased enough for the storms to become a bit rowdy along that front as it crossed Middle TN. A weak tornado was even spawned near Lebanon. For the most part, there were only sporadic reports of straight-line wind damage. Around here, some power outages resulted from the strong winds that blew ahead of and behind the front, at times gusting to 40 mph. All in all, we got very lucky with this front.
One of the stories from the tornado in Lebanon involved a couple of girls who were home alone when the storm hit. They somehow managed to lock themselves out of the house just as the tornado hit, and they had to take cover on the front porch! This sounds like something I would do, especially if I had run outside to try to get a glimpse of it! (ha) The grill that had been in the backyard became airborne in the 100 mph winds and crashed to the ground right beside them. Talk about a wild ride for those two girls! Both of them made it through the storm without serious injuries. I bet they and their family can think of something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving!
Speaking of tornadoes, on this day in 1900 a violent F-4 tornado hit the southern part of Middle TN, near Columbia. Cabins were “turned into kindling wood.” This was an incredible tornado and had it hit Columbia directly, I’m not sure they would have ever recovered. It turned sharply north just before hitting the center of town. Never the less, 27 people were killed, making this the 4th deadliest tornado in Middle TN history. Another strong tornado (F-3) hit near Nashville, as well. It tracked near Brentwood and eastward toward Murfreesboro. Nine people were killed along that tornadoe’s 25-mile track. Today, these tornadoes would have far more devastating due to development. I say it time and time again, tornadoes can be rough around this part of the country in November and few people tend to be looking for them this time of year.
At least we don’t have to worry about anything like that anytime soon! Severe wx season is certainly winding down. Just for kicks, and to change the subject, I pulled up the forecast for Point Lay, Alaska, located on the northwest coast of Alaska. If you thought this morning was cold here, feast your eyes on this forecast! And yes, people live here. According to the census there are 247 crazy people who call this place home (ha). So, what is the significance of this place? It was home to a series of satellites that monitored Russia during the Cold War that would have been the first to detect anything coming into the US by air from Russia.
You all have a great day and be thankful for this weather we have today! At least we’re not worrying about getting blown away or being up to our ears in snow! See, you can always count on a meteorologist to make you thankful 🙂