Storms

[Boatboy24]

Hopefully, everyone in the south is safe and dry. Just a ton of rain here. This is the view from my deck today, looking over the corner of my neighbor's fence. No, I don't normally have a water view. Believe it or not, this is not the highest I've seen it, but it is getting close to the 100 year water mark.

 

[sour_grapes]

Wow, Jim. Quite a puddle you have there. Good luck, and hope you stay dry!

 

[jpike01]

This is how we spent our Tuesday.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[jswordy]

This F-3 storm passed over my farm and did this starting less than a mile east of me.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-VFeBaRhJk[/ame]

Next winter's firewood is on the ground at my place now.

I feel very fortunate.

 

[LoneStarLori]

Holy cow Jim! If it didn't do any damage to your place, looks like you were very lucky. That is some heartbreaking footage. Was everyone ok at the school??

 

[Boatboy24]

Glad you're OK, Jim.

I thought you were close, but didn't realize you were THAT close.

 

[sour_grapes]

Oh, goodness. Glad you were spared, my thoughts are with the ones who weren't as lucky.

 

[jswordy]

The people who had sheltered at the school had decided the danger was over about a half hour before it hit, and had gone home. The NWS had indeed cancelled a tornado warning about 45 minutes before this hit.

There were 2 and maybe 3 tornadoes in my county that night. This one in the video came over my farm as a cyclonic storm. We had already lost lights an hour and half beforehand, due to just severe storms. The sky was continuously lit by lightning for about 1-1/2 hours.

As it passed, my electronic wind speed gauge read 27 mph continuous with gusts off the scale. The wooden power pole in my farm's side yard began to whip back and forth like a tree trunk, about a foot either way, as the storm passed. I had never seen it do that in 23 years. As it passed, in typical cyclonic fashion, the winds changed direction from west to east. I lost trees, including a 300-year-old oak.

I wish I had thought to do a video or stills, but I wasn't exactly focused on photos at that time!

Once it passed us, it crossed a 100-acre wheat field that is immediately across the street to the east, then crossed the road that borders the back of that field, then it touched down as an F-3 and started to do its damage.

This is definitely in my Top 5 storms I have experienced.

Some of you might recall I posted 2013 pix of another near-tornado that passed over my farm on the same track, but then instead of forming up it fell apart shortly after. I added the photos back in at the end of the old thread: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f19/closest-yet-tornado-forming-over-my-farm-38694/

This was definitely much stronger and the real deal. We are extremely fortunate and I will be using the chainsaw on Saturday.

The saddest part about the school is that when you look at the damage, it was not a well-built building and they already have announced they will use the same local contractors to rebuild it just as it was. I am so glad I do not have children going there.

 

[seth8530]

Not sure how far away Fayetteville is from Knoxville, but we just barely missed getting clobbered. I know exactly what you are talking about when you said the sky was lit by lightning.

 

[REDRUM]

Wowsers. I can't even begin to fathom what it must be like living in a tornado zone.

Here in Adelaide a cold front has just come through - lots of rain, some hail, and maybe a bit of lightning later on.

I've just returned from some project work out in Eden Valley (a wine region, next to the Barossa if you've heard of it!) which had a large and very intense bushfire tear through in January. A lot of loss to property and stock but no human lives, thankfully. The local accounts of the fire were terrifying.