So I get home Monday night at midnight (I live in Nashville), listening to the weather on the radio on the way in. Tornado Warning. Not Watch. Warning, which means the NWS is pretty sure there's one out there. In the dark. Geeeez . . . . .
When I get in, all four local TV stations are on with their weather departments, they're seeing tangerine size hail just to the west of Nashville, and the cluster of thunderstorms "which we're sure is ripe to form a rotation" are inbound at 50mph, heading due west to east.
A few minutes later, you can actually see the tornado on the weather radar, the tornado itself, as it's picked up enough debris Ray Charles could see it on the radar. It's heading straight for my neighborhood.
About 1:30, the wind is howling, it's raining big buckets, a little hail. Neighborhood Tornado Siren is a block away, and it's been going off in 20 minute intervals. I open my West-facing back door, and it just flies open and almost knocks me down. And now I can hear the tornado, even though it's raining so hard I can't see across my back yard to the fence. Now . . . . . I'm scared. Just like a little boy I hate to admit, but I'm scared.
So it went by me by about a mile and a half. Any of the coverage you may have seen about 'East Nashville' or 'Germantown', that's about 1-2 miles from me, so it was close.
Today after the investigation, the National Weather Service ruled it was one tornado traveling due West to East, paralleling Interstate 40 from just this side of Dickson, TN to the west to just past Cookeville, TN to the east, along an unbroken track of 57 (yes, fifty-seven) miles, beginning as a EF2 and ending up an EF4.
We're fine, and this area will rebuild. Tennessee is not called the 'Volunteer State' for nothing, and already, some shelters have had to refuse food and other donations: They were ALREADY past capacity. So that tells you who we are.
This is my fifth 'near miss' of a tornado going by me close enough to be heard or seen, but not getting to me. I wonder if my luck will continue . . . . . . I grew up on the Gulf Coast around hurricanes (which believe me, are FAR worse), but somehow the idea of a tornado in the dark is just coldly terrifying.
Appreciate the outreach, we're good. They test that Tornado Siren every Saturday at noon, I'm just hoping I don't knee-jerk jump and run under the bed with the dog !
