April 24, 2010

This will be a day I won't forget for so many reasons.  I want to end on a positive note, so let's start with the sad news out of Yazoo City, MS.  I was watching the radar and many chasers live streams as the tornado passed through.  I saw a close call on one of the live streams I was watching.  You couldn't even see that tornado until it was right on top of them and the chaser was being nailed with debris!  It was crazy!  On the radar, you could clearly see the debris cloud.  You know that's not good.  All in all, yesterday was a deadly day with 54 reports of tornadoes.

I didn't go chasing at all yesterday.  But the storms came after me!  We had an intense night last night.  A very strong area of rotation passed just to our south around 1 am.  This storm was very intense with continous lightning and VERY strong winds.  I literally heard the ping ping of about 3 hail stones.  We went outside and couldn't find any, so maybe it was just nuts off of our hickory tree.  I like to think it was hail stones.  Below is a radar image snagged by my friend, Sean, who sent these to me since my GR Level 3 went out last night.

I am very proud of my forecasting yesterday, even though I didn't go chasing.  I sat down and really looked at the models.  I picked a target and then tried to time the storms arrival.  I did very well!  :)  So I consider that success even if I didn't make it out to chase.  I will be much more confident next time about my forecasting!  I am hoping the next system comes through on a day that I have plenty of time to take a nice road trip, and the storms won't be moving 60mph!! 

Emily was confirmed in the church yesterday, and it was a beautiful service.  I couldn't help but think about the weather because a storm raged outside while we were in church, but Emily was gorgeous and growing up so fast.  I can't believe what an amazing young lady she's becoming!  I am so very proud of her.

I also went to see Katie as she got ready for her prom.  It's so hard to believe she is 18 years old.  She makes me proud every day!  I'm such a proud aunt!  All of my nieces and nephews make me so very proud!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!