All sorts of towers...

SKY WATCH FRIDAY time! Welcome all sky fans!!! I might not have time to respond to you, but I will try my best to visit!!!

Our hosts: Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Louise Fishing Guy

Thanks, also,to Dot and Tom, who were instrumental in the success of this blogging event. You should definitely come fly with us! I would like to share two shots with you today. One, I shot Monday morning. There was an amazing sunrise, which turned a patch of virga (rain that doesn't reach the ground) bright pink. I have enhanced the contrast to help you to see it more clearly. I posted it unedited on August 31, if you care to check that out.It was beautiful. My other choice for today is just a random June cumulus tower from my 2007 archive. It made me smile, so I thought, why not...
Speaking of towers... does everyone remember the tornado that ripped through downtown Atlanta on March 14, 2008? Well, that same tornado damaged about 1500 windows on the Westin Peachtree hotel.

the cylindrical hotel was heavily damaged by the March 14, 2008 twister that ripped through the area. Designed to sway, the building moved two feet in either direction from the force. The damage knocked 320 of the hotel’s 1,068 rooms out of service, and 81 are still not being used.
~source

Today, work has begun to replace those broken windows. Though the project will take over a year to complete, the structure will be much more structurally sound when the project is complete ($22 million later...)

The replacements, each larger than a doorframe, will be heavier than the originals -- 270 pounds instead of 140 pounds -- in order to meet today’s building codes, which are more stringent than when the hotel was built in 1976.
~source

Here are some links to my coverage of that historic tornado.
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5

Aside from the, the largest wildfire in LA history is still not contained, but humidity levels have risen to help the firefighters in their efforts. Tropical Storm Erika is just about done with her time with us. She is amounting to just about nothing.

Have a... ... day!
~Dewdrop

The anniversary of the Atlanta tornado outbreak

(CNN photo by Kyle Almond of the debris scattered in front of the CNN building.) I guess with this past weekend being the one-year anniversary of the only tornado to have ever struck downtown Atlanta, I should mention that event. The Atlanta tornado on March 14, 2008, was actually a precursor to a larger tornado outbreak the following day, which I posted a lot about it at the time, and you can find my archives here:

Tornadoes ripped through southeast
Links to pictures of Shane Durrance's photographed capture of the Atlanta tornado
Tornado strikes the Georgia Dome
Mini-Dew's photo summary
My photo summary of Atlanta after the tornado

Basically, in the course of those 2 days, "one man was killed near downtown Atlanta. Two other deaths took place on March 15 in the northern Atlanta suburbs from the second, larger round of severe weather and tornadoes. In total, 45 tornadoes were confirmed over the 24 hour period from eastern Alabama to the Carolina coast, with most of the activity concentrated in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, the Central Savannah River Area and the Midlands of South Carolina." ~source A moderate risk had been issued for March 15th, but it was elevated to a high risk for severe weather over the course of the day.

It was a memorable weather day for Georgia.

~Dew