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

My trip to downtown Atlanta... after the tornado

Yet another severe weather outbreak occurred Thursday and Friday of last week, generating 24 total storm reports with 12 already confirmed as tornadoes. So far, there have been 335 confirmed tornadoes this year, and with the average year to date quantity being 167, that is a startling number, especially when you consider the big bulls-eye on Oklahoma for today as they forecast yet another severe weather outbreak with a potential risk of tornadoes. The risk shifts eastward tomorrow, covering Arkansas and Missouri... just what they need and then shifts back to Oklahoma and much of Texas of Wednesday as the second system rolls in hot on the heels of today's storms... It appears that we are well on track for a historic. I am guessing they are awaiting a final count before updating the trend chart.

I had a wonderful weekend in Atlanta. As part of the trip, we took the kids to the World of Coca-Cola (world's largest focused advertisement for Coco-Cola, where you actually pay them to market to you), conveniently located in downtown Atlanta, right in the area where the historic EF-2 tornado struck on March 14. You know me, I was able to talk bf into walking through the Centennial Olympic Park where I was able to capture some great shots of the tornado damage in the downtown area (as well of some very low cloud cover shots). It took him a few seconds, but bf quickly caught onto my ulterior motives for the "stroll through the park". It's ok though, the kids had a great time exploring the various statues and the fountains that were still working, as some were disabled because of the drought. I don't feel very strongly that the funnel was actually on the ground at the point, but certainly it was descended and causing some damage in the area, including the movement of the Westin Peachtree Hotel. I will let my picture summary cover the tornado damage there...Speaking of that tornado, I got an email from Shane Durrance that the "only photograph of the March 14th downtown Atlanta tornado" is now posted on a website for print purchase. This guy is racking up some serious dough for this photograph... get your 8 X 12" print for only $49.98... that too small for you, you can purchase the 24 x 36" for only $209.98. Good grief. So, if you are interested... you know where to go. This is what he wrote to me:

My life has been a whirl wind, no pun intended, since this whole thing started... We have a lot going on preparing for the Cabbage Town Initiative and art show happening in a few months. Please feel free to call me with any questions. Thanks.

Aside from that part of the trip to Atlanta, we did have some severe weather in the region while we were having dinner Friday evening with my extended family. We had them bring speakers over so I could keep an eye on the radar on the local news channel. All I have to show for that is a halfway decent shelf cloud... oh well, you win some, you lose some. On the way back from dropping his children off, bf was sweet to offer to stop at all the charming little churches. We stopped at a couple, but only one of those shots really impressed me...

I got an email from an author who is looking to interview storm chasers, who make money from storm chasing... he asked me for an interview, but as you guys know and as I told him, that is not me, so if you fall within that category and are interested in talking to this guy, drop me a line, and I will gladly pass your info along.

Have a lovely day,
~Dewdrop

THE PICTURE of the downtown Atlanta tornado...

The historic "Atlanta tornado photograph" by Shane Durrance can be purchased through this link... http://www.atlantatornado.org/.

THE PHOTO HAS BEEN REMOVED BY THE REQUEST OF SHANE DURRANCE (AND TO RESPECT COPYRIGHT LAWS)... VISIT HIS SITE LINKED THROUGHOUT THIS BLOG. ACCORDING TO SHANE:

I am working hard on getting a new website up and running for prints to be ordered. Prints will be able to be purchased from www.shanedurrance.com hopefully as early as next week.

Well, I have seen this photograph in several places now, so I decided to share it a little more openly. Alabama Mike gave me the link to the photograph that was taken by Shane Durrance of the downtown Atlanta tornado on March 14. The link I have offered here is the location where I copied the image from. Apparently, Mr. Durrance was photographing lightning at the time (according to the Weather Channel, where they showed this photograph this morning), and he just happened to catch the tornado in the far left side of the shot as it was in the downtown area. You can see what appears to be a debris cloud at the base near the tall buildings, but with it being nighttime and a still shot, it is difficult to be certain. Here is the interesting part that I find rather humorous... When I went to check out 11Alive WXIA's website (since the site Mike shared, referenced them as the source of the photograph) to see what the deal was, they have a slightly differently cropped shot of the same picture of the EF-2 tornado that tore through downtown Atlanta.

THIS PHOTOGRAPH HAS BEEN REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER, CLICK ON THE ARTICLE LINK TO SEE WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

You can see where 11Alive almost cropped out the tornado... and they refer to that gray section in the center as being the tornado... and I quote:

Shane Durrance's shot of the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta on March 14. The tornado is the light-gray vertical strip in the center of the picture.

An interesting point with this is that that light gray vertical strip in the center of the picture doesn't even appear to be touching the ground, and there is certainly no associated debris cloud, which there obviously would have been in light of the fact that it was tearing through downtown Atlanta and debris (including HUGE debris) is now covering the streets there... Did they even bother to have a meteorologist look at the pic before posting their nonsense about it online??? On that same 11Alive website... I did find this blog posted by one of the 11Alive staff, Paul Ossmann, where he contradicts the writers on the other page by saying...

An image of the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta on Mar. 14, 2008 by Shane Durrance. The tornado itself is on the left side of the image.

Anyways, I just wanted to shed some light on the whole tornado shot. Kudos to Shane for the terrific photograph! Talk about timing...

Oh, and I should share that since I am an NBC Augusta spotter, I get handy dandy newsletters with cool information... They shared in that this photograph of the Wrens EF-2 tornado on March 15th, and they shared this image with me of the tracks of the various tornadoes. They also sent a summary of the tornadoes in that CSRA:

Saturday, March 15th, 2008 will be a day to remember. Five tornadoes covered ten counties over the CSRA. Here's a summary of the historical Georgia-Carolina tornado outbreak.

Tornadoes:
1) Northern McCormick County rated EF-0, moved into northern Edgefield County increasing in strength to an EF-1.
2) North McDuffie County rated EF-0, moved to northern Columbia County still at EF-0, then to northern Aiken County (near Belvedere, Clearwater) strengthening quickly to an EF-2 tornado, then continuing east through Barnwell County as an EF-2, and into Bamberg County reaching EF-3 strength entering Orangeburg County.
3) Jefferson County (near Wrens) rated EF-2, moved into northern Burke County (near Keysville) still as EF-1.
4) Central Burke County (Burke's second tornado) near Waynesboro moved southeast as an EF-1.
5) Allendale County from the town of Martin to Fairfax as EF-2.

It looks like Peachtree City National Weather Service has the Preliminary Storm Reports posted for the March 14th and the March 15th tornadoes, including the Polk/Floyrd/Bartow County EF-3 tornado that took two lives. Feel free to check those out.

Now, onto current weather, it appears that the Texarkana (Texas/Arkansas/Louisiana) region is under fire today with the SPC having placed that region under a MODERATE risk for severe weather, discussing the massive shear values expected to be the dominant dynamic contributing to the potential for

LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WIND GUSTS...AND TORNADOES...WITH POTENTIAL FOR A FEW STRONG TORNADOES.

A public severe weather outlook has been issued there for today, so folks in that area of the country should be vigilant in watching the conditions around them. The threat spreads tomorrow into almost all of Georgia and Alabama, all of the Carolinas and Virginia and part of Tennessee. Although instability is forecasted to be extremely weak, the shear along the warm sector (did I mention it is forecast to hit 80 degrees today?), will support the development of supercells and bowing segments, which would suggest a strong possibility of a few tornadoes and some damaging winds... these storms are expected to race through the area.

Should be an interesting day tomorrow locally, but today things could get bad for those to my west... Stay tuned...

Tornado watch for Texarkoma issued this morning...

THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION... DESTRUCTIVE TORNADOES...LARGE HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER... THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

Toodles,
~Dewdrop