Slight risk for severe weather in much of Georgia today

Howdy Dew, folks!!! It's time again for a Sky Watch "Friday" post! Please visit Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Louise and Fishing Guy's SKY WATCH BLOG to participate in Sky Watch Fridays, which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!! Thanks to Dot, the mother of this fabulous blogging event, and to the "retired" Tom, who brought it to full bloom. It is so fascinating to see skies from all over the world!!! You should definitely climb aboard the SWF Express! Today's shot of a shelf cloud was captured this morning while a squall line of "thunder"storms was passing overhead. This shelf cloud was shot while I was facing northeast during a southwest to northeast traveling storm... so I was looking at the back side of the shelf cloud...

*Shelf Cloud - A low, horizontal wedge-shaped arcus cloud, associated with a thunderstorm gust front (or occasionally with a cold front, even in the absence of thunderstorms). Unlike the roll cloud, the shelf cloud is attached to the base of the parent cloud above it (usually a thunderstorm). Rising cloud motion often can be seen in the leading (outer) part of the shelf cloud, while the underside often appears turbulent, boiling, and wind-torn. ~source

Here's a shot of the bigger picture, what I was seeing.Shortly after waking up this morning, the Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch (#950) till noon, which includes my neck of the woods, based on the turbulent weather expected in the squall line tail of the STRONG upper low circulating over Mississippi and Alabama, dropping ridiculous amounts of heavy snow in Houston and Lake Charles (WHAT?!) and generating severe weather over on our side of it. Anyways, my handy dandy weather radio alerted me of the tornado watch. I, of course, went into alert mode. As the line approached my specific area and the line intensified, the National Weather Service Office in Tally offered a significant weather alert for my county and a few others nearby. I heard the wind slam into the house, which made me very aware of the storm's arrival and its potent outflow winds at the leading edge. I went outside in time to see trees swaying and to be slapped in the face with another wall of wind. It was blowing hard, and there was some rain, but there wasn't any lightning. I watched the sky for signs of rotation but saw none. I took the long way to work, only capturing the decent shelf cloud posted above. Upon arrival at the office, I checked the radar to see that several cells in the storm were exhibiting some signs of Doppler indicated rotation. Of course, it waited to get past me to start that... sigh... dewvoid, and a Thursday, no less.

Yesterday's line actually produced an EF0 tornado, in Haralson County, Georgia, which caused:

50 FT SECTION OF THE HARALSON COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL COLLAPSED. TWO OTHER BUILDINGS DAMAGED. NO INJURIES REPORTED.

This was originally reported as basic severe weather wind damage, but the NWS survey crew thought more of the damage than that, and I saw some cell phone captured video footage of the actual tornado.

So, that's our weather in a nutshell. If you're interested in severe weather, or if you perhaps have a weather enthusiast on your Christmas list to shop for... consider visiting this site for severe weather DVDs created by some of my wonderful storm chasing friends out in the field.

4:00PM: Wow, that's two days in a row that the only tornadoes in the country occurred in Georgia. The National Weather survey crew that evaluated downed trees in Blackshear, Georgia determined that it had been caused by an EF-0 tornado.

Tewdles!
~Dewdrop