Very Fortunate Again. Thanks For The Pictures.

Top two pictures are thanks to Anthony Chastain from Lookout Mountain. First shot is looking west from Lookout towards Trenton, GA. Second is of the hail at Anthony's home.
The third picture is thanks to Linda Mull. (No location given.)
Thanks to Diane Ball of Chatsworth, GA for the fourth picture.
And finally, thanks to Hal Hall of Ringgold, GA for the last picture above.

Let me start off by saying I am very glad this is all we have to show for Friday's storms. For the Friday and Saturday time frame these are the preliminary figures from the Storm Prediction Center:
52 Tornadoes
515 Hail Report (At least penny sized or larger.)
160 Wind Damage Reports (58 mph or greater.)
727 Total Severe Weather Reports.
12 people lost their lives on Friday night in Tennessee.

On Talk Radio 102.3 FM this morning Jeff Styles said he felt like there was a sense of panic among people around the area Friday morning and afternoon. I wasn't out much Friday, but that wasn't exactly the read I got from seeing a lot of you on Saturday. (I met about 1,000 people at one of the kitchens on the "Tour de Jour".) I know during our Friday conversation on the radio I was stressing the need for heightened weather awareness, reviewing severe weather safety rules, and making sure the garage was cleaned out enough so your car could be pulled in without getting dinged up by hail.
I also talked about the Storm Prediction Center's definition of "High Risk" so people would understand this was a special kind of threat being outlined. (By definition, "The HIGH risk area almost always means a major severe weather outbreak is expected, with great coverage of severe weather and enhanced likelihood of extreme severe i.e., violent tornadoes or extreme convective wind events over a large area. Within a high risk area, expect at least 20 tornadoes with at least 2 of them rated F3+, or an extreme derecho causing 50+ widespread wind events (50+) with numerous higher end wind (80+ mph) and structural damage reports.)
And it was an awesome job of forecasting by the Storm Prediction Center, as most of the worst events.....including two F3 tornadoes.......were within the High Risk area. The rest were solidly within the Moderate risk area.
McMinnville which is the center of Warren County is only 50 miles northwest of Channel 3. Three of the lives lost were in Warren County. Touchdowns also occurred in Huntsville, and in the metro Atlanta area.
The question raised by Jeff on the radio is probably a good one. "Was there too much talk before the storms hit, so that next time people will be complacent here?" I hope not. And I honestly believe most people realize how very fortunate we are that scenes from Chattanooga are not being shown nationally this morning. And I would rather have folks tuned in and prepared and damage all around, but not here......than I would like to see someone get hurt or suffer damage and claim "There wasn't any warning".
And before I wrap this up, let me say most people are not aware how absolutely outstanding the area National Weather Service offices performed. The Nashville NWS was getting warnings out 15 to 20 minutes before areas were devastated. When their office was temporarily taken offline by the storms, including the Nashville NWS Doppler radar, the Morristown NWS office picked up the warning process for them while watching storms in their area. And the Huntsville NWS was outstanding before the storms with conference calls and co-ordination with the media and local EMAs.....during the storms with excellent warnings and constant updates......and after the storm with the amount of information posted on their website.
We all had our hands full.
Finally thanks to all of you who e-mailed the station to let Paul, Brian, and I know you appreciated the continuing coverage.
The rest of this week looks pretty tranquil with a gradual warming trend. By Friday and the weekend highs should reach 80 and above.