For nearly 24 hours Friday night through Saturday, Atlanta got hit with what was described as a train of severe storms moving over the area. We weren't expected to get anything severe until Saturday, but to our surprise, we got hit with an EF-2 tornado Friday around 9:40 PM, the first time a tornado had ever hit downtown Atlanta. We weren't even supposed to get any precipitation until Saturday! I had noticed lightning out to our west around 8 PM Friday when I was on my way to work out at the South Dekalb YMCA. I watched The Weather Channel while running on the treadmill. All radar showed was a small but someone strong isolated storm moving through downtown. When I left the YMCA around 9:30, I could see lots of lightning to the west and I could hear the constant sound of distant thunder. A fellow who worked at the Y had commented that he had better get home before the storms hit, and I told him that the storms were in downtown and shouldn't be a problem. When I reach home around 9:50, I switched to The Weather Channel, to Rhian's delight (sarcasm noted :->). They said there was a tornado warning due to this storm for Fulton and Dekalb Counties. They somewhat nonchalantly mentioned that there was some storm damage in downtown, but really didn't say specifically what it was. I promptly changed it to Channel 5 (Rhian was even more delighted :->) and they were showing video from inside the Georgia Dome with the scoreboard and other signs swinging and a portion of what looked to be the roof flapping back and forth. They kept getting more and more reports of damage, but never said that it was a tornado, but suspected it was. I began flipping through the local channels, which prompted Rhian, somewhat angrily, to say "It's done, we know there's damage in downtown, it's no longer news". I, being the weather buff that I am, just laughed and said, "How often does a tornado hit downtown Atlanta?" (I knew already it was tornado from the little damage footage I had seen). I stayed up until 1:30 watching, until I got tired of watching the same footage over and over. I was awakened around 6 AM to what was to be the first of many storms to hit the metro Atlanta area. We caught a break until about 1 PM, when more storms began to develop, prompting all the local TV stations to preempt programming and provide constant coverage of the severe weather for about 4 hours. At first, it was only north Georgia near Lake Lanier getting the severe weather. I told Rhian we probably wouldn't get anything severe. Well after 2 PM, the first of several storms began "training" across Atlanta, one after the other. There were many tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings issued all over metro Atlanta and North Georgia. Things got scary around 4 PM, where a storm that had prompted tornado warnings in eastern Alabama moved into west metro Atlanta, prompting tornado warnings for Fulton County (downtown) and Dekalb. All indications showed a tornado on the ground, heading straight for the Georgia Dome and the heart of Downtown. Doppler radar indicated it, 3D radar indicated it, the Baron Tornado Index (which uses algorithms to determine the possibility of a tornado) indicated it, even video from Atlanta Airport looking towards downtown indicated it. While seeing this, Rhian asked if my mom had gone to my parents house on Lake Jackson, since my dad was already there. I told her I wasn't sure, and suddenly became nervous, as it looked that storm was heading in the direction of their house in South Dekalb. I called the house, but no one answered. Getting more nervous, I called their lake house, and to my relief, found out that my mom, Karen, and Kyle were there, and out of it's path. Channel 2 then showed the projected path of the storm going straight towards where my parents lived! It was later determined that what we had seen wasn't a tornado, but just a rotating thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail that gave the illusion of a tornado. I could see the storm passing through our bedroom window, since it faces north, and the storm was only about 5 miles from us. The sky quickly got real dark for about 5 minutes, then got bright as quickly as it got dark. About 15 minutes later, Channel 2 reported large hail in a storm about 5 miles to our west. I grabbed the camcorder and shot footage outside. It was eerily quiet, with a sort of quiet, constant rumbling sound. It sounded like what I though a tornado would sound like, but the wind wasn't blowing at all. Then it suddenly began to pour down rain, and within a minute, a few hailstones fell, then all of a sudden, it began hailing like hail, covering the ground! This lasted about 10 minutes, and then stopped as quickly as it had began. The only damage we sustained was to begonias I had set outside to get rained upon. After this, things quieted down, and by 5:30, the sun was out, with only a few clouds, like nothing had ever happened.CLICK HERE to Watch video of the suspected tornado.
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