What Happened

On May 1st lasting through may 2nd, Nashville had the highest two day rainfall in recorded history, and there was massive property damage as a result. The record setting two day rainfall at the Nashville International Airport was 13.53 inches of rain in two days, absolutely obliterating the previous two day record of 6.68 inches of September 13-14 1979.

On the first day of flooding, interstates 24 and 65 had major flooding on them, completely submerging cars and trapping 18wheelers. Franklin became a giant ocean, and the Cool Springs Mall was flooded. The image at right is a photo of the I-24 flooding, and full credit for the photo goes to Channel5 news in Nashville. There were a tragic 11 deaths across the state due to the flooding, 5 of which were in Nashville. Channel 2 WKRN says that the first death occurred on the I-24 flooding when cars became completely submerged.

A flood warning is still in effect across Middle Tennessee, because the ground is still saturated and the water has nowhere to go. Driving is also still hazardous, so when out be careful. Remember, TURN AROUND DON’T DROWN. It doesn’t matter how big your truck is. The water will either stall the engine or if the water is still moving it could completely wash your car away. It doesn’t have to be deep to do either.

From the National Weather Service:

…THE FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 530 PM CDT MONDAY FOR WILSON…HUMPHREYS…BENTON…GILES…LAWRENCE…WAYNE…GRUNDY… LEWIS…BEDFORD…COFFEE…MARSHALL…STEWART…SUMNER…ROBERTSON… MONTGOMERY…MACON…CLAY…PICKETT…FENTRESS…OVERTON…JACKSON… TROUSDALE…CHEATHAM…SMITH…DAVIDSON…HOUSTON…VAN BUREN… RUTHERFORD…DICKSON…PUTNAM…WILLIAMSON…CUMBERLAND…DEKALB… PERRY…WHITE…CANNON…HICKMAN…WARREN AND MAURY COUNTIES…

…DANGEROUS FLOODING TO CONTINUE ACROSS MIDDLE TENNESSEE…

AT 728 AM CDT WIDESPREAD DANGEROUS FLOODING CONTINUES ACROSS MIDDLE TENNESSEE. RAINFALL HAS ENDED…BUT FLOODING WILL REMAIN A THREAT THROUGH TODAY AS RUNOFF CONTINUES TO FILTER INTO AREA CREEKS AND STREAMS. STORM TOTAL AMOUNTS SINCE LATE FRIDAY NIGHT AND EARLY SATURDAY MORNING RANGE FROM 6 TO 16 INCHES ACROSS MOST OF THE WARNED AREA. NUMEROUS REPORTS OF FLOODED ROADS…HIGHWAYS…AND HOMES HAVE BEEN RECEIVED…AND REPORTS OF WATER RESCUES HAVE BEEN REPORTED FROM NUMEROUS COUNTIES. IF YOU ARE NEAR A CREEK OR STREAM THAT IS RISING…SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW AND FOLLOW ANY INSTRUCTIONS FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS.

DUE TO MAJOR FLOODING IN THE NASHVILLE METRO AREA…THE NASHVILLE METRO OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ADVISES DAVIDSON COUNTY CITIZENS TO PLEASE STAY OFF ROADS IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. MANY ROADS ARE IMPASSABLE OR BECOMING IMPASSABLE. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A FLOOD WARNING MEANS FLOODING IS OCCURRING OR IS IMMINENT. MOST FLOOD RELATED DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS SAFELY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS WATER COVERED BRIDGES…DIPS…OR LOW WATER CROSSINGS. NEVER TRY TO CROSS A FLOWING STREAM…EVEN A SMALL ONE…ON FOOT. TO ESCAPE RISING WATER MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND.

The Aftermath

This flood personally affected many close friends of mine. There are stories on facebook of bailing water, living on a riverfront, and even kayaking through the raging flood waters. Below are the stories, photos, and captions of the flooding in Franklin and in Nashville. There is also a video a good friend of mine made by traveling Franklin via inflatable raft!

The photos in the following gallery were taken by local storm spotter David Drobny.

[View with PicLens]

Also, here is a video from a good friend of mine who lives in Franklin, Jonathan Boehme.

Lastly, on a more local and personal level, is the flooding right in front of my house. The creek in my front yard that is normally only a few inches deep became well over 5 feet deep , and may have even been 6 feet! The creek couldn’t drain fast enough, so it began to flood our driveway, and soon the road. The creek washed over the bridges spanning it, trapping many people in their homes. The flood waters even knocked down trees and tore the road up, spreading debris everywhere. There are large deposites of gravel from roads in people’s lawns. Here are two videos and a gallery of photos of what happened, both during and after the event.

This first video has terrible quality, but the 2nd is in HD. However, the craziness is enough to upload this video anyway.

Here is the 2nd video, day 2 of flooding.

And lastly, here is the photo gallery of flooding and damages. one of the videos shows the flooding in the grass, with the creek at its normal size in the background.

[View with PicLens]

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I hope everyone is safe, and if you would like to submit more photos please do! I will be setting up a new photo gallery for this event, and any and all photos of it are welcome! Just send them via email to keltonhalbert@tempestchasing.com

People in my neighborhood have already started the process of cleaning up. Though we didn’t get it as bad, there is still work to be done. I find it excruciatingly sad to read friends of mine saying stuff like, “Historic. There is nothing historic about this. New records don’t matter. Coming over a hill to see my town deadened and drowned does. How long to heal?”

So it looks like Tennessee will recover… eventually. Some people I know are in good spirits, saying things like “Welcome to Atlantis, formerly Nashville Tennessee!”, and others not so much. Keep your prayers with the people of Tennessee, they need them.

Today, April 10th, marks the 1 year anniversary of the Murfreesboro EF-4 tornado, and also marks the very beginnings of Tempest Storm Chasing. At 12:19 on April 10th, a tornado touched down 15 miles southwest of Murfreesboro. At 12:38, the tornado was spotted by local Storm Spotters with the National Weather Service and resulted in a tornado emergency. At this time, it was reported to be 5 miles west of the city. At 12:45, the tornado ripped through the town with winds between 166-200 miles an hour, destroying everything in its path. The tornado killed two people, a mother and her 9 month old infant child, and injured 42 people. Total damages from the tornado have been estimated to be 41.8 million dollars. Below is a radar loop of the tornado in Storm Relative Velocity (click to animate). If you need help understanding velocity, head over to our understanding radar page.

This tornado was the most destructive in Tennessee for all of 2009. From the National Weather Service’s damage survey:

STRENGTH…EF-4
MAXIMUM WINDS…170 MPH
PATH LENGTH…23.25 MILES
WIDTH…MAXIMUM 750 YARDS
TOUCHDOWN TIME…1219 PM
TORNADO END TIME…1255 PM
BEGIN LAT/LON…35.7597 -86.8480
END LAT/LON…35.9145 -86.2789

In case clarification was needed, 750 yards is almost half a mile, meaning the tornado was nearly half a mile wide!

More information on the damage survey can be found at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/?n=stormsurvey04102009

Here is a full animation of the storm system (click to animate).

Another side to this story is the very beginnings of Tempest Storm Chasing. I was visiting Nashville that week, picking out a house to move into in a few months. Our hotel was in downtown, and April 10th will be the day I never forget! Though I did not see a tornado, though I was not in Murfreesboro, it was the re-ignition of my passion for storm. I had always been thoroughly interested in weather, but this made it certain in my head this is what I wanted to do. I can still remember watching the news as they were looking at a traffic cam when a 1/2-mile wide tornado was plowing across the freeway.

So, thats that. It was a very tragic day, and my condolences go out to the families affected by this storm.

(I do not own the credit to any of these photos/videos. Damage photos belong to the National Weather service, and the others I do not know whom they belong to. Radar animations, however, are mine.)

Yesterday (Jan 6) I prepared for this by setting up a winter observations station. In essence, it could not have been more ghetto! I had trash-bags  held up on bamboo poles to measure snow amounts, and i had my Kestrel 4000 NV anemometer twist-tied to a bamboo pole. However, it did its job. Here are some pictures! (click images to enlarge)

Nashville Snow from Kelton Halbert on Vimeo.

And I did have my fun in the snow. I made a 3 ft wide 50 pound snowball, and took some pictures. Here they are! (click to enlarge)

Nashville Snow “Storm” 2 from Kelton Halbert on Vimeo.

Tonight and tomorrow night it is supposed to get ugly. The high today will only be 20, with the low in the single-digits. Wind chill will be reading 0 F, -5 F tonight and tomorrow night as well. Here is the Hazardous Weather Outlook. Stay warm and stay safe!

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MIDDLE TENNESSEE.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

WIND CHILL READINGS OF ZERO TO 5 BELOW WILL BE LIKELY THROUGH MID
MORNING...AND AGAIN FRIDAY NIGHT.

MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT WEATHER.GOV OR
BY LISTENING TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY

WIND CHILL READINGS OF ZERO TO 5 BELOW WILL BE LIKELY AGAIN
THROUGH MID MORNING SATURDAY.

Couple of graphics and advisories, as well as a radar image of the snow.

Winter Storm Warning

...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CST THIS
EVENING...

SNOW WILL TAPER OFF BETWEEN 5 AND 6 PM. ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS
OF LESS THAN A HALF INCH WILL BE POSSIBLE. IN ADDITION TO THE
SNOW...THE COMBINATION OF GUSTY WINDS AND COLD TEMPERATURES WILL
RESULT IN WIND CHILL READINGS IN THE 20S THIS EVENING. TEMPERATURES
WILL FALL BELOW FREEZING SHORTLY AFTER SUNSET AND WET ROADS WILL
BEGIN TO FREEZE. MOTORISTS SHOULD BE AWARE OF RAPIDLY CHANGING
ROAD CONDITIONS THIS EVENING AND BE PREPARED FOR OCCASIONAL ICY
TRAVEL.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

MELTING AND REFREEZING OF WATER ON ROADWAYS...ESPECIALLY BRIDGES
AND OVERPASSES...WILL CREATE PATCHES OF BLACK ICE. THIS TYPE OF
ICE IS VIRTUALLY INVISIBLE ON THE ROAD SURFACE...AND CAN CAUSE YOU
TO LOSE CONTROL OF YOUR CAR.

Winter Weather Advisory

...HISTORIC EARLY WINTER SNOWFALL IN PROGRESS...

.ONE OF THE EARLIEST SNOWFALLS ON RECORD CONTINUES TO AFFECT THE
REGION THIS AFTERNOON. RAIN HAS TRANSITIONED TO SNOW ACROSS
SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND CENTRAL LOUISIANA...WITH RAIN OVER SOUTHERN
LOUISIANA EXPECTED TO CHANGEOVER TO SNOW IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF
HOURS. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS BUT
END BEFORE MIDNIGHT ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS...AND END IN CENTRAL
AND SOUTHERN LOUISIANA EARLY SATURDAY MORNING. TOTAL SNOW
ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE NORTH OF THE I-10
CORRIDOR...WITH SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 INCH OR LESS SOUTH OF I-10
TO THE COAST.

Freeze Warning

...FIRST WIDESPREAD FREEZE OF THE SEASON TO BE A MAJOR ONE...

.A COLD AND DRY ARCTIC AIRMASS FILTERING SOUTHWARD INTO THE AREA
WILL BRING THE FIRST WIDESPREAD FREEZE OF THE SEASON TO ALL OF
SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN LOUISIANA. TEMPERATURES
ARE EXPECTED TO BOTTOM OUT IN THE MID 20S ACROSS THE LAKES REGION
OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA...AND THE UPPER 20S
TO LOWER 30S IN COASTAL SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND SOUTHERN LOUISIANA.

Snowfall in Houston was large and had been accumulating all day today, causing the airport to cancel flights and hazardous road travel. All of this rain and snow is expected to melt tonight, and freeze over, causing some very hazardous driving conditions. Here is a radar image of the snowfall over portions of southeast texas. the red dot is my current location.