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Storm Pictures Spring 2003
These electrifying pictures were captured from my video camera.  The location is Marshall County along I-65 during an April storm.
On May 4th, 2003 approaching the Midnight hour of May 5, I sent out email alerts that severe weather with tornadic supercell thunderstorms was approaching Middle Tennessee.  Shortly after, the Storm Prediction Center issued the Tornado Watch for our area.  The radar image below indicated that a very serious weather situation was on our western doorstep.
All hail broke loose!  -and yes it was mostly hail with little rain mixed in.  There was so much hail that it began accumulating.  Some of this hail reached the size of quarters.  More frightening was the high wind that came just before this video that snapped and uprooted many trees in the immediate area.  People in other vehicles got out and took cover under the top of the overpass, which can be very dangerous.  I will give them credit though- at least they got out of the car.  A Doppler tornado warning was out for this area at the time.  These pictures were captured from video that I took at 1:45 AM May 5, 2003.  The location is under the 840 overpass at Lewisburg Pike (431) in Thompsons Station, TN.  Some of you might have seen this video a few times on the Channel 5 morning news.
When hail and other debris are accelerated by high winds, such as in a tornado or microburst, you can see the effect it has.  Imagine what this would have felt like if you were out in the storm.  A new house under construction was leveled about 100 feet from this location and the mess was already cleaned up two days after the storm, so I did not get a picture of it.  This damage took place at the same time I shot the hail video above.
Thompsons Station- May 5 Storm.
Hail and/or other debris de-barked one side of this mature Sycamore tree from top to bottom.   The winds blew down the building below.  I spoke with the elderly guy who lived in the house shown below and he said that the storm took the paint off of his house and it damaged his air conditioner.  He said that it just about scared him to death.  He was amazed by what the storm did to his Sycamore trees, but yet the storm did not break the glass in his windows..  All three of these pictures in this group were taken at the same location.
Thompsons Station- May 5 Storm.
This may be our best evidence that the event was a tornado.  Take note that the trees are not down in the same direction, but are criss-crossed.
Thompsons Station- May 5 Storm.

 
Here are more pictures of the damage in Thompsons Station May 5.  Except for the barn, all of the structures are new (Under 3 yrs old).  Notice how the accelerated hail punched almost perfect circles into the vinyl siding in some pictures.

Scattered trees were down on the road I live on.  This is a large tree- see it compared to the size of my car to the left.
The destruction across the state along with a continued threat through the day captured the
Weather Channel's attention.


A stronger tornado hit near the Leiper's Fork area a week or so later.